SMOB Nominating Convention

Last Wednesday, Feb. 27, started off with a crowd of students sitting in Watkins Mill High School’s auditorium together for the nomination of the 42nd Student Member of the Board. After the previously planned nominating convention date was rescheduled due to incumbent weather, students from each of Montgomery County Public Schools surrounded the auditorium where the candidates arrived to give their speeches in hopes of gaining the votes of the students.

Each candidate was given time to speak to the crowd of students in which they encouraged the students to give them their vote. The student leaders running to be the next 42nd SMOB mentioned issues such as mental health, infrastructure and achievement gaps.

After each candidate went through their speeches, voters were given directions to go to a voting station and electronically vote for their top candidates. After a long break, the candidates were narrowed down to the top seven: Anirvan A, Lillian C, Adiba C, Ethan G, Nate T, Zoe T, Shiteng W.

To grasp a better understanding of what each candidate has in store for advocating for the student body, a Question and Answer time period was given. Each of the candidates were required to answer the questions given to them. Their responses to this questions helped the voters understand what the candidates main goal would be and what they can do to better our county.

Final statements were given by each candidate once the Question and Answer time period was completed. The voting for the top two candidates of the election began soon after their final statements.

Each voter went to an electronic voting station once again, and selected their top three candidates by ranking their choices.

Soon after, the crowd was dismissed for lunch where students later gathered around to hear the top two candidates for the 42nd Student Member of the Board: Nate Tinbite and Zoe Tishaev. Tinbite is a junior at Kennedy High School, while Tishaev is a junior at Clarksburg High School.

Both Tinbite and Tishaev have maintained active social media accounts and have continued to visit schools across the county. To learn more about their platforms, Tishaev’s campaign website is https://www.zoeforsmob.com, and Tinbite’s campaign website is https://www.nateforsmob.com. Tinbite has served as MCR President this year, and Tishaev is on the 2018-2019 Executive Board as a liaison to MCCPTA and Communities United Against Hate.

These two candidates will be fighting to earn the spot of being the SMOB of 2019-2020 by campaigning until school wide elections. School elections will be taken place on Wednesday, April 24, 7 a.m.-3 p.m. All MCPS middle schoolers and high schoolers are eligible to vote for the candidate of their choice.