Anuva Maloo’s policy platform as SMOB

Blair junior and Silver Chips Online business editor Anuva Maloo will serve as the 48th Student Member of the Montgomery County Board of Education (SMOB), following a decisive win in the April 23 countywide election. Backed by 62 percent of student voters, Maloo will begin her one-year term on July 1, representing student voices on the eight-member Board.

Her campaign primarily centered on three core issues: substance use response, basic facility access, and academic equity. While past SMOBs have focused on long-term goals or legislative priorities, Maloo’s platform focuses on practical policies with tangible impacts that students can see and benefit from within the next year.

Making Narcan accessible

At the heart of Maloo’s campaign was a push for widespread access to Narcan (naloxone), a life-saving medication that reverses opioid overdoses. The issue is personal—Maloo lost a close friend to an overdose during her freshman year. Since then, MCPS has faced growing concerns around student drug use, particularly involving fentanyl-laced substances.

Maloo wants every secondary school to stock Narcan kits and fentanyl test strips in clearly labeled, accessible locations—not locked in an office or limited to school nurses. She argues that in the critical minutes of an overdose, students and staff shouldn’t be navigating layers of red tape to get help.

“I think that telling students to sit down and, for example, watch an hour-long video about how drugs are bad... is not going to change their minds,” Maloo said. “Rather than forcing them to watch that video, we instead need to give them the option of safety.”

Better bathrooms

Maloo’s second major priority focuses on facility access—specifically, bathrooms and menstrual hygiene. In schools across the county, bathrooms are frequently locked during the day to deter vandalism or vaping. Students often walk multiple hallways just to find an open stall.

“I think that the biggest pushback is that... this is not like a county-wide rule saying, ‘Oh, bathrooms must be locked,’” Maloo explained. “What actually needs to happen is that it comes down to the administration speaking to the school level.”

Maloo says the approach punishes the entire student body for the actions of a few. Her proposal is to have at least one open, monitored bathroom per floor at all times. She plans to push the Board of Education and central office to hold principals accountable to existing guidelines, which already discourage excessive restroom closures.

She’s also drawn attention to broken or missing menstrual product dispensers in girls’ bathrooms. While MCPS policy mandates free menstrual hygiene products, the rollout has been uneven and poorly enforced. Some schools lack dispensers entirely—others have them, but they’re empty or broken.

“The biggest issue is, honestly, that it comes down to accountability and tracking,” Maloo said. “It doesn't actually come down to the stock supply or the budget in general, which is a common misconception among students.”

Maloo wants mandatory, funded restocking schedules in all secondary schools and district oversight to track compliance. During the campaign, she identified this issue as one of the most fixable failures in the system—an example of how bureaucracy often gets in the way of basic student needs.

Leveling the academic playing field

She also plans to tackle long-standing academic disparities across the county. As a student who transitioned from the Northeast Consortium to Blair’s magnet program, she’s seen firsthand the gap in access to electives, advanced courses, and academic support services.

“I think the biggest issue comes down to where boundaries are decided between our consortiums and clusters,” Maloo said. “Not only proximity, transportation, but also just educational opportunities are so vastly different based on where you're in the county.”

Thus, one of her primary goals is to expand cross-enrollment options. Students at one school should be able to take specialized electives offered at another, whether in-person or virtually. For example, a student at a smaller school without a forensic science class could enroll in that course at a nearby school or through a hybrid format.

“I also had a lot of other things about making electives that I think are life skills happen and come back, such as Home Ec and Driver's Ed,” Maloo added. “And I think that we can utilize MC for that.”

She also supports the continuation of zero-cost AP, IB, and dual enrollment programs. While MCPS has made these options free in recent years, Maloo wants to codify that access and protect it from future budget cuts.

Additionally, she’s proposed a mechanism for student-designed electives. Under her plan, students could propose a new elective, gather interest, and work with staff to pilot the course at their school. It’s a move toward decentralizing curriculum development and giving students a say in what they learn.

Looking forward

As she steps into office, Maloo is focused on building a strong foundation for her term. She has already released applications for her Student Advisory Council (SAC), with plans to review submissions over the summer and hold the first official meeting in August.

“We're going to review them over the summer,” Maloo said. “It’s going to close around July. We'll release results in August, and we'll hopefully have our first meeting in August as well.”

She also intends to visit all high schools and middle schools during her term to ensure that student voices are heard and that her policies are being implemented effectively.

“I also want to check in, see if my policies are actually being implemented, and hopefully kill two birds with one stone regarding the bathrooms,” Maloo explained. “A big thing that [the current SMOB] is doing currently... is he's just speaking to the administration, setting up meetings, and figuring out some sort of solution at their specific school. I want to do the exact same thing, but in person.”

Maloo's commitment to student advocacy is rooted in her own experiences and the belief that every student deserves a voice. She encourages others to get involved, even if they start small.

“Honestly, when I first got involved in advocacy, I just sat in the dark at meetings—I didn’t say a word—but my presence was helping in ways I didn’t even realize,” Maloo reflected. 

From lifesaving Narcan kits and bathrooms that stay open when you need them to electives that spark your passion, Maloo’s SMOB year is off to a bright start. Here’s to a term where student ideas lead the way—and small changes make a big difference for Montgomery County students.