Clarksburg High School junior Praneel Suvarna was elected as the 47th Student Member of the Board (SMOB) on Wednesday, April 17 and will succeed current SMOB Sami Saeed as the sole student on the Montgomery County Board of Education.
Suvarna defeated Montgomery Blair High School junior Samantha (Sam) Ross winning 53% of the 58,927 ballots cast by MCPS middle and high school students.
The margin of victory for Suvarna was the closest since the 2018-2019 school year when Ananya Tadikonda defeated fellow Richard Montgomery High School junior Nimah Nayel with 51% of the vote.
Suvarna is currently the Montgomery County Regional SGA Vice President, class president of his class at Clarksburg and a student leader and advocate with MoCo for Change.
In his campaign for SMOB, Suvarna focused on key issues for students like the drug/opioid crisis and school security. Suvarna also recently testified to the Board against MCPS’ plan to construct Woodward High School without an auditorium.
Suvarna is the first SMOB from Clarksburg High School since Dahlia Huh in 2015.
The SMOB is a full-voting member of the Board of Education and receives one honors-level social studies credit and a $25,000 scholarship. Suvarna will be sworn in on July 1.
