A 16-year-old rising junior now holds a voting seat on the Montgomery County Board of Education. His early focus: board appeals and an upcoming elementary school boundary study that could redraw attendance zones across the county.

Leul Dawit, a student at Northwood High School in Rockville, was sworn in as the 49th Student Member of the Board on Tuesday in the board's Rockville meeting room. He represents more than 155,000 students across the district and won the position with 64% of the vote in an election where 58,424 middle and high school students cast ballots, according to an April MCPS press release. His opponent, Walter Johnson High School rising senior Reemey Ghermay, received 36%.

The SMOB is not a ceremonial role. Dawit can vote on collective bargaining agreements, capital and operating budgets and school boundary decisions. He cannot vote on negative personnel actions.

After the ceremony, Dawit told Bethesda Magazine he was feeling "raw excitement" and said he planned to start by examining board appeals, which can involve student residency, grades, transfers and discipline. He also flagged the elementary school boundary study, though the district has not announced a formal timeline for that process.

Dawit succeeds Anuva Maloo, a senior at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring. He is the first Northwood student to serve on the board since the position was created in 1978, when inaugural member David Naimon won the seat.

The historic gap is partly explained by Northwood's own turbulent history. The school closed from 1985 to 2004 due to low enrollment. It is currently housed in what will become the Woodward High School building at 11211 Old Georgetown Road in Rockville while its Silver Spring campus undergoes reconstruction.

More than half of all past SMOBs have come from just four high schools: Richard Montgomery in Rockville, Walt Whitman in Bethesda, and Springbrook and Montgomery Blair in Silver Spring.

During his swearing-in speech, Dawit spoke about students who feel invisible. "Behind all the statistics, votes, and policies we will deliberate going forward into the next year, there are people behind them," he said.

Dawit has been involved in student leadership since fourth grade at Brookhaven Elementary School in Rockville. He has served as a field organization deputy for MoCo for Change, a Montgomery County youth social justice advocacy group and as student leadership coordinator for Students For Asylum and Immigrant Rights.

Families can monitor the MCPS Board of Education meetings calendar at montgomeryschoolsmd.org for upcoming agenda items and meeting dates.