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 fifth candidate profiled in our interview series is MK Hughes, who is running for her first term.
Hughes has worked extensively both inside and outside FCCPS, in the classroom as well as on the administrative level. She is a National Board certified teacher and has received the Milken National Educator Award.
Her first educational job was teaching fifth grade in DC public schools, through a program called DC Teaching Fellows. The program helped educators to work towards a masters while still working in a classroom to support a teacher shortage. Hughes received her master’s degree from American University, and graduated in 2003. She then helped start a charter school called DC Prep, where she was the Director of Curriculum through 2017. After moving to Falls Church City, she became a fifth grade teacher at Oak Street Elementary from 2018 to 2024.
“I learned so much in those two years [at DC Prep],” Hughes explained. “Most of what I learned is how much I liked teaching and how I really wanted to understand what makes schools work great for kids.”
Hughes hopes to bring her experience with growing a school population at DC Prep to the school board, and convey her perspective and goals for an increasing student body. Falls Church City has an exciting opportunity to help more students and enhance our community.
“When I was working on growing DC Prep, we accepted and expected bumps in the road,” she said. “We created a culture where we got everybody on board with how exciting it was.”
As a parent of high school students at Meridian, Hughes brings the understanding of both a teacher and a parent to the issue of cell phones. This policy is set to change in the new year, and with that, may come changes in how the board comes to a conclusion.
“If the problem we are trying to solve is student attention, how might we know they are paying more attention?” Hughes asked. “Are we looking at grades? Are we doing focus groups with students? Are we talking to teachers? Do we have surveys? There are a lot of ways to do it, and I hope to sit down with the board in January and revisit this.”
Similarly to the annual changes to the cell phone policy, the school board is looking to create an AI policy. Hughes is an advocate for clear guidelines for students and teachers on this matter.
“Part of being a student is understanding the boundaries and part of being an adult is learning to set those boundaries so we have a safe place in which we can learn,” she communicated.
In a small community such as Falls Church City, honesty tends to be an important value. A group, such as the school board, makes decisions that affect virtually everyone in the city. Clarity is important, so the residents understand what they are voting for, supporting, and impacted by.
“I think that everyone is working in good faith and that we have a communication issue,” she offered. “My approach as an educator is that I share as much information as I possibly can proactively. I think we need to reassess how information is distributed, and I would like us to develop systems for feedback from all our stakeholders.”
Hughes’s campaign slogan is “Knowledge, Experience, Heart,” and this is what she hopes the community will remember about her.
“I love to learn, and I would love to be given the opportunity to see education from another perspective. I think I have a real heart for this work. It’s my life’s work, and I want to serve and do my best for our schools.”
