The two student finalists for a seat on the county school board have been selected and both say they’re aiming to eliminate what they believe is a disconnect between students and policymakers.
John. F. Kennedy High School junior Nate Tinbite and Clarksburg High School junior Zoe Tishaev will spend the next eight weeks campaigning before an April 24 student election determines who will take current student board member Ananya Tadikonda’s seat.
The student member of the eight-person elected board has full voting rights on issues ranging from policies and hiring staff to personnel issues. All 85,000 middle and high school students are eligible to vote in the election.
Delegates from all middle and high schools gathered at Watkins Mill High School in Gaithersburg Wednesday and narrowed the pool of 13 candidates to two.
Tinbite received 237 first-choice votes and 70 second-choice votes, while Tishaev received 97 first-choice votes and 144 second-choice votes from delegates.
Tadikonda, a Richard Montgomery High School senior, was sworn in as the 41st student board member last summer and her term will expire in July. Student board members must be rising juniors or seniors and receive a $5,000 scholarship.
Tishaev has lived in Germantown since she was 2 years old and is involved in the county student government association, is a lobbyist in the state YMCA Youth and Government program and a member of her high school’s debate team.
As she became more involved with student government, attending school board and County Council meetings, Tishaev said she learned of issues she had never thought about before — including budgets, capital improvement programs and school boundaries.
“It was then that I knew we had a disconnect between the students and the officials that made decisions for us on an everyday basis,” Tishaev said. “And as I learned more of the jargon that had once seemed incomprehensible, as I learned to decipher and even form opinions on those critical issues, it seemed more and more apparent to me that a candidacy of my own was the best way to bring the advocacy back to the common student.”
The 17-year-old has focused her candidacy largely on the importance of communication between school officials and students, and believes some of the most critical issues facing students are crowded schools, inaccessibility of counselors and lack of mental health resources, “borderline inedible lunches,” and “peculiar-tasting” water from school water fountains.
“From my perspective, a victory would mean a rejection of the status quo, an affirmation that the students are tired of being left out of decisions,” she said. “A victory would be a statement – a statement that the students feel we have gone unheard for far too long.”
Tishaev and Tinbite both said they have been stunned by inequities in resources available to students at different schools and hope to close the achievement disparities between students of color and white students by providing equal access to resources for all students, regardless of where they live.
Tinbite, 16, a founding member of the countywide student activist group Montgomery County Students for Change and president of the county’s student government association, has hinged his campaign on the idea “the ZIP code of your school shouldn’t determine the quality of your education.”
Montgomery County Students for Change was originally formed in support of student-led movements against gun violence, but has since expanded its platform to include all forms of social justice advocacy, like racism, discrimination, immigration policy and voter registration.
“I’ve seen our county at its best, and I’ve seen our county at its worst, and my goal is to hopefully level the playing field for everyone and fight for our marginalized communities,” Tinbite said. “I was driven to run because I see how different the county can be in one part as opposed to another, and that’s not the way it should be.”
Also on Tinbite’s agenda is increasing career pathways for students by expanding the Achieving Collegiate Excellence and Success (ACES) program to reach all schools. ACES, now available at 14 of the county’s 25 public high schools, provides interventions and supports to help black, Hispanic and low-income students enroll and complete college. He also hopes to push the school system to provide driver’s education courses at county high schools.
A lifelong Silver Spring resident, Tinbite ran for the student member of the board position last year, as a sophomore at Kennedy in Glenmont, and was not selected as a finalist, but said his failed attempt paved the way for a successful run this year.
“I realized if you are willing to address the bold ideas, the ideas that aren’t always popular among all students, and willing to talk about it to the broader population, kids will be willing to rally around you because they feel the same passion and anger,” Tinbite said. “I’m here to start a conversation at the bare minimum … and (if elected) it will mean students have a message they want the Board of Education and central office to push for. We could build that message on unity and compassion.”
Caitlynn Peetz can be reached at caitlynn.peetz@moco360.media
