On November 19, two students from Linganore High School (LHS) were chosen as candidates for the Frederick County Public Schools (FCPS) Student Member of the Board (SMOB).
The students are chosen by a group of student leaders, staff at FCPS central headquarters, and student government association (SGA) advisors. The current SMOB is Governor Thomas Johnson High School senior Elijah Steele. As SMOB, he serves as a member of the Board of Education (BoE), responsible for staying in touch with students in order to accurately represent the student body at BoE meetings, committee meetings, Frederick County Association of Student Councils (FCASC) meetings and more.
Juniors Alex Thomas and Isabella Tiger are the two LHS candidates running in the upcoming election in January. Other candidates include junior Alessia Cuba from Urbana High School, junior Sophie Smith from Tuscarora High school and sophomore Joshua Lin from MiddleTown High school.
LHS candidate Thomas has a lot of experience in leadership roles within FCPS. He is the President of the Junior Class Council and on the executive board of the FCASC. Other positions he holds include the Citizens Advisory Council for FCPS and chair of the planning committee for the Ocean City Convention for leadership.
“The many roles I have held in FCPS and experiences I had meeting with students has provided me with many opportunities to better myself as a leader and person,” Thomas said.
Thomas also ran for SMOB last year and has been inspired to run once again.
“I connected with a lot of students last year and many of them reached out to me, motivating me to run again,” Thomas said.
He believes that the biggest problem in the school system is the lack of student involvement. He thinks that most people do not pay attention or know the elected SMOB member, so he wants to become more active within his community.
“There is just not a lot of student activity.” Thomas said. “Especially the student member of the board, a lot of people don’t know who they are or who even won last year. So, one of the biggest things for me is to be really active as SMOB and make sure students get involved.”
Thomas plans to visit every middle school and high school in Frederick County as the SMOB to build more connections with other students.
“In my six years in secondary education in the county, no student member of the board has visited a school I have been at,” Thomas said. “It is really important to me to visit schools.”
Tiger, secretary of the Linganore SGA, has experienced many leadership opportunities. She was previously the second vice president of SGA and parliamentarian for FCASC. She is also currently the assistant representative on the Civil Patrol Cadet by Cadet Advisory Council for Maryland Wing.
Tiger is planning to improve school environments by increasing security and safety resources. Recently, an unknown person walked into a nearby high school that caused many safety concerns.
“As we saw at Urbana [High School], there was someone that just blatantly walked in,” said Tiger. “So, there needs to be actions taken to prevent those things from happening and strengthen the security and safety within our school.”
Tiger got to see different SMOB candidates giving presentations in seventh grade, and she was inspired to be like them and run for SMOB.
“I went to my first [General Assembly] GA for SGA when I was in seventh grade, and that happened to be the one where all the SMOBs came and presented their platforms and answered questions,” Tiger said. “From that day on in seventh grade, I realized I want to be up there and be one of those people that are running for SMOB to help make a difference.”
Tiger believes that one of the most important things that all candidates should want is voting rights for the SMOB during Board meetings.
“What we want is voting rights for student member of the board,” said Tiger. “That is something that student members of the board of the past have been working out a lot, but currently as student member of the board, they play as a representative, and they do not have any voting rights.”
Mental health is an important issue that Tiger hopes can be addressed by providing more resources in FCPS schools.
“I also want to try to increase the use of mental health resources within the school,” said Tiger.
Student voting for the new FCPS SMOB will open January 7 and close January 29, 2025. The winning student will be officially appointed SMOB on February 6 and serve for the 2025-2026 school year.
