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Schools

Meet Nell Hurley, Republican School Board Candidate, Braddock District

Retired Navy captain, mother of four is running for Fairfax County School Board's Braddock District slot

Retired U.S. Navy Capt. Ellen Hurley kept a clear head in the service, but she wasn't prepared to see a man chasing her teenage daughter down the street and for the subsequent brush-off she got from school authorities.

Hurley and her husband, a retired admiral, moved to Fairfax in large part so their four daughters could attend area schools. New to the area and unclear on bus routes, her eldest daughter was put off the bus in the wrong location.

“I get in the car to go find her, and I am driving down Olley Lane and there (she is) in a mad huff," Hurley said. "There is a fellow who chasing her, just pulling on her T-shirt and chasing her. I pull over, and she jumps in.”

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The local police and middle school officials reacted promptly, with the middle school sending out a mass warning and the police questioning her daughter about the incident. But high school officials were not as concerned, Hurley alleged.

Hurley, now a Republican candidate for the Braddock District of the Fairfax County School Board, is a woman with many accomplishments. She has worked as an associate professor of leadership and management at three Virginia universities; as director of plans, programs and budgeting for the Defense Nuclear Agency; and as senior systems analyst for the National Security Council.

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She earned her first master's degree in decision systems technology from the U.S. Navy Postgraduate School and her second master's in urban and environmental planning with a concentration in public school policy planning from the University of Virginia.

Hurley also has a record of involvement in local schools, including serving as president of the W.T. Woodson High School PTSO, education chair and corresponding secretary for the Fairfax County Council of PTAs, officer of the Northern Virginia District of the Virginia PTA and co-founder of Renovate to Educate the Next Era at Woodson (RENEW).

Born in St. Paul, Minn., Hurley is the fourth of five children. Her father, who was in construction business, served in the Civil Engineering Corps during World War II, and her mother helped her father with business and kept the family together as they went through hard financial times.

Hurley worked her way through University of Minnesota. Between her junior and senior year, the university introduced a program under which students could try for Officer Candidates School to see if it was a good fit. Hurley jumped at the chance.

She excelled at the program. When she enrolled in Navy Postgraduate School in Monterey, Calif., women made up only 2 percent of the school's first co-ed class.

“They were not sure we (women) should be in the obstacle course with the men because they thought we would slow them down considerably,” Hurley said.

Fresh from college gymnastics, Hurley she beat two-thirds of the men in her class, which made trainers all the more nervous.

“Then they thought we should not be competing with the men because we would hurting their morale if we beat them out,” she said with a chuckle.

Hurley met and married her husband, Bill, while they were both in school in California. During their first 19 years of marriage, the family moved about every other year. With her eldest daughter entering high school, Hurley retired after 25 years to help bring stability to family life and enroll the children in better schools.

Trading in her military uniform, Hurley became a soccer mom, ordering, matching and folding thousands of uniforms at her home. She also led parents against the construction of a new bus park at the intersection of Pickett Road and Little River Turnpike.

Hurley said disaster preparedness is lacking in Fairfax Public Schools. She also wants to increase community input in school affairs, improve school instruction and reduce class sizes.

Hurley's youngest daughter graduated high school earlier this year. As a candidate, Hurley said, her passion is about education for all students.

“I have the time to spend on all the kids and all the schools," she said. "I do not have any special interest. I am not fighting for my child. I am fighting for all the children in all the schools. I am also representing a vast majority of taxpayers in this county who do not have kids in the public schools.”

Notes: An earlier version of this story indicated Hurley moved much more often than she actually did; it has been corrected. She also folded thousands of soccer uniforms, but did not launder thousands.

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