Sami Saeed, a junior from Richard Montgomery High School, was elected to serve as the Student Member of the Board of Education (SMOB) for the upcoming school year, Montgomery County Public Schools (MCP) announced Wednesday evening. Saeed will begin his term on July 1.
The debate team champion is a member of the SMOB Advisory Council and the Montgomery County Commission on Youth and Children while acting as his high school’s Student Government Association (SGA) president. Saeed said he decided to run for SMOB after witnessing a lack of action from previous leaders and experiencing his voice go unheard as a student of color.
During his term, Saeed said his top three goals are to increase the diverse representation of student voices, advocate for student mental health and heighten school safety. The recent drug overdoses in MCPS schools, which he defined as the most urgent issue, would be amongst the first area of policies he would address.
Saeed defeated Yoseph Zerihun, a junior from Springbrook High School to become the 46th SMOB. Out of the 55,598 ballots cast by students, Saeed won 70% of the vote, according to an MCPS press release. Zerihun is the language coordinator for his school’s SGA as well as the captain of the mock trial and debate teams. His leadership follows him into sports, too, as the captain of the varsity baseball and golf teams.
While the SMOB can vote on a variety of matters in the Montgomery County Board of Education, it is not a paid position. However, the student receives a scholarship, Student Service Learning hours, and one honors-level social studies credit in reciprocation for their work.
(Featured photo of the 46th SMOB, Sami Saeed, courtesy of MCPS)
The results are in! Congratulations to Sami Saeed, a Richard Montgomery junior, who has been elected the next Student Member of the Board of Education (SMOB) for the 2023-2024 school year! pic.twitter.com/bUyaYdNDWG
— MCPS (@MCPS) April 19, 2023
