A Student Member of the Board (SMOB) is a student whose peers elect them to the Montgomery County Board of Education. They can vote on several problems affecting MCPS schools. They receive a $5,000 college scholarship, Student Service Learning hours, and one honors-level social studies credit. MCPS is one of only two Maryland school systems that allow students to serve on the Board of Education.
As candidacy nominations just recently finished for the position of the 46th SMOB, the nomination/ application period was from January 3, 2023, through January 26, 2023. The only parameter to run was candidates had to be a current sophomore or junior enrolled in a Montgomery County Public High School. One of the members running this year for SMOB for the upcoming 2023-2024 School year is Saeed Saeed.
Saeed is a junior at Richard Montgomery High School and has quite a history in student involvement. Saeed is the recent Student Government Association (SGA) president for Richard Montgomery (RM), was previously served as sophomore Class President, hosted MCR/MCJC General Assembly meetings, organized and worked with the Minority Scholars Program, was a Debate team Champion, and was involved in fundraising or multiple charities and began two successful clubs at RM.
Saeed has numerous experiences with student advocacy. Last year, he hosted a walkout against gun violence last year,” testified “to the Board of Education about school lunches this year” and demanded “better mental health and environmental policies to state legislators.“
Saeed’s main concerns that he addresses in his campaign include: Mental Health, School Safety, Closing the Opportunity Gap, Environmental Advocacy, and Increasing Student Representation. Along with these central focus points, other parts of his campaign include: Expanding Access to Information, Workload Relief, Curriculum Reform, Infrastructure Renovations, Transportation Equity, Support for LGBTQ+ students, Overdose prevention, School Lunches and improving athletics within MCPS.
“I have seen a number of past SMOBs make numerous empty promises to students. I’ve witnessed areas such as the DCC go unrepresented and ignored in MCPS policy. I’ve experienced first-hand how my voice has gone unheard. I have not seen enough change from our past student leaders,” Saeed said.
Additionally, Saeed chose to platform his essential policies due to personal experience as a means of motivation. Saeed opened up about struggling with his mental health in the past, but resources felt “far away and difficult to reach” and were [un]familiar to him and his peers. Prioritizing school safety came from Saeed’s current High School, Richard Montgomery, recently having a plethora of safety breaches. “When there was an emergency, information was not getting out fast enough to our students to stop it,” he said.
Choosing to prioritize the opportunity Gap and Student Representation was due to Saeed’s encounters with these issues as an MCPS student. He said, “The opportunity gap is an issue I have faced all too well. As an Arab-American student, I never felt the presence of clubs and organizations reaching out to me and my diverse background. Not only that, but my teachers and the material being taught never represented me either, and I felt left out in nearly all of my academics… After discussing with DCC about this issue, I realized the gap ran more profound than just adding new clubs or expanding the current ones.”
Saeed’s experience as a student and student advocate has led him to highlight mental health treatment within MCPS. Saeed said, “MCPS has the wrong approach to mental health,” because they overspend on getting mental health professionals and stop there. Saeed’s mental policy is “to change how mental health staff in our schools function by getting them out of their offices and into classrooms to interact with students. They also need to present opportunities for mental health resources directly to students in classrooms, so there is equitable access to information on how to get mental health support.”
Another portion of his mental health policy is to over workload relief to students during high-stress, college application seasons, SATs, etc. It would work by taking days off or weekends when teachers do not assign new assignments or homework. The logic around this according to Saeed is “ [to] allow students to catch up on old assignments that begin to pile up and stress them out. Nearly every student is too familiar with the feeling of being behind on their work and stressed they wouldn’t be able to finish, so wellness days provide all students time to alleviate this stress and anxiety.”
Saeed also plans to address current issues in MCPS, including the increase of illicit fentanyl and opioid use and overdoses in MCPS high schools. Youth overdoses increased 77% in Montgomery County last year alone. Saeed’s main points to address this issue are providing Narcan to staff trained to use it, better drug prevention curriculums, and better communication with parents. Saeed states, “MCPS needs to be transparent with information on drugs so students and parents can stay informed on what is truly killing students.”
As previously stated, one of Saeed’s main goals is to close the opportunity gap present in Montgomery County. Due to its extensive size, some areas of Montgomery County are more refined than others, leading to some schools receiving more property tax-based funding instead of others. The opportunity gap is prevalent in places like the Down County Cortisum (DCC) and East County Cortisum (ECC). Saeed commented, “My plan to close the opportunity gap is not just going to expand on the DCC and ECC, but create for the DCC and ECC. I plan to Providing [provide] more course offerings, equitable funding for arts, athletics, and extracurriculars, and hosting more events in the DCC and ECC.”
The concern many students have when electing a new SMOB is whether they can create the changes they advocated for while running during the duration of the SMOB position.
Saeed’s campaign entails policies that would drastically change MCPS, and concerns about whether these changes can happen while Saeed is SMOB are prevalent in response to this.
Saeed laid out how he plans to implement his policies if elected—a lot of his policies expand on the work of past SMOBS and current board members.
“Hana O’ Looney added 1.1 million dollars in the budget for telehealth visits, and I would introduce more money towards hiring more psychologists and changing the way they function to ensure they are adequate for our students,” he said.
Saeed has already implemented innovative policies at his school, such as Wellness days, and homework-free weekends.
To further ensure this, Saeed states he “will also introduce my policy initiatives to the Board of Education before the operating budget recommendation comes out to ensure the ideas are already in the minds of Board Members before it comes time to create the new budget.”
During his visits to MCPS high schools, he could visit John F. Kennedy High School, where he had the chance to meet SGA members, including junior class President Suhani Arya. “I think that his policies regarding standardized testing and lessening the amount of homework distributed during the testing season would be extremely beneficial,” Arya stated.
But she also mentioned some corners, saying, “considering the parameters under which a SMOB can work and the fact that his term is only one year, I don’t know how much he would be able to accomplish with this.”
If you are interested in Saeed’s platform, check out his Instagram, Linktree, and website. A timeline of the 46th SMOB and election information is available on the county website.
Written by Maru Amtataw of John F. Kennedy High School
Photo courtesy of Sami4SMOB