First Muslim Woman Elected To VA School Board Has Big Ideas

FAIRFAX, VA — A 24-year-old woman sporting a hijab is not a particularly common sight in elected offices across the state of Virginia, but Fairfax County has plenty of people like that living here. Now, those residents finally have representation in the form of Abrar Omeish of Fairfax.

Omeish, who took one of three spots on the Fairfax County School Board by getting 161,108 votes to finish second in unofficial results Tuesday night, has achieved a lot of firsts: she's the youngest person to ever hold elected office in Virginia, she's the first Muslim woman to do so (tied with Ghazala Hashmi, who won a State Senate seat in the same election), and her campaign claims she's the first Libyan-American elected to any office nationwide.

Omeish told Patch in an interview that those firsts are important because it tells all of the people living in Virginia who look like her and have her life experiences that they can do the same — which hopefully leads to more representation down the road.

Omeish, whose parents immigrated from Libya, has a full workload beyond her new spot on the board. She continues to be involved with a nonprofit she started 10 years ago and currently works as a full-time student, pursuing a master's degree in public policy at Georgetown University on a full scholarship. Before that, she worked at a human rights law firm in Tysons and as a substitute teacher.

Although she does see plenty of room for improvement in Fairfax County Public Schools, she says the people she has talked to have spoken highly of the school system overall.

"People generally are happy with the schools," she said.

However, there was one obvious recurring theme in the feedback she received: mental health.

"I"m really looking forward to pushing that," she said. "I can't even convey how consistently I hear it from them. It's a top concern: things like stress, too much homework, workload. And generally from minority families I hear about discrimination, I heard about bullying.

"Some families with students that have disabilities — oh my goodness, the number of pending lawsuits for FCPS is absurd when it comes to students with special needs," she added.

FCPS gets some high marks

Omeish stressed again that FCPS performs well with many families when it comes to special needs.

"There are a lot of families that praise it and say kids have done well, and that there are a variety of opportunities available to them," she said.

She said she's heard people praise many of the teachers and how much they care about the kids. Language immersion programs and diversity are other strengths that the school system has, she added.

Parent liaisons

A key part of her plan will be increasing the number of parent liaisons in the school system. These are individuals hired by the school or region to develop relationships with families in the school. They exist today, but are stretched thin, with most assigned to more than one school, Omeish said.

The liaisons are important because they serve as the connection between schools and families. They often speak the language of a significant minority population in that community, which is vital to building trust. They might make home visits and provide information about resources that exist to help families and parents. Sometimes they'll host resource fairs to let parents know about a subsidized program they can take advantage of, or an enrichment opportunity from which their child could benefit. They are the contacts that those families turn to when they need help.

"A lot of families will call them before anyone in the administration or school board," Omeish said.

Helping homeless students

A major challenge the county needs to tackle is providing support to homeless students, she argued, noting that she has had some "eye-opening" visits to local shelters.

"I might even choose to live in a shelter for a little bit to get a sense of what the needs are, but I would look forward to making sure areas where there is a high homeless population that there are parent liaisons that work with the shelters as well," she said. "Maybe we could host an information night or information session near [the shelter]. Also, lowering the ratio of social workers — a lot of kids deep in poverty have gone through a lot of traumas."

She hopes to work with the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors to address poverty in general, which has ripple effects in the school system — something that Fairfax County has no excuse not to address because "we are one of the wealthiest counties," she said.

'Representation matters'

Omeish hopes that by breaking some of the aforementioned barriers, she'll serve as an inspiration and role model for others.

"I'm hoping that this is a statement, or maybe making it palatable to the general public that these are members of the community who are entitled to be in positions of leadership," she said. "Being first changes your perception of what's possible and who is truly part of this community."

But it's not just about that — it's about bringing a new perspective as well, she argued.

"The other piece is a connection to certain communities and a perspective we bring to the table that otherwise hasn't been there which impacts policy directly," Omeish said.

Things like making accommodations for kids from certain cultural backgrounds at certain times on the school calendar make a big difference for local families who have historically been underrepresented, she said.

What is happening on a national level has an impact on local families, and she hopes her election serves as a repudiation of some of those things.

"[President] Trump is trying to ban Libyans from this country," she said, noting she had a grandfather who raised eight children without speaking any English. "I think it's a statement of who belongs here. Immigrants are absolutely welcome here and this is a community for everyone."