TJHSST PTSA Election

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Sounds like they're entitled to that money. I don't think they are able to steal money. More likely the elected officers were misusing it and brought this on themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Langley is a neighborhood school. What point are you even trying to make?

[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.

This article was written by a current TJ student. Expect it to win several national high school journalism awards. It's exceptional.

[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.

Completely false. The leaders of the Coalition 4 TJ will stop at nothing to fight any change that could possibly limit the number of Asian students at the school. It doesn't matter what change the admissions office would have made - and making no change in a COVID year was not an option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Sounds like they're entitled to that money. I don't think they are able to steal money. More likely the elected officers were misusing it and brought this on themselves.

The Virginia PTA would seize these assets and would freeze them until the TJ PTSA falls in line with reasonable standards for a non-political entity whose mission is to serve the school and its staff. A good start would be removing all of the individuals who belong to an organization whose entire animating purpose denies the legitimacy of the Class of 2025. Those kids are going to have enough challenges when they walk through that door with all of the vitriol that's been spewed in their direction - the absolute LAST thing they need is a PTSA with an Executive Committee that has written and published multiple articles telling them that they don't belong at TJ.

[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.

This article was written by a current TJ student. Expect it to win several national high school journalism awards. It's exceptional.

I didn't know that. It is indeed very good, better than anything WaPo has done - fair and balanced reportage conveying effectively that they are multiple parties equally culpable in the issue. It is indeed sad, everyone involved has noble intentions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Sounds like they're entitled to that money. I don't think they are able to steal money. More likely the elected officers were misusing it and brought this on themselves.

The Virginia PTA would seize these assets and would freeze them until the TJ PTSA falls in line with reasonable standards for a non-political entity whose mission is to serve the school and its staff. A good start would be removing all of the individuals who belong to an organization whose entire animating purpose denies the legitimacy of the Class of 2025. Those kids are going to have enough challenges when they walk through that door with all of the vitriol that's been spewed in their direction - the absolute LAST thing they need is a PTSA with an Executive Committee that has written and published multiple articles telling them that they don't belong at TJ.

You did not mind when Qarni, Brabrand and some school board members — people in much higher leadership positions than a PTSA board member — said current kids didn’t belong at TJ. Or when the principal told a school full of supposedly her students struggling during virtual covid school last sprint to “check their privilege.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Sounds like they're entitled to that money. I don't think they are able to steal money. More likely the elected officers were misusing it and brought this on themselves.

The Virginia PTA would seize these assets and would freeze them until the TJ PTSA falls in line with reasonable standards for a non-political entity whose mission is to serve the school and its staff. A good start would be removing all of the individuals who belong to an organization whose entire animating purpose denies the legitimacy of the Class of 2025. Those kids are going to have enough challenges when they walk through that door with all of the vitriol that's been spewed in their direction - the absolute LAST thing they need is a PTSA with an Executive Committee that has written and published multiple articles telling them that they don't belong at TJ.

You did not mind when Qarni, Brabrand and some school board members — people in much higher leadership positions than a PTSA board member — said current kids didn’t belong at TJ. Or when the principal told a school full of supposedly her students struggling during virtual covid school last sprint to “check their privilege.”

Those people have actual policymaking responsibilities. In the case of Qarni, he has a responsibility to weigh in on the admissions question because it's under his purview.

And in the case of the principal, TJ students are privileged by definition because they attend the #1 public school in America. Many of those students are extremely privileged to have parents who were obsessed from an early age with optimizing their student's TJ application - those students did nothing to earn their parents.

[Anonymous]

Qarni and the others mentioned made it clear that the current students didn’t belong at TJ (based on racial stereotypes, no less).

[Anonymous]

So, I am the poster railing against the VA PTA as being basically antidemocratic. It may surprise you (especially the particularly bone-headed ones of you) that I have problems with both the old and new admissions policies. The old policy, IMHO, let's in too many over prepped but under prepared students. The new policy will let in too many under prepared students because they are being judged on attributes tangential to TJ's purpose. If you want to go to a program like TJ, it's probably too late gaining your academic chops at the middle of middle school (and by this I don't mean standard prep programs). Do things that will stimulate your mind. FCPS and other school districts should not be left off the hook. Supplemental programs for younger kids should be offered, particularly at lower income schools. Unfortunately, there is not much one can do about parents that don't support their kids intellectual life.
Anyways, as a parent at TJ, I think that there were a lot of illegitimately chosen kids at TJ in the past and there will be many under the new system. Does this mean that I should never be allowed to serve on the TJ PTSA board? That seems like an irrelevant disqualification.
Also, to the poster who insists that prep is a requirement for TJ admission, you are your very own brand of ignorance combined with stupidity.

[Anonymous]

PP - you should be disqualified from serving on the TJ PTSA if you make it your mission ... as a TJ PTSA officer ... to push your personal views about the admissions process as if they are the views of the PTSA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Completely false. The leaders of the Coalition 4 TJ will stop at nothing to fight any change that could possibly limit the number of Asian students at the school. It doesn't matter what change the admissions office would have made - and making no change in a COVID year was not an option.

Making a change in the midst of Covid came across as terribly opportunistic, as if the School Board wanted to take advantage of the circumstances to ram through changes in TJ admissions at a time when there could not be in-person meetings or public hearings.

The fact that they spent 4-5 months jerking everyone around last year when they should have focused on shoring up their inadequate IT systems, paying attention to their shitty facilities so that schools would be safe for students upon return, and mitigating the obvious negative impact of distance learning on the county's most vulnerable kids speaks volumes to how out of touch these clowns are.

They should all be replaced in 2023, if not sooner.

[Anonymous]

I take it then that your view is that the VA PTSA should do the honorable thing and disband rather than similarly descend into politics.

As far as I can tell the letter in question, anonymously sent, was authored by a PTA officer, but was not issued as an opinion of the PTA. Since when does being an officer of a PTA cause one to lose free speech rights? It also shouldn't matter who the author consulted before issuing the letter.

[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.

This article was written by a current TJ student. Expect it to win several national high school journalism awards. It's exceptional.

I didn't know that. It is indeed very good, better than anything WaPo has done - fair and balanced reportage conveying effectively that they are multiple parties equally culpable in the issue. It is indeed sad, everyone involved has noble intentions.

TJ students win good number of yearbook awards and student journalism awards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

This article was written by a current TJ student. Expect it to win several national high school journalism awards. It's exceptional.

I didn't know that. It is indeed very good, better than anything WaPo has done - fair and balanced reportage conveying effectively that they are multiple parties equally culpable in the issue. It is indeed sad, everyone involved has noble intentions.

TJ students win good number of yearbook awards and student journalism awards.

Indeed - the yearbook/journalism adviser is exceptional and is beloved by her students.