SYOSSET, N.Y. – If 18-year-old Joshua Lafazan ends up having a successful political career, Syosset Superintendent Carole Hankin will deserve credit for helping him get started.

Lafazan made a lot of news throughout New York state this spring when he was elected to the Syosset school board while still a high school senior. He is currently the youngest elected official in the state, and is believed to be just the fourth 18-year-old to serve as a school board member in New York history.

How did he do it?

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That’s where Hankin comes in.

Carole Hankin is entering her twenty-third year as Syosset’s superintendent, and she has the salary to prove it. In return for overseeing the 6,600-pupil district, Hankin receives an annual compensation package of $537,767, which makes her the highest-paid school official in the state, according to the New York Post.

In salary alone, Hankin out-earns President Barack Obama by $5,244. That pay package is generous by anyone’s measure. Some would argue that it’s far too generous, considering that the district had to use $6 million from its savings account to balance this year’s budget.

Lafazan is among those critics.

In fact, he found Hankin’s compensation so “outrageous” that he decided to run for the school board last May as a form of protest. During the campaign, Lafazan stated that any school board member who voted in favor of Hankin’s cushy five-year contract “does not deserve to be an elected representative of the Syosset citizenry.”

But Lafazan’s criticism of the school district didn’t end there. He blasted the school board for placing strict limits on the types of questions taxpayers can ask during school board meetings. Such a policy prevents transparency and must be changed, Lafazan argued.

“If you have a question, then you should be entitled to have that question answered,” he told the Syosset Jericho Tribune. “Our elected officials work for us.”

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Lafazan also offered ideas to make the Long Island district operate in an “efficient, cost effective way.” He has proposed conducting a line-by-line review of the district’s budget – with the help of community “experts” – to finds ways of saving money or improving efficiency for the district.

That mix of tough talk and common sense fiscal ideas resonated with Syosset voters, who pay some of highest property taxes in the nation.

Lafazan was elected to the board with 82 percent of the vote, just days ahead of his graduation.

Changing the culture of the school board

Lafazan arrived on the board too late to do anything about Hankin’s contract, which runs through 2016. But in a post-election interview on the Fox Business channel, he laid out his plans for ensuring similar problems don’t occur in the future.

“What I’d like to do is change the culture of the school board to make sure the next superintendent’s contract, and all contracts … are not as egregious as the one she received,” he said.

Lafazan officially joined the board in July, and has already discovered that “changing the culture” is a daunting task.

During his first board meeting, Lafazan butted heads with board President Michael Cohen over a minor procedural matter. Cohen refused Lafazan the opportunity to address the audience over his decision to abstain from voting until he had time to thoroughly review the issues.

One audience member perceived it as a power play, and chastised the board for not allowing an elected trustee to speak, reports Newsday.

At the most recent meeting on August 6, Lafazan’s fellow members chastised him for contacting the district’s bus company to ask questions without board approval.

“You only have authority as a board member by law when the board has convened in public or executive session,” Cohen said in an interview before the board meeting. “So never in my seven years on the board have I called a teacher or an administrator or anyone directly. Ever.”

(That passive, hands-off philosophy helps explain how Syosset ended up with a superintendent who earns more than the president of the United States.)

Cohen and Lafazan also sparred over the rules of order, concerning Lafazan’s motion that a time for public comments be added to an upcoming board meeting. When Cohen objected to the motion, Lafazan countered that the president was out of order.

“I won’t be made a mockery of,” Cohen responded, according to Newsday. “I’d sooner quit if that were the case.”

Though some have suggested that Lafazan is using his position on the board to further his political ambitions, he is taking his duties very seriously. The honor student chose to attend Nassau Community College, partly because it allows him to serve out his term as a board trustee. (It was also the most cost-effective option for the frugal teen.)

Lafazan delivered a message of his own to fellow board members in a recent email.

“Please accept that I am on this board to stay, and I will bring transparency to this entity,” he wrote.

If he succeeds, Lafazan will become one of the youngest and most able school reformers in the nation. Even if he never runs for another public office, that would make for a very impressive political career.