New TJ principal announced

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"In a June 7, 2020, email laying out her racial vision for the school, Bonitatibus said she sought to “close the equity gap” so the school would “reflect the racial composition in FCPS.” That year, the school had about 70% Asian students, about 20% white students and about 10% Black and Hispanic students. During the 2023-2024 school year, FCPS had different racial demographics, mirroring the distribution in the years earlier: 36% white, 29% Hispanic, 19% Asian, 10% Black, 6% multiple races, 0.3% Native American or Alaskan Native, and 0.1% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander.

She challenged TJ’s racially and ethnically diverse families, some of whom had survived the Cultural Revolution in China and economic poverty in India, to “think of privileges you hold that others may not.” With the new admissions changes, the percentage of Asian students dropped dramatically, with small increases in the number of Black and Hispanic students and larger increases in the number of white students.

Under her leadership, TJ recently fell from its long-held position as the nation’s No. 1 high school to No. 14. Bonitatibus’ tenure was also marked by the controversial withholding of student National Merit awards. This issue drew sharp global criticism. In addition, during her watch, the TJ community was struck by the first suicides of TJ students in the school’s history, with two students tragically passing away in 2018 and 2020.

In September, the number of students recognized as National Merit semifinalists decreased to 81 in the Class of 2025, the first class enrolled in the school after the new admissions changes, from 165 the year before.

The following month, Bonitatibus sent an email to TJ's parents announcing she had “pursued and accepted” a “promotion” to a role in the Fairfax County Public Schools Department of Human Resources as “Executive Director of Talent Acquisition and Management,” a move that was met with widespread skepticism considering a slew of staff and teacher departures from TJ that had marked her stewardship of the school."

https://www.fairfaxtimes.com/articles/fcps-selects-tjhsst-alum-michael-mukai-to-be-new-principal/article_675df76c-cee9-11ef-9b2a-ab958f33eb91.html

A professional epitaph if I've ever seen one.

This sound like opinion and very bias, doesn’t read as a good journalism, where is the other side of the story?

There is no “story”; it’s just political lies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The new principals main goal is to improve diversity with unrepresented groups, and encourage critical thinking. It is also very unlikely that he will bring the admission test along with some other application processes back, because the FCPS board refuses to listen to this controversy with TJ. Also, the new process is heavily weighted on the 1 question essay test. So, TJ is still choosing top students, just in a different way than standardized testing. They want to choose students who show creative and critical thinking. And that is completely acceptable.

The TJ principal does not control admissions.

What I said must have come out wrong to you then. I know the principal does not control admissions, did you not read the part where I said the FCPS board has to agree? You must have comprehension deficiencies.

You wrote: “is also very unlikely that he will bring the admission test along with some other application processes back “

It’s not “unlikely”; it’s impossible.

Choose your words better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"In a June 7, 2020, email laying out her racial vision for the school, Bonitatibus said she sought to “close the equity gap” so the school would “reflect the racial composition in FCPS.” That year, the school had about 70% Asian students, about 20% white students and about 10% Black and Hispanic students. During the 2023-2024 school year, FCPS had different racial demographics, mirroring the distribution in the years earlier: 36% white, 29% Hispanic, 19% Asian, 10% Black, 6% multiple races, 0.3% Native American or Alaskan Native, and 0.1% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander.

She challenged TJ’s racially and ethnically diverse families, some of whom had survived the Cultural Revolution in China and economic poverty in India, to “think of privileges you hold that others may not.” With the new admissions changes, the percentage of Asian students dropped dramatically, with small increases in the number of Black and Hispanic students and larger increases in the number of white students.

Under her leadership, TJ recently fell from its long-held position as the nation’s No. 1 high school to No. 14. Bonitatibus’ tenure was also marked by the controversial withholding of student National Merit awards. This issue drew sharp global criticism. In addition, during her watch, the TJ community was struck by the first suicides of TJ students in the school’s history, with two students tragically passing away in 2018 and 2020.

In September, the number of students recognized as National Merit semifinalists decreased to 81 in the Class of 2025, the first class enrolled in the school after the new admissions changes, from 165 the year before.

The following month, Bonitatibus sent an email to TJ's parents announcing she had “pursued and accepted” a “promotion” to a role in the Fairfax County Public Schools Department of Human Resources as “Executive Director of Talent Acquisition and Management,” a move that was met with widespread skepticism considering a slew of staff and teacher departures from TJ that had marked her stewardship of the school."

https://www.fairfaxtimes.com/articles/fcps-selects-tjhsst-alum-michael-mukai-to-be-new-principal/article_675df76c-cee9-11ef-9b2a-ab958f33eb91.html

A professional epitaph if I've ever seen one.

Fairfax Times is pushing RWNJ lies.

1. She had no role in TJ admissions.
2. Affluent families have privilege.
3. TJ did not hold the #1 rank often. It was #5 before admission changes.
4. The reform efforts are trying to make TJ less toxic and lower student stress. The race to nowhere only hurts kids.
5. Students were notified about commendations via email. And for college applications they would have known if they were commended several months earlier based on the cut off.


Republicans are lying sacks of sht.

#1. She may not have reviewed individual applications but she was very much part of the effort to change TJ admissions policy.

#2. Sounds like class warfare agit prop.

#3. TJ was regularly, if not always, ranked as the top public school in the country. We won’t have to worry about that any longer.

#4. TJ can now be quite stressful for kids who are in over their heads and face imposter syndrome. If you’re worried about kids challenging themselves, why bother with a STEM magnet (unless your agenda is simply to dole out rewards in the form of TJ admission to the less qualified)?

#5. Not a big deal but clearly what happened was that TJ under AB was more worried about the hurt feelings of TJ students were neither NMSF nor commended than recognizing the achievement of commended students. Again, no longer an issue since now the majority of TJ students are neither NMSF nor commended.

The issues around TJ transcend party affiliation. It’s funny you bash Republicans since TJ wouldn’t exist but for the advocacy of local Republican officials in the 1980s.

[Anonymous]

Are you sure the Republican party 45 years ago is the same with Republicans now (aka Maga)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Former classmate of accomplished VA politician Hung Cao.

Cautiously optimistic about this new TJ principal.

“Accomplished VA politician”

As long as you don’t count actually winning elections. Attending TJ was Cao’s greatest accomplishment.

Really?
Retired US Navy Captain.
Naval Academy grad and served with Special Operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Somalia.
He also received his Master’s degree in physics from the Naval Postgraduate School, and fellowships at MIT and Harvard.

I don't think he ever had much of a chance at beating Kaine but I thought he did well in the debate and I thought he did better than he should have in the Virginia election against a relatively popular incumbent.

I agree and he clearly has an impressive record.

It is really saddening to repeatedly encounter a few people on DCUM who harbor so much open hatred and hostility toward TJ students, past and present. To those people: what is your problem and why are you even on these threads?

I mean, I am the parent of a current TJ student; can you say the same?

PP here.
I have been a TJ parent and I have a nephew there now.
I'm conflicted a bit.
I know it's not fair to the kids that didn't get in under the new policy but my nephew is thriving in part because the competition is so much lower but the rigor is still there.
He gets to be on a team.
He gets to be in a lot of clubs that he would not join if he had to worry more about getting good grades.
There was not this much leisure of mind when my kids went there

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Realistically, what can he to actually improve TJ that is 100% within his control?

He can shift the focus back to STEM academics and recognizing students' merit-based efforts, rather than DEI and woke stuff.

Be really specific in describing exactly how Bonitatibus focused on “DEI and woke stuff” in matters of educational policy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0wJYHnOyJM&t=3s

At about 13:30 Bonitatibus speaks on this subject during the debate about the admissions change.
She cosigns the whole diversity and representation rationale the board presents for its racial discrimination.

Oh, Asra. I can’t be the only one who is surprised that you have nothing better to do with your time. You were a person of such significance, and now… still tilting at this situation with absolutely no results after four years. Except maybe, just maybe, you got your nemesis a big raise.

The school is entirely populated with students chosen by the new admissions process, and eight of them - the first class of the new process - just made the top 300 in the Regeneron competition. Compared with seven in the class of 2024, and five in the class of 2023.

A staggering objective measure of the top researchers in America’s high schools and the new process has the arrow trending upward.

Go back to picking on the black kids at Hayfield. More people like you when you do that.

The Regeneron finalists chosen by the new admissions policy consist of….7 students that went to “wealthy feeder middle schools”. 1 from McLean (I’m not sure if the student went to Cooper or Longfellow), 3 students from Cooper (one of the Cooper students also went to Langley and then transferred to TJHSST sophomore year), 2 students from Carson, and 1 student from Longfellow. 1 student was from Stone Hill Middle School in Ashburn (this school has a 62% Asian population and a fairly wealthy area of Ashburn).

0 students from any FCPS non-wealthy feeder middle schools. 0 non-Asian students.

DP. And it sounds like these students also didn't go to Curie.

Wait, if cooper, longfellow, and carson are not the affluent feeder schools where they get in because of prep then which school are you talking about?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Are you sure the Republican party 45 years ago is the same with Republicans now (aka Maga)?

It’s not. Republicans/MAGAs are anti-education, anti-science, and anti-facts.

Look at the trash they post on DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"In a June 7, 2020, email laying out her racial vision for the school, Bonitatibus said she sought to “close the equity gap” so the school would “reflect the racial composition in FCPS.” That year, the school had about 70% Asian students, about 20% white students and about 10% Black and Hispanic students. During the 2023-2024 school year, FCPS had different racial demographics, mirroring the distribution in the years earlier: 36% white, 29% Hispanic, 19% Asian, 10% Black, 6% multiple races, 0.3% Native American or Alaskan Native, and 0.1% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander.

She challenged TJ’s racially and ethnically diverse families, some of whom had survived the Cultural Revolution in China and economic poverty in India, to “think of privileges you hold that others may not.” With the new admissions changes, the percentage of Asian students dropped dramatically, with small increases in the number of Black and Hispanic students and larger increases in the number of white students.

Under her leadership, TJ recently fell from its long-held position as the nation’s No. 1 high school to No. 14. Bonitatibus’ tenure was also marked by the controversial withholding of student National Merit awards. This issue drew sharp global criticism. In addition, during her watch, the TJ community was struck by the first suicides of TJ students in the school’s history, with two students tragically passing away in 2018 and 2020.

In September, the number of students recognized as National Merit semifinalists decreased to 81 in the Class of 2025, the first class enrolled in the school after the new admissions changes, from 165 the year before.

The following month, Bonitatibus sent an email to TJ's parents announcing she had “pursued and accepted” a “promotion” to a role in the Fairfax County Public Schools Department of Human Resources as “Executive Director of Talent Acquisition and Management,” a move that was met with widespread skepticism considering a slew of staff and teacher departures from TJ that had marked her stewardship of the school."

https://www.fairfaxtimes.com/articles/fcps-selects-tjhsst-alum-michael-mukai-to-be-new-principal/article_675df76c-cee9-11ef-9b2a-ab958f33eb91.html

A professional epitaph if I've ever seen one.

Fairfax Times is pushing RWNJ lies.

1. She had no role in TJ admissions.
2. Affluent families have privilege.
3. TJ did not hold the #1 rank often. It was #5 before admission changes.
4. The reform efforts are trying to make TJ less toxic and lower student stress. The race to nowhere only hurts kids.
5. Students were notified about commendations via email. And for college applications they would have known if they were commended several months earlier based on the cut off.


Republicans are lying sacks of sht.

1. She publicly pushed for the admissions change during FCPS board meetings.
2. Not being on free reduced lunch doesn't make you affluent. Affluent families frequently avoid public schools altogether.
3. TJ has been top 10 for most of a decade but the USNWR ranking is not important, the tremendous drop in average test scores is.
4. No, that was not the purpose of the effort. The purpose of the effort was to make TJ racially representative of the county. The SIDE EFFECT was making it less competitive and therefore less stressful.
5. Sure if they kept an eagle eye on national cutoffs and tracked their PSAT for that then they could have known without the notification but they were not notified.

Bonitatibus lost the confidence of the faculty, the students and the parents, she had to go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Realistically, what can he to actually improve TJ that is 100% within his control?

He can shift the focus back to STEM academics and recognizing students' merit-based efforts, rather than DEI and woke stuff.

Be really specific in describing exactly how Bonitatibus focused on “DEI and woke stuff” in matters of educational policy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0wJYHnOyJM&t=3s

At about 13:30 Bonitatibus speaks on this subject during the debate about the admissions change.
She cosigns the whole diversity and representation rationale the board presents for its racial discrimination.

Oh, Asra. I can’t be the only one who is surprised that you have nothing better to do with your time. You were a person of such significance, and now… still tilting at this situation with absolutely no results after four years. Except maybe, just maybe, you got your nemesis a big raise.

The school is entirely populated with students chosen by the new admissions process, and eight of them - the first class of the new process - just made the top 300 in the Regeneron competition. Compared with seven in the class of 2024, and five in the class of 2023.

A staggering objective measure of the top researchers in America’s high schools and the new process has the arrow trending upward.

Go back to picking on the black kids at Hayfield. More people like you when you do that.

The Regeneron finalists chosen by the new admissions policy consist of….7 students that went to “wealthy feeder middle schools”. 1 from McLean (I’m not sure if the student went to Cooper or Longfellow), 3 students from Cooper (one of the Cooper students also went to Langley and then transferred to TJHSST sophomore year), 2 students from Carson, and 1 student from Longfellow. 1 student was from Stone Hill Middle School in Ashburn (this school has a 62% Asian population and a fairly wealthy area of Ashburn).

0 students from any FCPS non-wealthy feeder middle schools. 0 non-Asian students.

DP. And it sounds like these students also didn't go to Curie.

Really? I bet 2 or 3 of them did attend classes at Curie. A high number of South Asian kids in western FCPS and in Loudoun go to Curie.

The PP is full of sht. She doesn’t know who went to Curie or not.

DP
Neither do you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it seems like a good pick. people seem really happy with WSHS so he must be doing a good job there and it seems positive he was a student at TJ back in the day.

I really really hope he continues Dr B’s effort to make the school less stressful for kids than it needs to be. I think that shift has been positive (from what I have heard of before vs what DD there has experienced) and that the kids put enough pressure on themselves already for all As and the hardest classes - the leadership doesn’t need to feed into that frenzy further.

nice try. if fcps was indifferent to the academic decline, they wouldnt be getting rid of Bonita. Th new principal is being brought to change the current course and restore academic excellence. The nonsensical days of convincing students to stay back at TJ and accept Cs and Ds in least rigor courses are coming to end.

I am not a Bonitatibus fan. I think she is a sycophant that threw asian kids under the bus to suck up to FCPS board members.

Honestly, I don't think the FCPS board GAF about TJ academic standing.
They'd get rid of it if they thought they could without losing elections.
It really seems like this was precipitated by her sharing what sounds like public information about TJ with some Chinese company that was interested in making a donation.

I also don't think she did the unprepared kids from under-performing middle schools any favors by convincing them to gut it out with C's.

The environment at TJ has become less stressful.
I think this is largely the result of a wider range of academic ability.
The B students aren't as stressed about getting As and the A students aren't as stressed about getting Bs.
I think the difference between an A and a B used to be much tighter.

Dr. B didn’t do that. Glazer did.

Then I guess it was just her incompetence and open racism against the majority of her students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The new principals main goal is to improve diversity with unrepresented groups, and encourage critical thinking. It is also very unlikely that he will bring the admission test along with some other application processes back, because the FCPS board refuses to listen to this controversy with TJ. Also, the new process is heavily weighted on the 1 question essay test. So, TJ is still choosing top students, just in a different way than standardized testing. They want to choose students who show creative and critical thinking. And that is completely acceptable.

There are kids at TJ that got that question wrong.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"In a June 7, 2020, email laying out her racial vision for the school, Bonitatibus said she sought to “close the equity gap” so the school would “reflect the racial composition in FCPS.” That year, the school had about 70% Asian students, about 20% white students and about 10% Black and Hispanic students. During the 2023-2024 school year, FCPS had different racial demographics, mirroring the distribution in the years earlier: 36% white, 29% Hispanic, 19% Asian, 10% Black, 6% multiple races, 0.3% Native American or Alaskan Native, and 0.1% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander.

She challenged TJ’s racially and ethnically diverse families, some of whom had survived the Cultural Revolution in China and economic poverty in India, to “think of privileges you hold that others may not.” With the new admissions changes, the percentage of Asian students dropped dramatically, with small increases in the number of Black and Hispanic students and larger increases in the number of white students.

Under her leadership, TJ recently fell from its long-held position as the nation’s No. 1 high school to No. 14. Bonitatibus’ tenure was also marked by the controversial withholding of student National Merit awards. This issue drew sharp global criticism. In addition, during her watch, the TJ community was struck by the first suicides of TJ students in the school’s history, with two students tragically passing away in 2018 and 2020.

In September, the number of students recognized as National Merit semifinalists decreased to 81 in the Class of 2025, the first class enrolled in the school after the new admissions changes, from 165 the year before.

The following month, Bonitatibus sent an email to TJ's parents announcing she had “pursued and accepted” a “promotion” to a role in the Fairfax County Public Schools Department of Human Resources as “Executive Director of Talent Acquisition and Management,” a move that was met with widespread skepticism considering a slew of staff and teacher departures from TJ that had marked her stewardship of the school."

https://www.fairfaxtimes.com/articles/fcps-selects-tjhsst-alum-michael-mukai-to-be-new-principal/article_675df76c-cee9-11ef-9b2a-ab958f33eb91.html

A professional epitaph if I've ever seen one.

Fairfax Times is pushing RWNJ lies.

1. She had no role in TJ admissions.
2. Affluent families have privilege.
3. TJ did not hold the #1 rank often. It was #5 before admission changes.
4. The reform efforts are trying to make TJ less toxic and lower student stress. The race to nowhere only hurts kids.
5. Students were notified about commendations via email. And for college applications they would have known if they were commended several months earlier based on the cut off.


Republicans are lying sacks of sht.

Is that you, Dr. B? You are a human scum and deserve to go to jail with all your lies and bigotry.

Project much?

Why do RWNJs continue to push such blatant lies when they are so easily debunked? Do they get off on lying?

If you tell people that being mad about discrimination against their kids makes them republicans, then some of them might decide they would rather sacrifice their kids than have anonymous strangers on the internet think they are republicans. Others will wonder if maybe they are republicans and start to vote accordingly.
If you keep pushing everyone that disagrees with you to the other side of the fence you will keep losing elections.

There is nothing republican about not wanting your kids to be discriminated against.
There is nothing democratic about sacrificing your kids in the name of equity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"In a June 7, 2020, email laying out her racial vision for the school, Bonitatibus said she sought to “close the equity gap” so the school would “reflect the racial composition in FCPS.” That year, the school had about 70% Asian students, about 20% white students and about 10% Black and Hispanic students. During the 2023-2024 school year, FCPS had different racial demographics, mirroring the distribution in the years earlier: 36% white, 29% Hispanic, 19% Asian, 10% Black, 6% multiple races, 0.3% Native American or Alaskan Native, and 0.1% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander.

She challenged TJ’s racially and ethnically diverse families, some of whom had survived the Cultural Revolution in China and economic poverty in India, to “think of privileges you hold that others may not.” With the new admissions changes, the percentage of Asian students dropped dramatically, with small increases in the number of Black and Hispanic students and larger increases in the number of white students.

Under her leadership, TJ recently fell from its long-held position as the nation’s No. 1 high school to No. 14. Bonitatibus’ tenure was also marked by the controversial withholding of student National Merit awards. This issue drew sharp global criticism. In addition, during her watch, the TJ community was struck by the first suicides of TJ students in the school’s history, with two students tragically passing away in 2018 and 2020.

In September, the number of students recognized as National Merit semifinalists decreased to 81 in the Class of 2025, the first class enrolled in the school after the new admissions changes, from 165 the year before.

The following month, Bonitatibus sent an email to TJ's parents announcing she had “pursued and accepted” a “promotion” to a role in the Fairfax County Public Schools Department of Human Resources as “Executive Director of Talent Acquisition and Management,” a move that was met with widespread skepticism considering a slew of staff and teacher departures from TJ that had marked her stewardship of the school."

https://www.fairfaxtimes.com/articles/fcps-selects-tjhsst-alum-michael-mukai-to-be-new-principal/article_675df76c-cee9-11ef-9b2a-ab958f33eb91.html

A professional epitaph if I've ever seen one.

This sound like opinion and very bias, doesn’t read as a good journalism, where is the other side of the story?

What part of the article do you think is opinion? It is mostly reciting facts.

I don't think it is fair to hang the suicides around her neck but she was motivated by concerns of "equity" throughout her tenure, she did tell a bunch of immigrant parents to check their privilege, she did play a role int he change in admissions process that led to the academic decline at TJ, and she did oversee a large exodus of TJ faculty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All the TJ bashing in every single TJ thread doesn’t comes from parents (TJ specifically). Its really sound like either someone with political agenda (who doesn’t have kids at TJ) or prep business center.

My kid at TJ is very happy student, the parents association is awesome, the students are very nice, very smart and well rounded, the teachers are caliber, the students activities is abundant.
I scratched my hair eveytime I read this thread, sound like TJ is a warzone… while my experience is the opposite.

It's politics.
A battle between equity and merit.
My kid is there and I appreciate that it is less stressful than it has been in the past but I know kids that should be there and are not.

BTW, what makes the parent association awesome?
So far what they mostly seem to do is ask for money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
In September, the number of students recognized as National Merit semifinalists decreased to 81 in the Class of 2025, the first class enrolled in the school after the new admissions changes, from 165 the year before.

The discussion ends right there.

For you maybe. Other people also want to see the SOL failures and plummeting test scores.