Anuva Maloo, a junior at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring, was elected Wednesday to serve as the student member of the Montgomery County school board for the 2025-2026 school year, according to an announcement from Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS).
Maloo defeated Peter Boyko, a junior at Northwest High School in Germantown, to win the seat on the eight-member board. The pair were elected as the two finalists for the seat by more than 400 middle and high school delegates who attended a nominating convention in February at Watkins Mill High School in Gaithersburg.
According to MCPS, all middle and high school students were eligible to vote in the election, and more than 61,000 students cast ballots Wednesday. Maloo received 62% of the vote and Boyko received 38%.
Maloo will take over the position July 1 from Clarksburg High School senior Praneel Suvarna, the current student board member. Suvarna announced the winner on social media in a video Wednesday night.
“Both candidates have worked extremely hard to make it to this point,” Suvarna said. “And I want to commend them on their commitment to serve the students of Montgomery County. While my term may be coming to an end, I’m excited to see the progress your 48th student member of the board will be able make.”
According to the MCPS website, the student member of the board serves a one-year term and can vote on topics related to “collective bargaining, capital and operating budgets, and school closings, reopenings and boundaries but not on negative personnel actions.”
Montgomery County is one of just two Maryland counties that assign full voting rights to a student board member. The student member isn’t paid but receives a $25,000 college scholarship, service-learning hours toward the state’s 75-hour graduation requirement and one honors-level social studies credit.
Maloo, who lives within the district’s Northeast Consortium but attends the math, science and computer science magnet program at Blair, is president of her class and serves as a workshop deputy for the Montgomery County Regional Student Government Association, according to MCPS. She is the founder and president of the Northeast Consortium and Downcounty Consortium Advocacy Coalition (NDAC) and the outreach director for the Yellow Foundation, an international organization focused on assisting young people in poverty.
Boyko is co-president of Eco MoCo, a student-led environmental nonprofit. He is serving as second vice president of Northwest High’s Student Government Association after previously serving as president. He has worked with the Montgomery County Regional Student Government Association as its educational policy director and was the assistant chief of staff for former school board member Lynne Harris’s student internship program.
Boyko and Maloo told Bethesda Today that serving as finalists for the role had been an honor and a wonderful experience. While Maloo told Bethesda Today before the election she was lucky to be a finalist, she said she had also received hateful messages on social media, including racist comments. Maloo said she had discussed the issue with Boyko, who also had received negative messages. Maloo said the two had often turned to each other after receiving the hateful comments — something she said she hadn’t expected to navigate as a finalist.
Bethesda Today spoke recently with the finalists about why they ran and what they had hoped to accomplish if elected. The interviews were edited for length and clarity.
Why are you running?
Maloo: “A really big reason why I chose to run was, I would say, not only how I grew up, but honestly, for every single person I’ve met up until this point. I’m very grateful to be in this position in the first place, but I wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for the kids that I went to middle school with, who, sadly, now a lot of them don’t even attend high school. And a lot of the time, people like to assume that it’s because they’re lazy or it’s because they have other things going on, but in reality, the biggest reason why is because of their environment. It’s because they have three little siblings at home that they have to take care of. Honestly it sucks, but the truth is, they didn’t get lucky. I was lucky enough to get into the program at Blair, and that’s how I got outside of my area and what I was used to.
“And the second reason, which is a lot more personal … is because I had a friend pass away due to overdosing my freshman year. And this was a friend that worked so incredibly hard.
“The bottom line is he had a really good heart and a very good character. And to think my freshman year, when I caught up with him at a football game and thought, I’ll see this guy three years from now, and the next day, I found out that he’s gone and I won’t be able to see him ever again … that was definitely the moment my freshman year that was like, ‘Yeah, I want to do this. I want to run for this. I want to make a change in our county and represent the kids that never got that voice.’”
Boyko: “One, this is something I’ve been working towards for the past five years. I got involved in my middle school’s SGA in seventh grade. I ran for SGA secretary for the first time. It was during COVID. It was really just like a spontaneous decision, not really thinking much of it, but SGA really opened my eyes to the world of student advocacy and a lot of the issues that usually don’t get discussed enough in our school system. And I learned so much, and I fell in love with the work of advocacy, leadership, organization, all of that.
“But there was an incident that happened in September 2024 that really made me solidify my plans of running for SMOB. And it was when a student brought a weapon to my school, and it was really a major wake-up call for me. It made me realize that there really aren’t a lot of preventative measures in place in the schools to prevent things such as weapons or strangers or safety incidents in general from happening.
“I want to step up. I want to have a seat at the table to push our county to prioritize school safety, whether that’s looking into investments in security technology or hiring security guards for schools that don’t have enough or finding ways to better enforce the ID policy. I knew I wanted a seat at the table for issues that need action now.”
What have you learned through your student advocacy that would help you as a board member?
Maloo: “No matter how young you are, or your background, where you grew up in the first place, where you started off, every single action that you’re doing is going to matter — whether it’s just attending a small meeting or even a Zoom call. Honestly, I remember in middle school in my area, in advocacy and leadership, all these big organizations didn’t exist. I know a lot of kids got that head start that I never got with things like [Montgomery County Junior Council], for example, but that truly did not exist at my middle school or my area in general. When I entered into high school, I always felt like, ‘Oh, I was starting too late, or I’m from an area where it’s not as popular to be into leadership. What I’m saying isn’t going to matter, because I’m not in that position of power.’ … But my words have actually made a difference in the end. For example, I remember last year, it was my first time testifying in Annapolis on behalf of a bill … on immigrants’ health care. And I didn’t think much of it. And the bill ended up passing. It’s small things like that that really do, in the end, make a difference.”
Boyko: “Don’t take no for an answer. … If you have an idea for something, and people higher up might not like it or might be hesitant, I think advocacy has been all about perseverance and grit and continuing to push for what you believe in, and to not take no for an answer. And I remember this past summer, I was actually advocating to increase my school’s hallway pass time. Because Northwest High School is one of the largest schools in size in the state, and we only have five minutes in between classes to get from class to class, and we have portables as well. So that adds extra time. … The first time I ever met with the principal, he told me the reasons why they made the decision, and essentially told me no but I scheduled a meeting with all administrators over the summer. … Me and a couple other students met, and we presented our survey results, we presented our research, we presented strong arguments, and it ended up passing unanimously. There’s been lots of roadblocks and moments where I’ve been told no in my advocacy journey. But if you believe in something and if you’re passionate about something, just keep going.”
What would be your top priorities as a board member?
Maloo: “It’s going to be pretty specific as for my goals. So, I have three things I want to get done with within my first few months. Now after that, obviously the term is a year, so I have a lot more time to work on other things, but I want to make immediate change. So, my top three goals would be things that I can get done with immediately. And that would be unlocking school bathrooms, getting us good, working menstrual dispensers, containing high quality products. And my third one would most probably have to do with safety, so [working on] our security guard-to-student ratio and accessibility to Narcan as well.”
Boyko: “School safety is No. 1. It’s why I’m running for SMOB in the first place. … But I would also say another huge priority is the situation with our bathrooms. And I feel like whenever I say that it might sound like a silly issue, or if someone doesn’t really know about the issues that persist in bathrooms, , it may seem like a weird issue to talk about but the reality is, there are very serious and urgent issues that persist daily with our bathrooms. Drug overdoses have occurred in our bathrooms, vandalism and violence have happened in bathrooms, and also, a lot of bathrooms across schools are locked. Many students have come up to me and expressed concerns, and I honestly think this is the No. 1 issue among students across the county. So I want to make sure that their No. 1 issue is my No. 1 issue as well, and that’s why I want to work to improve the situation with our bathrooms and infrastructure in general … by working with the superintendent to keep bathrooms open and invest more in bathroom supplies.
“I would probably say representation is a huge priority of mine, and I know it’s not really a policy issue, or a policy priority, but I want to make sure I’m visiting all 65 middle and high schools during my term, at least once, hopefully more than once. And then I’m also organizing town halls, reaching out to students, being as open and receptive as possible.”
