Nick Asante, the Chief of Staff to is now seeking his spot in the limelight. His SMOB campaign centers around security, changing the curriculum, mental health support, communication, and addressing the opportunity gap.
Asante’s childhood in Africa shaped him into becoming a passionate fighter for education.
“My grandma was an elementary school teacher and she always ingrained in me the idea that everyone deserves a fair shot and an education,” Asante said. “When I came to the US, fighting for education — student advocacy — became something that I was very passionate about.”
Asante has been active in student politics for some time, starting from Student Government Association President at Clemente Middle School, working his way up to the Montgomery County Regional SGA Chief of Staff, and finally to Nate Tinbite’s chief of staff. Tinbite, in turn, was the chief of staff to SMOB Matt Post, who gained national attention for his advocacy on gun control. Asante disputed that this experience would give him an unfair advantage.
Asante has testified on behalf of Montgomery County Public Schools’ boundary analysis, which studies the school boundaries in the context of several factors including school building usage and capacity and school demographics. While opponents fear school communities being torn apart as a result of the analysis, the analysis in reality only serves to gather data and does not recommend school boundary changes. Advocates, including Asante, see the analysis as a way to address inequities across the county and bring diversity to some schools. If Asante wins, he will be one of eight Board of Education members that make decisions based on the collected data.
Mental health occupies a central role in his campaign. Asante wants to increase the number of school counselors and psychologists to help students deal with their emotions. He said counselors are not accessible enough to students and school psychologists need to be available every day — currently, psychologists split their time between multiple high schools during the week. He suggested reducing MCPS central office staff to pay for the expansion.
Asante wants to expand security cameras and other more low-tech security measures, but does not mention the School Resource Officer in his platform. He said in an interview that he wants to look into expanding the program while balancing it with the social anxiety that could stem from having an officer with a gun in school. Asante also wants to cooperate with MCPS to reevaluate school bus stop locations in order to ensure that they are safe.
Unlike past SMOBs, Asante does not promise specific school renovations. Instead, he focuses on transparency in the process of which schools get renovated. The Capital Improvements Program, which is passed by the Board of Education and subject to approval by the Montgomery County Council, sets the funding levels for building improvement and renovation for the next six school fiscal years. Asante said he would improve the communication about it, ensuring people know what is getting renovated and why.
As just about every other SMOB candidate before him, Asante wants to let all middle school students use their phones at lunch. While some middle schools have allowed students to use them, many principals warn of students texting in class, sharing test answers, as well as bullying and rumors spreading, Asante said. Tinbite, the current SMOB, promised to amend the Student Rights and Responsibilities handbook during his campaign, which has not happened yet. Tinbite pointed out in a text message that he still has 5 months left in his term — “a lot of time.” Rather than passing legislation through the Board of Education, Asante plans to communicate with individual conversations with principals and convince them to allow phone use.
Asante openly acknowledges that all his plans are not possible to implement in a year. He said he realized that because of his experience in student government and working with SMOBs. The SMOB’s role, he said, is to lay the groundwork for policies and “get the ball rolling” on projects, hoping their successor will continue the policies.
Article by Joel Lev-Tov of Springbrook High School
Image courtesy of Nick Asante on Instagram