TJHSST PTSA Election

[Anonymous]

The respect the people fighting for a fair and balanced admission process that gives kids at lower performing schools a fair shot at a TJ seat seems like a great thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The solution is easy. Form a PTO. Transfer any money to the PTO before the PTSA is disbanded.
After all, it's not as if association with the clowns at VA PTSA adds anything.

That was a great idea. Spring Hill Elementary always had a PTO and when Colvin Run opened the massive amount of parents from Shouse Village [Vienna, VA] where the school is located wanted a PTO.

PTA's have school division reps , County Council, State Council, and $ flow out from the local school. It makes zero sense that TJHSST ever was a PTA instead of a PTO. PTA comments and supports on a district /division/state/national level items like budgets, policy. Politics. If a school boards or in favor administration wants something done the PTA goes with the flow. That includes curriculum input - curriculum fuzz or negatives are never against the party line whereas with a PTO the members are free to advocate for what is best for that individual school.

Spring Hill about 20 years ago did a massive legal address audit and cleaned out perhaps 100 students. When the parents had the boundary change they made sure FCPS programs that would negatively impact class size and school staffing ratios never were installed.

https://www.ptotoday.com/pto-today-articles/article/705-pto-vs-pta-differences-at-a-glance

[Anonymous]

https://www.insidenova.com/headlines/thomas-jefferson-ptsa-president-apparently-ousted-state-group-threatens-to-revoke-charter/article_c54d21e2-e345-11eb-a27f-171e0c225e8b.html

This is the most detailed account of this drama.

[Anonymous]

https://wtop.com/fairfax-county/2021/07/virginia-pta-reinstates-thomas-jefferson-ptsa-after-organization-votes-to-oust-president/

This has gotten so nasty. I know each side probably thinks they just want to do right by the kids, but at this point they're just distracting from the upcoming academic year.

I'm probably slightly more on the side of the Coalition for TJ, but the ongoing fight would make me want to let the PTA get disbanded and quietly start a PTO without any of the existing PTA leadership involved.

--alumnus who remembers how distracting the racial makeup conversations were decades ago

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://www.insidenova.com/headlines/thomas-jefferson-ptsa-president-apparently-ousted-state-group-threatens-to-revoke-charter/article_c54d21e2-e345-11eb-a27f-171e0c225e8b.html

This is the most detailed account of this drama.

My kid is still in ES so I have no side in this fight but wow. Heard something on WTOP this morning about this and came to the board to see what's up. This is insane. I don't know that I'd want my kid going to a school where the parents and administration were fighting this much. The trickle-down effect into other areas of the school will be unavoidable. Ugh, what a shame.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.insidenova.com/headlines/thomas-jefferson-ptsa-president-apparently-ousted-state-group-threatens-to-revoke-charter/article_c54d21e2-e345-11eb-a27f-171e0c225e8b.html

This is the most detailed account of this drama.

My kid is still in ES so I have no side in this fight but wow. Heard something on WTOP this morning about this and came to the board to see what's up. This is insane. I don't know that I'd want my kid going to a school where the parents and administration were fighting this much. The trickle-down effect into other areas of the school will be unavoidable. Ugh, what a shame.

+100.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The solution is easy. Form a PTO. Transfer any money to the PTO before the PTSA is disbanded.
After all, it's not as if association with the clowns at VA PTSA adds anything.

That was a great idea. Spring Hill Elementary always had a PTO and when Colvin Run opened the massive amount of parents from Shouse Village [Vienna, VA] where the school is located wanted a PTO.

PTA's have school division reps , County Council, State Council, and $ flow out from the local school. It makes zero sense that TJHSST ever was a PTA instead of a PTO. PTA comments and supports on a district /division/state/national level items like budgets, policy. Politics. If a school boards or in favor administration wants something done the PTA goes with the flow. That includes curriculum input - curriculum fuzz or negatives are never against the party line whereas with a PTO the members are free to advocate for what is best for that individual school.

Spring Hill about 20 years ago did a massive legal address audit and cleaned out perhaps 100 students. When the parents had the boundary change they made sure FCPS programs that would negatively impact class size and school staffing ratios never were installed.

https://www.ptotoday.com/pto-today-articles/article/705-pto-vs-pta-differences-at-a-glance

Some Spring Hill ES parents from Langley also went to FCPS about 6 years ago and tried to have apartments in Tysons zoned for Spring Hill redistricted to Westbriar ES behind the backs of those families. They had actually gotten some FCPS staff to take up their cleansing exercise when Scott Brabrand came in and put a moratorium on administrative boundary changes.

I feel so sorry for those Tysons families, especially now that the School Board has redistricted ALL the single-family homes zoned to Spring Hill to Cooper/Langley. Now all the kids in single-family homes go to one MS/HS, and all the kids in apartments go to a different MS/HS. Economic apartheid courtesy of Elaine Tholen and her cronies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What a mess, and it obviously will drag out for years to come. Scott Brabrand and the School Board members should resign immediately for having created this sh*t show.

God forbid they decide to have TJ serve all of FCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What a mess, and it obviously will drag out for years to come. Scott Brabrand and the School Board members should resign immediately for having created this sh*t show.

God forbid they decide to have TJ serve all of FCPS.

Does Langley serve all of FCPS? Didn't think so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.insidenova.com/headlines/thomas-jefferson-ptsa-president-apparently-ousted-state-group-threatens-to-revoke-charter/article_c54d21e2-e345-11eb-a27f-171e0c225e8b.html

This is the most detailed account of this drama.

My kid is still in ES so I have no side in this fight but wow. Heard something on WTOP this morning about this and came to the board to see what's up. This is insane. I don't know that I'd want my kid going to a school where the parents and administration were fighting this much. The trickle-down effect into other areas of the school will be unavoidable. Ugh, what a shame.

Other schools will be fine. They serve communities and residents with neighborhood ties.

TJ, in contrast, is held out by FCPS as its crown jewel (otherwise, the School Board surely would not have spent five months in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic prioritizing who attends TJ over all the other schools in FCPS combined) and, as a result, people fight relentlessly over who gets the spoils. The fighting didn't start over the last year; it just got a wider audience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.insidenova.com/headlines/thomas-jefferson-ptsa-president-apparently-ousted-state-group-threatens-to-revoke-charter/article_c54d21e2-e345-11eb-a27f-171e0c225e8b.html

This is the most detailed account of this drama.

My kid is still in ES so I have no side in this fight but wow. Heard something on WTOP this morning about this and came to the board to see what's up. This is insane. I don't know that I'd want my kid going to a school where the parents and administration were fighting this much. The trickle-down effect into other areas of the school will be unavoidable. Ugh, what a shame.

Other schools will be fine. They serve communities and residents with neighborhood ties.

TJ, in contrast, is held out by FCPS as its crown jewel (otherwise, the School Board surely would not have spent five months in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic prioritizing who attends TJ over all the other schools in FCPS combined) and, as a result, people fight relentlessly over who gets the spoils. The fighting didn't start over the last year; it just got a wider audience.

x infinity

It's been going on since the very beginning, ebbing and flowing.

[Anonymous]

Perhaps other schools should disband their PTA and switch to PTO to ensure they are safe from the state PTA. What does state PTA provide as benefit? I hope there's something more than those negotiated store discounts.

[Anonymous]

If the school board hadn’t launched this rushed and half-baked admissions change (with no public hearing), none of this PTSA drama would have happened. I don’t condone the behavior of many of the parties but the PTSA has been a wonderful group of very committed parent volunteers who spend many more hours volunteering to support TJ and its students than the parents at our base school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Perhaps other schools should disband their PTA and switch to PTO to ensure they are safe from the state PTA. What does state PTA provide as benefit? I hope there's something more than those negotiated store discounts.

I can’t believe they’re going to steal 80,000 of TJ’s money because they don’t like the elected officers. It’s definitely a cautionary tale for other schools to cut off their association with the PTA organization.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If the school board hadn’t launched this rushed and half-baked admissions change (with no public hearing), none of this PTSA drama would have happened. I don’t condone the behavior of many of the parties but the PTSA has been a wonderful group of very committed parent volunteers who spend many more hours volunteering to support TJ and its students than the parents at our base school.

It's not half-baked by any means. It's considered the gold standard in terms of best practices, but sure wealthy parents who are used to gaming the system aren't too happy about it.