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Montgomery Blair High School's Online Student Newspaper
April 30, 2008

Quratul-Ann Malik elected 2008-2009 SMOB

by Anika Manzoor, Online Managing Editor
Watkins Mill junior Quratul-Ann Malik won the position for the 2008-2009 Student Member of the Board of Education (SMOB) against Blake junior Alexander Blocker, according to MCPS Director of Student Affairs Karen Crawford. Malik will begin her term on July 1, replacing current SMOB and Walter Johnson senior Ben Moskowitz.
Malik is the 2008-2009 Student Member of the Board of Education (SMOB). <i>Photo courtesy of Malik.</i>
Malik is the 2008-2009 Student Member of the Board of Education (SMOB). Photo courtesy of Malik.

During the last two days, a total of 63,655 students from 38 middle schools and 27 high schools voted countywide. Malik received 56.2 percent of the votes and a vote count of 35,759 and Blocker received 43.8 percent of the votes with a count of 27,896.

Malik is looking forward to her term on the board. "I'm ready to take on the position," she said. "I'm excited to put the policies I stated in my platform about financial reform into place and work with the Board on [these issues]." Malik will begin her term as SMOB on July 1.

Voting for Blazers was administered by the SGA and took place in the gym during English classes. SGA president Molly Martinez was pleased with the election process and commented on yesterday's visit from both candidates during school hours. "The SMOB elections went smoothly at Blair," she said. "Everyone did their part and we were lucky to have both candidates come and campaign."

Crawford noted that although tallying the votes took longer than last year, all schools reported their results before the election she certified the election today at 6:30 p.m.

Malik is the first SMOB elected from Watkins Mill High School.

Editor's Note: More information about the elections, including the voting breakdown at Blair, will be posted soon.

Discuss this Article

  • mango on April 30, 2008 at 10:28 PM
    Q is such an awesome name. I voted for her because of her awesome one letter name. Sad thing is, it isn't actually her name. I was tricked into voting for her.
  • Eli Barnett on May 1, 2008 at 12:02 AM
    Both candidates seemed terribly uninspired, and I really don't like either of them in terms of their answers to the questions on the video.

    Honestly, why can't the SMOB candidates say something meaningful and educated on the video, instead of referring to how funding more programs will cut into the school system's "revenue" (schools have revenue? Lolwut?). Honestly, I'm completely unimpressed with the SMOB elections for the past two years.

    That being said, Quratul seemed a bit more coherent, but honestly, that isn't saying much. Both these candidates seemed as if they were only doing it for their college resumes.
  • Irked (View Email) on May 1, 2008 at 8:51 AM
    i feel sorry for u mango.

    NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
  • Euclid on May 1, 2008 at 12:52 PM
    They both are highly unqualified and their campaign promises are preposterous pandering. Q's main argument, that schools cost too much is absurd. Already, Blair is suffered crippling budget cuts, and she proposes to increase the financial strain on our system! Further, they are very far from too expensive. School is free to attend, and additional fees, though irksome, and at times unnecessary, are merely a nuisance, and unlikely to be a burden for even the poorest families. Block's ideas are hardly better. Cell phones and MP3 players are frowned upon for a good reason. They can be disruptive and invariably detract from learning. Legitimizing them would be very foolish. All in all, par for the course for the SMOB candidates, but more obviously laughable proposals, as opposed to the more subtle ones.
  • argh! on May 1, 2008 at 5:17 PM
    why are politicians never satisfying?
  • eli=dumb; mango = hilarious on May 1, 2008 at 6:43 PM
    hahaha i don't know where people get the idea that students run for SMOB to pad their college résumés. you get 600 community service hours for a reason - it's a hell of a lot of time, work, and effort. it's not like you just wake up one morning thinking "geez, MC sure would like it if i were SMOB!"
  • Bitter Boy on May 1, 2008 at 9:13 PM
    can't wait to see her fail miserably. Excited to implement your policies, are you? Just wait until every single one gets smashed into the ground on the first day. Not a single piece of your platform is reasonable. YOU ARE A LIAR - you would have to be braindead to not know that your policies are ridiculous.

    To be fair, Blocker is no better than you.
  • duh on May 1, 2008 at 11:08 PM
    we go to school for free!
  • absurd on May 1, 2008 at 11:57 PM
    I thought the video was the most absurd thing ever... The questions sucked, but the answers were worse.. Compensating kids for AP classes?? What the heck does that mean?

    It is really sad that neither of them is fit to be SMOB (not that a SMOB has much power anyway, but at least more than the SGA).
    Hysen or Moskowitz, please come back..
  • humm on May 2, 2008 at 1:35 PM
    i don't even remember who our smob for 07-08 was. we never get to visibly see what they do at all. does smob even matter...?
  • the only reason smob is cool i on May 2, 2008 at 6:47 PM
    SEBI! SEBI! SEBI!
  • dry toast on May 7, 2008 at 8:22 AM
    why do so many people believe that student government is useless. its more efficacious than you realize. SMOB is a legitimate voting member of the board of education, so it has direct input on the board's activities. SGA advocates for us students, and negotiates policy change. under Eric Hysen, our SGA got a lot done and really made this school a better place.

    so stop putting student government down.

    p.s. Eli is an idiot. Everything I've ever heard him say has been mean and cynical. If he ran for SMOB, he would lose by the largest margin in history.
  • blazer on May 7, 2008 at 1:21 PM
    stop crying SMOB barely has any power so theres nothing to worry about her implementing her ridiculous policies
  • journalism police on May 7, 2008 at 10:48 PM
    I'd just like to point out that the last "sentence" of the article makes absolutely no sense.

    Why'd this chick get to interview Russell Crowe?
  • the REAL dry toast on May 8, 2008 at 7:47 AM
    dont listen to that poser its not me
  • Randy (View Email) on September 22, 2008 at 9:27 PM
    What a disappointment Q has been. She has done absolutely nothing to implement the financial reforms that she said that she would work on. She doesn't respond to emails and doesn't even speak at Board of Education meetings.
  • Calm yourselves on August 19, 2011 at 12:40 AM
    Some of these comments were made before her term began and the other half of the comments were made less than three months into the term. Not sure how anyone could expect any elected official "to implement financial reforms" or do anything substantial in such little time. People can't just get elected and magically fix problems-- these things take time.
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