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Nov 6, 2024 | 
thehighlandernews.com | Zakareya Hamed
Voters took to polls across Virginia on Nov. 5, casting their votes for U.S. president—between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris—along with the senate and various state and local positions in a highly competitive race. Among those at the polls were many first-time voting McLean students. “This is a scary election for me. I’m afraid of the outcome and what’s going to happen in the future. I think a lot of people are.
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Oct 30, 2024 | 
thehighlandernews.com | Zakareya Hamed
In an Aug. 7 executive order, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin revealed a new policy directing the Department of Elections to remove ‘suspected noncitizens’ from the state’s voter rolls. The policy came less than 100 days before the election, leading to major concerns from voting rights groups across the country, and a constitutional legal challenge.
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Oct 12, 2024 | 
thehighlandernews.com | Zakareya Hamed
The Red Bird, a hot chicken restaurant opened late last year in Vienna, is home to halal chicken sandwiches and fries. Housed on the end of Vienna’s Cedar Lane shopping center, its Vienna shop is the first of three in Virginia, all of which have opened in the past year. The shop’s other, newer locations, are housed in South Lakes Village Center and on Payne Street in Falls Church.
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Oct 10, 2024 | 
thehighlandernews.com | Zakareya Hamed
On the evening of Oct. 10, FCPS school board members assembled at Luther Jackson Middle School and approved some of the most sweeping renovations for McLean pyramid schools in years. While the approved projects fall short of renovating entire schools, they address roofing problems at two schools in particular: McLean High School and Kent Gardens Elementary School. “The renovation is good for McLean; it provides a better learning environment for students,” senior Ailesh Amatya said.
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Jun 4, 2024 | 
thehighlandernews.com | Zakareya Hamed
As the Fairfax County School Board gears up to adjourn until August, the board reviewed and awarded multiple renovation contracts for schools across the county. Most of the upgrades are limited in scope, similar to McLean High School’s now-complete retiling and bathroom renovation project. Among the upcoming upgrades reviewed at the most recent May 23 school board meeting are repaving projects at Annandale High School and Robinson Secondary School.
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May 19, 2024 | 
thehighlandernews.com | Zakareya Hamed
As the sun set, the light stench of sweat filled the air in the yard while a microphone sounded in the distance. A man began to sing traditional Palestinian songs in Arabic about freedom, culture and the notion of the homeland, the watan. The audio was subpar, yet the young crowd maintained good morale, enthusiastically clapping along. The entire yard — the university yard, or U-Yard, as it is known — was packed with tents.
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May 15, 2024 | 
thehighlandernews.com | Zakareya Hamed
Three years ago, a monumental bill came into effect legalizing collective bargaining—the process by which staff directly negotiates pay and benefits—for public sector employees in Virginia for the first time in decades. In the months following the legalization, teachers’ unions across many counties in Virginia organized to push for collective bargaining resolutions.
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May 15, 2024 | 
thehighlandernews.com | Aaron Stark |Andrew Lohman |Ryan Kang |Zakareya Hamed
In the weeks after the tech company OpenAI released ChatGPT late last school year, students and teachers were awestruck. They rushed to the program, watching in disbelief as the bot responded to their prompts with frightening, human-like outputs. Then, as curiosity turned to realization of its power, they quickly began to assess the chatbot’s ability to complete their schoolwork. Junior Victoria Xiao distinctly remembers how she was introduced to the technology.
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Mar 21, 2024 | 
thehighlandernews.com | Zakareya Hamed
In light of a recent school division settlement agreement with vape company, FCPS gained $3.2 million in unallocated funds. FCPS sued Juul alongside other school divisions in 2022 over student addiction to the company’s products, with the closed-doors compensation agreement being reached in September of last year. “It would make sense if that money was spent on vape detectors in the bathroom, but otherwise, school safety is a good way to spend it,” FCPS substitute teacher Eren Parla said.
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Mar 15, 2024 | 
thehighlandernews.com | Zakareya Hamed
State is right to revamp education funding formula Virginia’s state funding formula for education is fundamentally outdated. Most states use a student-based funding formula, which public education advocates consistently favor over the alternate staff-based funding formula. Yet, Virginia uses a staff-based formula, estimating the number of staff needed across all schools and assessing costs on that basis.
