By Wafir Salih | wsalih@alextimes.com

Abdulahi Abdalla, a member of the School Board Budget Advisory Committee, is running for his first term on the Alexandria School Board. His priorities include providing teachers with support, ensuring student safety and increasing community engagement.

“Providing the proper resources to teachers and making sure that they have a say in stuff that affects them directly is something that should be prioritized,” he said. “Ultimately, if we don’t support the teachers, then the students are the ones that are going to be affected.”

Abdalla was born in Arlington and grew up in Fairfax County. From fourth through 12th grade, he was on an Individualized Education Plan, a program tailored to support students with learning disabilities. Instead of classes with 20 students, he was in smaller classes with five, which provided more individual-ized support.

Though he said he was embarrassed at the time, Abdalla now looks back with appreciation for the support he received.

“I look back at it, and I was like, dang, where would I have been if I didn’t have any of those services?” Abdalla said.

He said his firsthand experience with receiving IEP assistance in school shaped his commitment to advocating for teachers.

“I had a lot of teacher support. Having an IEP, that’s kind of what an individualized education plan is,” Abdalla said. “I feel like it would just be natural for me to be a team teacher candidate. I’m all about listening to what the teachers need, the support that they are looking for, changes that they want.”

After graduating from Annandale High School in 2016, he attended Northern Virginia Community College and then transferred to Virginia Commonwealth University where he majored in health and exercise science.

During the COVID-19 lockdown, which happened in the middle of his senior year, Abdalla reevaluated his career path and decided to switch gears, pursuing political science instead.

“It was a weird time. That’s kind of when I realized that I didn’t want to pursue health and exercise science anymore,” he said, reflecting on 2020. “I looked into a bunch of different majors, and the one that I saw myself resonating more with was political science.”

Abdalla transferred to Marymount University soon after, and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in political science and government in 2021.

After college, Abdalla began working with the Ethiopian Community Development Council, a nonprofit in Arlington. He started off as an employment specialist, where he helped new arrivals find employment in the Northern Virginia area. He then transitioned to a legal aid coordinator position, where he helped Afghan Special Immigrant Visa holders and asylum seekers get their green cards.

He moved to Alexandria in 2021 and quickly became involved in the community.

Abdalla got engaged in local politics after attending monthly meetings held by the Alexandria Democratic Committee. He served as a precinct captain for the John Adams Elementary School voting station during the 2023 election and plans to do so again next month.

Abdalla said getting the West End community involved in the School Board’s policy making process is crucial.

“I know a lot of parents that are working lots of jobs, or their hours are a little bit different, so it’s hard for them to get involved and have a voice,” he said. “Maybe seeing how we can provide different resources for the parents and the community members to get involved with, whether it’s the priority setting for the budget or any other policies that are going on.”

Student safety and security is another concern for Abdalla. He highlighted the weapons abatement program – which brought metal detectors and higher security measures to Alexandria City Public Schools – as a success. He also said he would focus on substance abuse issues that students face.

“I learned a lot [about the] challenges that the youth face with substance abuse,” Abdalla said. “I wanted to see if there’s any way we can improve mental health resources for the students – if [the] School Board already hasn’t been doing it – just safety and security, whether it’s physical or mental health for students is kind of what I want to focus on.”