In 2019, Tinbite was elected to serve as the Student Member of the Montgomery County Board of Education for the 20190–2020 school year in the nations 15th largest school district: Montgomery County Public Schools, representing all 164,000+ K–12 students. Tinbite is the fourth student board member to assume full voting rights, except for negative personnel actions. He served on the board's Policy Management and Strategic Planning Committees. Tinbite's first resolution directed the Superintendent of Schools to award a one-semester physical education credit for interscholastic student athletes. Tinbite's second resolution directed the Superintendent of schools to seek a public-private partnership to expand drivers education to impoverished students. Tinbite based his candidacy on achieving socioeconomic equity among all student groups, expanding mental health resources and improving technology in schools. Also on Tinbite's agenda is increasing career pathways for students by expanding the Achieving Collegiate Excellence and Success program to all schools. ACES, now available at 14 of the county's 25 public high schools, provides intervention and support to help low-income students enroll in and complete college. "Every student deserves a quality education, regardless of their ZIP Code or background," Tinbite said during his installation ceremony. "The voices and stories of our students will ground my priorities in the year to come."
Advocacy
Tinbite previously served as the President of the Montgomery County Student Government Association from 2018–2019, leading the district's 163,000 students to fight for English Language Learner program funding and frank classroom discussions of implicit bias. As president, Tinbite received the MLK Day Youth Award by Rev. Al Sharpton and the National Action Network alongside honorees Michael Bloomberg, Vice President Joe Biden, and Martin Luther King Jr. III. In his role, Tinbite co-led a voter registration drive with 2018-2019 Montgomery County Students for Change co-President Michael Solomon at 26 high schools over a 4-week period: registering more than 1,000 students, drafted and lobbied statewide voter registration bills. Tinbite also served as a founding member of Montgomery County Students for Change. Montgomery County Student for Change, in 2018 and 2019 mobilized over five thousands students in the D.C., Maryland, and Virginia area to protest gun violence at the U.S. Capitol. In 2018, Tinbite, Matt Post, Michael Solomon, and Brenna Levitan were on the national stage of March for Our Lives as Post delivered a speech. He has delivered speeches with advocacy organization MoveOn, appeared in a photo of a large crowd on the front cover of Time magazine in the "Guns in America" issue, and has worked with numerous national organizations.
