Richard Montgomery High School junior Henry Kaye is an Eagle Scout, captain of his school’s varsity track team, ice hockey player and no stranger to leadership and working with various levels of government. He is running to be Montgomery County’s 44th Student Member of the Board (SMOB).
Among Kaye’s key advocacy issues are increasing student college and career readiness and the availability of counseling and special education programs, implementing a balanced budget and environmentally-friendly infrastructure, combating nicotine addiction and making a safe return to in-person learning.
“I’m running for SMOB because I fundamentally believe that many of these students have been left out of the conversation,” Kaye said. “There’s … been a disconnect between our elected officials and student government and student advocacy and … the standard student … has [numerous] responsibilities, so I’m running to really bridge that gap.”
Kaye believes that the Board of Education should look into “unconventional models of learning” to facilitate a return to in-person schooling, such as holding classes outside in the spring. Outdoor classes have reduced transmission rates when compared with classes held indoors.
In addition to allocating the proper funds in Montgomery County’s $1.7 billion budget for an unconventional return to school, Kaye would conduct a “holistic review” of the county’s current programs.
“We need to take a look at at the programs that our county is offering and see which programs are doing the best and invest more money in those, and at the same time consider discontinuing the programs that are not performing as well and not preparing our students for college and career readiness and beyond,” Kaye said. “We can reallocate the funds and resources that go to those programs to more efficient programs and more important resources such as counselors.”
More efficient programs to reallocate funds include corollary sports programs at every middle and high school. Kaye has heard about the opportunity disparities in the sports programs between students with special needs and students without while taking a psychology class at Montgomery College. He believes that current sports programs available to students with special needs should be expanded beyond bocce, softball and handball.
Another program Kaye wants to expand is quantitative literacy, a course that teaches students how to balance budgets, write checks and the basics of managing finances. He thinks that no student should leave the Montgomery County Public School system without being prepared for the personal economics of the real world.
Many of Kaye’s key campaign points revolve around increasing the number of counselors available to students in schools.
“There’s one College and Career Readiness counselor for all 2,200-some students [of Richard Montgomery High School] and it’s really hard for one counselor to connect on an innate level with all 2,200 students,” Kaye said. “If we expand counseling, we get a closer relationship between counselors and students. We’ll be able to solve more issues within the school.”
Kaye plans to combat nicotine addictions in schools by implementing student support groups, which would be similar to existing one-on-one counselor office hours but provide students with a sense of community and support.
“We need to show students that are struggling with a variety of issues that there’s a community — that there’s people that are there for them and they’re not fighting the battle alone,” Kaye said.
He also hopes that if students discuss their mental health and addiction issues more openly in a group setting, it will cultivate a culture that praises those who ask for help instead of ostracizing them and eventually destigmatize addiction.
“If you’re reading this I’d really ask for you to reach out to me. I want to incorporate your ideas into my platform. I’m running to represent soon those who have been under-represented within the county … so if you reach out I will do my best to respond and hopefully we can create a platform and plan to go forward to improve the county,” Kaye said.
Kaye can be reached at henrysmob@gmail.com or via Instagram @henry_SMOB. His website is henrysmob.com.
Article by Avery Wang of Richard Montgomery High School
Photo courtesy of Henry Kaye