This fall, residents of the Little City will choose from a pool of five candidates for the elections of the next School Board. Two candidates are running for the first time, and three are running for re-election. Each week, The Lasso will be profiling the candidates to provide a forum for their ideas and perspectives. The third candidate profiled in our interview series is Kathleen Tysse, who is running for her second term.
Since the beginning of her career, Tysse has had a passion for education and literacy, which has been demonstrated through her participation in public education. Her first teaching job was at an IB PYP school in Ecuador, where she taught sixth grade. Following her time in Ecuador, she taught sixth grade science and English in Charlottesville, Virginia.
Outside the classroom, she was involved in her children’s preschool and served as president of the elementary school PTA prior to her work on the school board, which started in 2021.
“I’ve always been a big believer in public education. My mom was a public school teacher and I went through public school so it’s always been a very important value of mine,” she explained.
Her value for public education is reflected in her hard work and goals for the school board. A primary goal the school board is working to address is the challenges with a growing city and increasing school enrollment rates.
“Any kids that come into our city, we are committed to serving and educating,” she said. “The board’s work in terms of population growth is to budget and manage it to be able to hire more teachers and buy more materials.”
Another issue the school board is aiming to tackle is the lack of policies about AI use, which has created confusion for both students and teachers. Without clear guidelines, students are unable to learn how to effectively use AI as a tool.
“A shorter term goal we have for this year is artificial intelligence, and we’re hoping to create a policy by the end of the school year,” Tysse explained. “We’re going to create a committee of invested community members to help explore the best uses of AI.”
The school board is also aiming to revisit the current cell phone policy, which was put in place during the 24-25 school year. Tysse voted in favor of the policy, which states that in the high school phones are away during instructional time but allowed to be out during lunch, between classes, and study hall. The middle and elementary schools require phones to be off and away the whole day.
“It’s easy to say no phones in elementary school, but it’s much harder at the high school level to figure out what is responsible and appropriate,” she commented.
Tysse has dedicated her work, for the past four years, to improving our schools and the care for students. With a second term she hopes to continue the work she started from her first term and support the FCCPS community through the various projects which are in progress.
“I decided to run for a second term because I’ve really enjoyed the work,” she explained. “I am really proud of the work that the school board has done the last four years, and I feel like we are turning the page on a new chapter in Falls Church that I want to be part of.”
