Ayesha Chaudhry, a rising senior at South River High School, will be sworn in as the 41st student member of the Board of Education of Anne Arundel County during a ceremony at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, July 1, 2014, in the office of the Circuit Court Clerk Robert P. Duckworth at the county courthouse in Annapolis.
Ayesha was officially appointed to the seat today by Governor Martin O’Malley. She succeeds Else Drooff, a Broadneck High School graduate whose one-year term ends today. Anne Arundel County’s student member of the Board is the only one in the nation serving on a local board of education who has full voting rights.
Board Member Kevin Jackson, whose five-year term in an at-large seat also officially expires today, will remain in his seat until a new governor is sworn into office and makes an appointment early next year subject to the recommendation of the School Board Nominating Commission of Anne Arundel County. Under the Maryland Constitution, the Governor generally may not appoint a person to a term of office in the Executive Branch of State Government, including local Boards of Education, when that term begins during the period between a primary election and the inauguration of the succeeding Governor. The move of this year’s primary from September to June means that no appointment can be made for the seat currently held by Mr. Jackson, the Governor’s office said.
The Governor made Ayesha’s appointment by emergency executive order. Ayesha will take part in the Board’s first meeting of the 2014-2015 school year, scheduled for July 9, 2014.