The At Large Race: Ilryong Moon

Seven candidates will vie for three at-large seats on the Fairfax County School Board in the Nov. 8 elections.

As election day approaches, Patch has selected six questions and sent them in a survey to all at-large candidates.

Over the course of the next week, Patch will run the responses of the six candidates who returned the questionnaires. These responses are unedited, in the candidates' own words. Note: Candidate Lin-Dai Kendall did not return the survey.

Oct. 10: Ilryong Moon

Oct. 11: Steve Stuban

Oct. 12: Ted Velkoff

Today, Ilryong Moon

Is FCPS underfunded, overfunded, or properly funded at the current level? Explain.

FCPS is underfunded. We currently have one of the best school systems in the country—a wonderful investment in the future economic viability of our county. To maintain a school system of such a high standard is indeed expensive, and because of the state’s budget formula, Fairfax schools do have to rely considerably more on local funding than most Virginia schools. But, funds directed into FCPS are an investment, not a waste. Even residents without children in the school system see returns in their property values, and we all benefit when fortune 500 companies choose to relocate here in part due to the quality of our schools.

Since 2009, FCPS has sustained about half a billion dollars in cuts to state and local funding. This rate, if continued over the long or medium term, will jeopardize our ability to maintain a school system of this caliber—and to reap the benefits from it. Teachers must be competitively compensated and happy with their work environment. We need to be able to provide the individualized learning that is only possible in small classes. Special education programs need to be returned to their full and fair funding. Due to demographic changes, inflation and other variables, the cost of educating our students is higher today than it was four years ago. A flat transfer will not do.

The restrictions on capital funding are a major issue as well. We currently have unmet facility needs throughout the county.  Aging buildings go unrepaired while students are kept in trailers. Particularly with the low interest rates and construction costs of the moment, right now is an exceptional time to increase capital improvement funding in order to take advantage of the long-term savings that taking action now provides.

When you compare high schools in Fairfax County, especially looking at free and reduced meals and band and athletic booster numbers , there is a large disparity between some high schools, resulting in “Have vs Have-not” schools within Fairfax County. How do you intend to deal with this growing disparity? How does the School Board and Board of Supervisors plan to help the most needy schools, as its budget continues to shrink?

Our current method for dealing with the disparities addressed in this question is the use of needs-based staffing. In all of our schools ESOL students and those in poverty receive extra weight in our staffing formula. The point here is to level the playing field so that all of our students—not just the most fortunate or our highest achievers—can go on to reach their full potential. This needs to continue.

This process begins long before high school and aims to eliminate the achievement gap in our schools. We are targeting our neediest students in their youngest years and giving them and their parents the instruction and attention they need to prevent getting behind in the first place. The programs and resources available to these students change in middle school and high school—a first generation college student needs different kinds of college preparation than someone whose parents can help guide them through the process, for instance—but the point is that our neediest students and schools have certainly not been left on their own.

There is more we can do. Athletic fees impact those on the margin the most, and should be eliminated. Further, some of the cuts in recent years, like the elimination of summer school, have had the greatest impacts on those on the margin, like these students who might benefit from extended instruction time. We should look to restore summer school if funding levels return, or find a way to redirect funds from other areas. Additionally, we should engage the community and local businesses in particular to enter into partnerships with these schools to provide additional help.

The school board should also lobby both our supervisors and general assembly. In Richmond, we should ask for more education funding in general and fairer funding for FCPS. This system relies on state funding for only about twenty percent of its budget while about half of the average Virginia school’s expenses are covered by the state. Supervisors need to take into account factors like inflation, enrollment population and changing demographics. Flat transfers effectively amount to budget cuts because these factors have pushed the cost of educating our students higher.

The School Board is almost entirely dependent on school system staff for knowledge and understanding, and, there is no standing ombudsman function. Do you trust the central office staff of FCPS to provide the School Board with honest, well-reasoned, fact-based analysis of policy questions facing that body?

I do trust staff. They are highly trained professionals who are very good at what they do. Often more important than whether or not I trust their answers (I do) is whether or not the school board has asked the right questions. After twelve years dealing with staff and the implementation of policies, I have gained the experience required to work with the staff resources available to the school board to ask the right questions to get the right information in order to come to the right conclusions. Experience matters.

With that said, I think an audit function that reports directly to the school board is still a good idea. This is not necessarily about trust; an independent audit will give the school board a good understanding about what policies have been the most cost-effective and successful, which will be a critical tool for setting future policy.

What role do you think parents should play in setting policy and effecting change in our school system? If you had to draw a pie chart showing all those whom you think should be involved in overseeing FCPS policies, what would it look like? 

Stakeholders should be included in the discussion whenever policy decisions affect them. This of course is not limited to parents; teachers, students, employees and community members are all stakeholders that can be affected in varying degrees by any decision before the board.

Other things that need to be considered during the decision-making process are budget considerations (“How expensive is this proposal?”) as well as data and best practices (“What does the evidence show?”). It is not always the case that the proposal before the board is evidence-backed, inexpensive or cost-saving, and community-supported; board members must balance these considerations.

Of these, stakeholder input is a critical component. Consulting our parents, teachers and other stakeholders at the beginning of deliberation can go a long way to ensure that at the end more effective decisions will be made and policy implementations will be more successful.  Each of these groups offers a valuable perspective that should be heard and considered. 

School start time is an issue that has not been addressed in some time. Will you seriously consider pushing the starting time of our high schools back? Why or why not?

I am supportive of this idea and will vote for a feasible and publicly supported proposal to push start times back. The devil has been in the details on this one. We need to find various solutions to the logistical problems, look at the costs and try to find a way to make this happen that is not too expensive and does not ask students to sacrifice other activities, such as after school sports. Fortunately, SLEEP has been very effective at developing practical and workable solutions to problems in the past.  I am confident that finding a solution going forward will be possible, and believe that a middle ground exists. For instance, flexible first period scheduling or the ability to take first period classes on-line may return all the benefit with reduced costs of other broad logistical changes and should be investigated as an option to students.

The public needs to be better-educated about the state of the science on this topic. A growing body of literature shows that early start times lead to an increase in auto accidents and incidence of depression as well as a decrease in academic achievement. I am confident that upon hearing what is at stake residents will support, adjust to and enjoy the changes.

Do you support video surveillance in the county’s high schools? To what extent?

Our schools need to be safe and secure, and I trust our principals have their students’ best interest at heart with the security camera proposal. But I also understand parent input that adopting these cameras could create privacy concerns or allow for enforcement of rules in a punitive, rather than educational, manner.

At this point, I have yet to be convinced of the need of increased video surveillance in our schools. I have yet to see the types of data that would be convincing on a topic like this, such as broad increase in in-school crime rates or thefts, to commit a large expenditure and put aside privacy concerns. While the recent spat of food fights are indeed a cause for concern and a serious safety risk, in themselves they do not constitute the type of threat to student well-being or property security that I think would warrant an increase in school surveillance techniques.

In general, discipline proceedings should be a part of the complete learning process. Those who stray should not be lost; we need to target those students who need extra help and give it to them so that all of our students are able to reach their full potential. Discipline for discipline’s sake is no way to achieve this.

With that said, this is a topic that should be left for the new school board. There is not enough time before November to fully consider the issue, and we need to complete the currently-scheduled series of meetings on the topic and digest the lessons from that as well as other sources of public input before coming to a conclusion here. I also believe that for these types of proposals, a limited pilot program may be a good way to assess what the value and costs may be to the school system more generally. With a pilot, we can look to see if this program is having the intended effects, and if it is not, we can look to another solution.