Ilryong Moon Running For At-Large Seat On Fairfax County School Board

FAIRFAX COUNTY — Ilryong Moon, who previously spent 20 years on the school board, is running again to serve on the Fairfax County School Board.

Endorsed by the Fairfax County Democratic Committee, Moon is running to fill one of the three at-large seats on the school board.

The general election ballot in Fairfax County will also include countywide races for Board of Supervisors chairman, Fairfax County Commonwealth's Attorney, Fairfax County Sheriff, and Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District.

Early voting for the general election began on Friday, Sept. 22. More information on how to vote is available from the Fairfax County Office of Elections.

Patch asked candidates running for the at-large seats on the Fairfax County School Board to fill out a candidate questionnaire with the same questions. Here are Moon's responses:

Name

Ilryong Moon

Age

66

Family

I am the proud father of two sons, Joonyoung and Wooyoung — both graduates of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Fairfax County. I raised my sons to understand the value of education and am excited that both not only went on to college but pursued graduate work. My older son, Joonyoung, 35 years old, after studying economics at Harvard and public policy at UC Berkeley, now works for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as Director of Integrated Eligibility in the Department of Transitional Assistance (“DTA”). He oversees integrated eligibility initiatives to coordinate efforts across DTA's Food Security and Nutrition and Economic Assistance programs as well as in cross-agency and cross-Secretariat integrations. My younger son, Wooyoung, 32 years old, studied physics at Brown, received his doctorate from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and works in the rapidly expanding private sector world of machine learning, artificial intelligence, and software engineering. He is a senior machine learning engineer with Greenhouse Software in New York. I also have a granddaughter, who will turn one year old in December. She is now learning to pull herself up to stand.

Education

• Harvard University, grad. 1981
• College of William and Mary Law School, grad. 1984

Occupation

Attorney (1984 - present)

Campaign Website

www.moon4schoolboard.com

Previous or Current Elected or Appointed Office

Fairfax County School Board Member, 1995-1999 and 2004-2019. During my tenure as a School Board member, I served three terms as Chairman and three terms as Vice Chairman and have chaired nearly all of the School Board Committees. I also served as a member of the Fairfax County Planning Commission from 2000-2003.

The single most pressing issue facing Fairfax County Public Schools is _______, and this is what I intend to do about it.

My single most pressing issue facing Fairfax County Public Schools is ensuring all students, especially those with special needs and learning English as a second language, succeed and are guaranteed a safe, healthy environment with fair and equitable access to the full array of FCPS programs so that they may achieve their potential and develop essential skills needed to compete in today’s global community. The achievement gaps among the different groups of students have widened along racial and socioeconomic lines. We must help all students but especially those who have been affected most by the impacts of pandemic. We need to provide them with more enrichment opportunities during summer and winter breaks and weekends while also expanding preschool programs, all in an effort to reduce achievement and opportunity gaps while making sure that our parents have adequate information and the tools to help their children’s learning at home.

What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates?

My 20 years of experience as an elected School Board member beginning in 1996 demonstrates not only my commitment but my determination to ensure that Fairfax County Public Schools stands atop the list of most accomplished school districts in the Country. My commitment to never stop fighting for the best outcomes for our students, as I have been doing since first being elected in 1995, is what elevates me among my fellow candidates. I also bring unique perspectives to the work of the school board as an immigrant who came to the US as a teenager, grew up in extreme poverty, and was an ESL student and the first one to go to college from his family.

Describe the other issues that define your campaign platform.

Other issues we face now and in the coming years include teacher recruitment and retention, staff and student mental health and wellbeing, and engagement with our families and communities. We must recruit and retain the best teachers and school employees with fair compensation and working conditions including adequate planning time, professional development opportunities, and reasonable class sizes and workloads for our teachers. We need to eliminate non-essential mandatory tasks, meetings, and training and restore respect for teachers and dignity of their work. These measures also promote teachers’ positive mental health and wellbeing.

Tackling mental health challenges of the students will require adding resources for more counselors, psychologists, and social workers to provide preventive counseling, treatments and services. We must also work with our families and communities more closely so that they can better help their children outside school. We need to provide parents with adequate information and tools to support their children’s learning.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

I began serving the Fairfax County community in 1995 and have overseen policies and budgets leading to (1) all-day kindergarten and (2) full Mondays for elementary schools, (3) addition of challenging and enriching programs such as in our Career and Technical Education curriculum and our Academies, (4) later high school start times so that high school students could have more sleep, (5) advocating for better support for our teachers, and (6) supporting more equitable allocation of resources to our students and schools based on need.

Why should voters trust you?

The voters in Fairfax County entrusted me in 5 prior elections, beginning in 1995, with the care and wellbeing of their children’s education. I never intend to let them down and will never stop working for their continued success. While we are proud to call out our reputation as a top school district in the Country, we must stay vigilant and continue addressing our critical issues and areas where we can improve our programs of studies as our society and conditions change.

The best advice ever shared with me was:

There is a Bible verse I turn to that consistently reminds me of my duty as a Christian and a person not to avoid doing good things: “If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.” (James 4:17 NIV)

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