Each year, ninth-grade students are offered a first foray into the world of Upper School politics through involvement in their first class officer election. For the Class of 2028, this election took place soon after the return from Winter Break and yielded unprecedented student involvement and final results. 

Following the trials and tribulations of leading grade-wide activities like Spirit Week, any interested student can run for an official leadership position, which they will hold until the next election at the end of their freshman year. 

This school year, ninth-grade students were first informed of their upcoming election in early December, and to officially run, they were expected to attend a short information session with Upper School Dean of Students Will Miller before Election Day on January 10, 2025. As is common with many freshman classes, a large number of students, 14 of this year’s 58, ran for election. Less expected, however, was the high voter turnout following the release of the election ballot, which was distributed as a Google Form sent to the entire grade.

As Miller shared in the email containing the election’s results, the initial election received responses from every student in the grade, generating a 100% voter turnout. Following this initial process, however, the Vice President (VP) election resulted in a tie, with two of the candidates – Rayyan Ansari ’28 and Zoe Dasgupta ’28 – receiving equal percentages of the total votes. As a result, Ansari and Dasgupta were placed in a subsequent runoff election, a practice not uncommon in the general history of Upper School class officer elections. To facilitate the runoff process, Miller delayed the release of the overall results by 72 hours, ensuring that the students would have ample time to choose, and officially vote for, their preferred runoff candidate over the weekend. 

The true shock, however, came when the results of the overall election, including the runoff, were released. Rather than one of the VP candidates ultimately gaining more votes than the other, which is the typical outcome of a runoff election, Ansari and Dasgupta once again tied. As a result, rather than another runoff election taking place, the two candidates both received positions as class officers under the title of “Co-Vice President,” according to the written results. Miller explained the refrain from another runoff election to MFS WordsWorth, noting that “having another runoff [election] felt like asking students to reconsider their choice, which we didn’t want to do.”

The ninth-grade class officer slate for the rest of the 2024-2025 school year is as follows: Mia Denittis as President, Rayyan Ansari & Zoe Dasgupta as Co-Vice Presidents, Nolan Youssef as Secretary, and Nolan Phillips as Treasurer.

Although it is unclear whether or not this unique circumstance has arisen in previous Upper School elections, Miller confirmed that it has not in his past six years at MFS. 

Regarding the unexpected results of this election, Agenda Clerk Ali Sabir ’26, who assisted in the facilitation of the election’s speech and Q&A program, commented, “In my mind, I expected a lot of [the elections] to be very close, 110%, but I never expected a tie, just because it doesn’t typically happen. Ties are very rare. Having a double tie is unheard of, and having the conclusion of that runoff be two vice presidents is even more unheard of.” 

In his email, Miller noted the positives of the uniquely situated leadership team. 

“This unique arrangement will bring double the leadership, ideas, and energy to our ninth-grade class for the remainder of this academic year. We believe this outcome reflects the strength of both candidates and will ultimately benefit the entire ninth-grade class,” he wrote. 

Miller further supported this idea verbally, explaining to MFS WordsWorth that, in his opinion, the inclusion of a fifth class officer this year will lead to “nothing but positive results.” He did note, though, that he is not advocating for the creation of a fifth-class officer position in future elections. 

Elected as treasurer of the ninth-grade class in the recent election, Nolan Phillips ’28 echoed Miller’s positive outlook on the presence of five class officers. 

“Working with four people is probably better than [working with] three people, just because you have more minds together to plan and more student voices to include.” He continued, “It will also allow us to divide up work better and have an added person to carry the load in times of stress.”  

Noah Hasni ’28 commented on his classmates’ response to the surprising results. “A lot of people are a little confused [about what happened], but at the same time, everyone is okay with it … I think everyone got their deserved places and I know everyone worked really hard.”

The new Co-Vice Presidents are excited to lead alongside each other. Dasgupta noted that, while she “originally thought that there might be too many cooks in the kitchen,” she hopes that sharing her position with a partner will “bring new ideas to the conversation” and be someone for her to go to “if she has questions or needs support.” 

Ansari agreed, explaining that he “think[s] [the unusual number of officers] could lead to a better ninth-grade experience than [other classes have] had in the past.” Further, he noted that “there [will] be a lot more ideas … and leadership qualities [among the team], and we can all share our own point[s] of view on what we want for the grade.”

Finally, Miller shared his enthusiasm about collaborating with the elected team of five. 

“I believe in the student leaders, and I want to help [them] … be the best that they can possibly be, and so, in this case, with the ninth-grade class for the next few months, I get to do that with five [class officers] rather than four. It’s a unique situation that I’m looking forward to,” he shared.