RM students to run in upcoming MCR officer election

On April 10, students from all around the county will congregate at a general assembly to vote on their upcoming 2019-2020 Montgomery County Regional (MCR) Student Government Association officers. The contested positions in MCR comprise the President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer. So far, all current candidates consist of RM students, but this is subject to change. Candidates for President include junior Isabelle Scholes-Young and junior Pranav Tadikonda, while candidates for Vice President include sophomore Nick Asante and junior Emnet Kahsay.

The President represents MCR as a whole, setting the advocacy goals for the year and ensuring that the body of MCR accomplishes its set goals. “This year, our areas of focus for advocacy were mental health, physical well-being of students, ESOL programs, school safety, civic engagement, and equitable education,” Tadikonda explained.

By advocating for these issues through testimonies in front of Montgomery County’s Board of Education and County Council, the MCR President is able to work toward accomplishing their yearly advocacy goals. Tadikonda hopes to continue MCR’s current initiatives. “MCR is focusing on accurately representing our diverse county and for the first time in MCR history, outreach led an executive team with at least one student from every high school,” he said.

The elected Vice President assists the President and works with the Chief of Staff as well as department directors to coordinate the jobs of the executive board. The Secretary prepares agendas, creates presentations and tracks SSL hours and meeting attendance. The Treasurer works alongside MCR’s finance department to coordinate financial endeavors.

The MCR officer election, much like the Student Member of the Board (SMOB) election, is supervised by MCR’s Special Elections Committee (SEC), composed of two appointed SEC administrators and various students who were accepted into the committee in September. In order to run for officer positions in MCR, each candidate is required to follow a list of prerequisite requirements, such as attending a set amount of executive board meetings and general assemblies, set depending on the position they are running for.

During the MCR election itself, candidates are expected to give a two to three minute speech each, followed by a brief Q&A period to interact with voters attending the general assembly. Afterwards, voting commences with general assembly attendees using preferential ballots to cast their vote.

“MCR’s overarching goal is essentially advocating for the students of our county,” Asante said. “MCR lobbies, testifies, and meets directly with legislators to discuss the issues most important to students in an effort to make a difference.” Because Montgomery County’s education system is run by adults, MCR has the ability to provide an important student perspective.

In addition to instigating change within the school community, MCR seeks to strengthen our county’s network of school student government bodies. “MCR also serves as a way for school SGAs from all across the county to get connected and learn about different projects other schools are working on and possibly ways to implement them into their own school,” Asante said.