TJ Failure to Notify Letter of Commendation Winners

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:lawsuits to follow, probbaly.

…Seriously, on what grounds?

Class action lawsuit is being discussed against fcps and the incompetent principal.

For what?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:lawsuits to follow, probbaly.

…Seriously, on what grounds?

Class action lawsuit is being discussed against fcps and the incompetent principal.

Again… on what grounds?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.fox5dc.com/news/top-ranked-virginia-high-school-accused-of-depriving-students-of-merit-awards?taid=63abecfc55e0a20001a8ae01&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=trueanthem&utm_source=twitter

So this article says the remedy is that TJ is going to call the schools that the commended student applied to and *emphasize* that the applicant is a middle-of-the-pack TJ student? I’d ask them not to do that if I was one of the kids. Schools know that most of TJs top students are semifinalists.

Could you get them to not do this? I felt that the commendation was a mark of shame. It meant that with all the great opportunities in NVA and superior scholastic opportunities, I was unable to rise to the top. Sure, some kid in Idaho may be a NMSF with the same score but they live in Idaho and lack the same opportunities available at our schools.

Sure, tell me what "opportunities" some student from Buchanan county, VA has that the student from Eagle, ID does not. If they want to say students in certain schools have more opportunities than others--than it should go by SCHOOL and not by state. States are too large and diverse to assume everyone in them has the same opportunities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.fox5dc.com/news/top-ranked-virginia-high-school-accused-of-depriving-students-of-merit-awards?taid=63abecfc55e0a20001a8ae01&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=trueanthem&utm_source=twitter

So this article says the remedy is that TJ is going to call the schools that the commended student applied to and *emphasize* that the applicant is a middle-of-the-pack TJ student? I’d ask them not to do that if I was one of the kids. Schools know that most of TJs top students are semifinalists.

Could you get them to not do this? I felt that the commendation was a mark of shame. It meant that with all the great opportunities in NVA and superior scholastic opportunities, I was unable to rise to the top. Sure, some kid in Idaho may be a NMSF with the same score but they live in Idaho and lack the same opportunities available at our schools.

Sure, tell me what "opportunities" some student from Buchanan county, VA has that the student from Eagle, ID does not. If they want to say students in certain schools have more opportunities than others--than it should go by SCHOOL and not by state. States are too large and diverse to assume everyone in them has the same opportunities.

Take it up with the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. It’s just a scholarship, they can set whatever criteria they want. Maybe geographic diversity is important to them or their donors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:lawsuits to follow, probbaly.

…Seriously, on what grounds?

Class action lawsuit is being discussed against fcps and the incompetent principal.

Again… on what grounds?

Because some parents are angry that their kid isn’t keeping them in the loop on college applications. They need to rely on TJHSST newsletters to stay informed about their own kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:lawsuits to follow, probbaly.

…Seriously, on what grounds?

Class action lawsuit is being discussed against fcps and the incompetent principal.

Again… on what grounds?

Because some parents are angry that their kid isn’t keeping them in the loop on college applications. They need to rely on TJHSST newsletters to stay informed about their own kids.

Wait, weren't the changes to TJ admissions intended to help level the playing field for kids whose parents supposedly weren't rich helicopter parents enrolling them in test prep since they were five?

You people couldn't be bigger hypocrites if you tried.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:lawsuits to follow, probbaly.

…Seriously, on what grounds?

Class action lawsuit is being discussed against fcps and the incompetent principal.

Again… on what grounds?

Because some parents are angry that their kid isn’t keeping them in the loop on college applications. They need to rely on TJHSST newsletters to stay informed about their own kids.

Wait, weren't the changes to TJ admissions intended to help level the playing field for kids whose parents supposedly weren't rich helicopter parents enrolling them in test prep since they were five?

You people couldn't be bigger hypocrites if you tried.

Ummm… the helicopter parents are still rampant in the junior and senior classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:lawsuits to follow, probbaly.

…Seriously, on what grounds?

Class action lawsuit is being discussed against fcps and the incompetent principal.

Again… on what grounds?

Because some parents are angry that their kid isn’t keeping them in the loop on college applications. They need to rely on TJHSST newsletters to stay informed about their own kids.

Wait, weren't the changes to TJ admissions intended to help level the playing field for kids whose parents supposedly weren't rich helicopter parents enrolling them in test prep since they were five?

You people couldn't be bigger hypocrites if you tried.

Ummm… the helicopter parents are still rampant in the junior and senior classes.

That's not the point, and you either know it or are very stupid.

The point is that you're mocking the non-helicopter parents while you and your cronies pushed for more of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:lawsuits to follow, probbaly.

…Seriously, on what grounds?

Class action lawsuit is being discussed against fcps and the incompetent principal.

Again… on what grounds?

Because some parents are angry that their kid isn’t keeping them in the loop on college applications. They need to rely on TJHSST newsletters to stay informed about their own kids.

Wait, weren't the changes to TJ admissions intended to help level the playing field for kids whose parents supposedly weren't rich helicopter parents enrolling them in test prep since they were five?

You people couldn't be bigger hypocrites if you tried.

Ummm… the helicopter parents are still rampant in the junior and senior classes.

That's not the point, and you either know it or are very stupid.

The point is that you're mocking the non-helicopter parents while you and your cronies pushed for more of them.

No. We are mocking the helicopter parents whose kids think they are too annoying to involve them in college admissions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:lawsuits to follow, probbaly.

…Seriously, on what grounds?

Class action lawsuit is being discussed against fcps and the incompetent principal.

Again… on what grounds?

Because some parents are angry that their kid isn’t keeping them in the loop on college applications. They need to rely on TJHSST newsletters to stay informed about their own kids.

Wait, weren't the changes to TJ admissions intended to help level the playing field for kids whose parents supposedly weren't rich helicopter parents enrolling them in test prep since they were five?

You people couldn't be bigger hypocrites if you tried.

Ummm… the helicopter parents are still rampant in the junior and senior classes.

That's not the point, and you either know it or are very stupid.

The point is that you're mocking the non-helicopter parents while you and your cronies pushed for more of them.

No. We are mocking the helicopter parents whose kids think they are too annoying to involve them in college admissions.

That's largely an oxymoron but go for it.

It's Ann Bonitatibus and Brandon Kosatka, however, who come out of this looking like clowns.

[Anonymous]

TJ parent here - I can confirm that parents were not notified by FCPS, nor did I expect to be. And for good reason - it's not MY award, and high school seniors are responsible for their own college and scholarship applications. Having had more than 1 FCPS graduate - I can also say that students do check their FCPS email (and if they don't, maybe they should learn to, as part of the reasonable training for when they are in college or have a real job, where they will be assumed to have the capacity to check their email, texts, Slack, whatever functioning adults do).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:TJ parent here - I can confirm that parents were not notified by FCPS, nor did I expect to be. And for good reason - it's not MY award, and high school seniors are responsible for their own college and scholarship applications. Having had more than 1 FCPS graduate - I can also say that students do check their FCPS email (and if they don't, maybe they should learn to, as part of the reasonable training for when they are in college or have a real job, where they will be assumed to have the capacity to check their email, texts, Slack, whatever functioning adults do).

This parent is setting up their child to be successful in life. The folks who are whining about this non-story are preparing their children to need their hands held for the rest of their lives.

But go ahead, keep outing yourselves and your kids as dependent and unemployable. Give these employees a heads up about which kids won’t be able to handle their own problems. Makes life much easier for the rest of us.

[Anonymous]

How on earth is this even a story? Going back to the original article:

... and assigns a cryptic code of "NTI" for assignments not turned in.

"NTI" stands for "not turned in". In what world is that cryptic? You wrote it out yourself!

Recognition by National Merit opens the door to millions of dollars in college scholarships and 800 Special Scholarships from corporate sponsors.

Yes, if you are a finalist. That pathway is not available to Commended recipients. It's disingenuous to suggest otherwise.

One former student said he learned he had won the award through a random email from the school to a school-district email account that students rarely check

If you're not checking your school email, that's on you. Students are expected to check those emails regularly.

But homeroom teachers didn’t distribute the awards until Monday, November 14, after the early-application deadlines had passed.

OK, Bonitatibus/Kosatka/whoever definitely dropped the ball here. No arguing with that.

Bonitatibus didn’t notify parents or the public.

If the school informed all the recipients, they've done their job. They're high schoolers, they can inform their parents themselves. Also, you can't possibly expect a school with as many awardees as TJ to go through and publicly acknowledge hundreds of kids -- that's a waste of time and energy they could have spent teaching or doing some other productive work.

What’s more, it could be a civil rights violation, says local parent advocate Debra Tisler, with most TJ students in a protected class of "gifted" students

Huh? The law is very clear about what counts as a protected class, and "gifted" is most certainly not on that list.

Bonitatibus still hasn’t ... told parents from earlier years that their students won the awards.

Because it's water under the bridge. Your kid is in college (or beyond) -- an award for a test they took in their junior year of high school is irrelevant at this point. Plus, with the sheer number of Commended recipients at TJ, individually contacting them over something they likely won't care about by now is a waste of everyone's time.

Should TJ administration have done a better job notifying Commended recipients ahead of the early application deadlines? Absolutely. But it seems to me that Asra is making a mountain out of a molehill here with some rather specious claims. This is not an "equity" issue; it's essentially an unwise decision on the administration's end, and it really doesn't deserve the attention it's gotten on this board and elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How on earth is this even a story? Going back to the original article:

... and assigns a cryptic code of "NTI" for assignments not turned in.

"NTI" stands for "not turned in". In what world is that cryptic? You wrote it out yourself!

Recognition by National Merit opens the door to millions of dollars in college scholarships and 800 Special Scholarships from corporate sponsors.

Yes, if you are a finalist. That pathway is not available to Commended recipients. It's disingenuous to suggest otherwise.

One former student said he learned he had won the award through a random email from the school to a school-district email account that students rarely check

If you're not checking your school email, that's on you. Students are expected to check those emails regularly.

But homeroom teachers didn’t distribute the awards until Monday, November 14, after the early-application deadlines had passed.

OK, Bonitatibus/Kosatka/whoever definitely dropped the ball here. No arguing with that.

Bonitatibus didn’t notify parents or the public.

If the school informed all the recipients, they've done their job. They're high schoolers, they can inform their parents themselves. Also, you can't possibly expect a school with as many awardees as TJ to go through and publicly acknowledge hundreds of kids -- that's a waste of time and energy they could have spent teaching or doing some other productive work.

What’s more, it could be a civil rights violation, says local parent advocate Debra Tisler, with most TJ students in a protected class of "gifted" students

Huh? The law is very clear about what counts as a protected class, and "gifted" is most certainly not on that list.

Bonitatibus still hasn’t ... told parents from earlier years that their students won the awards.

Because it's water under the bridge. Your kid is in college (or beyond) -- an award for a test they took in their junior year of high school is irrelevant at this point. Plus, with the sheer number of Commended recipients at TJ, individually contacting them over something they likely won't care about by now is a waste of everyone's time.

Should TJ administration have done a better job notifying Commended recipients ahead of the early application deadlines? Absolutely. But it seems to me that Asra is making a mountain out of a molehill here with some rather specious claims. This is not an "equity" issue; it's essentially an unwise decision on the administration's end, and it really doesn't deserve the attention it's gotten on this board and elsewhere.

All the principal would have to do it publicly apologize and say she did not fully appreciate that the students did not know of the Commendation and we could all move on. She was clearly in the wrong and should just own it rather than letting this collect steam. She has kept quiet. Not a good a look.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How on earth is this even a story? Going back to the original article:

... and assigns a cryptic code of "NTI" for assignments not turned in.

"NTI" stands for "not turned in". In what world is that cryptic? You wrote it out yourself!

Recognition by National Merit opens the door to millions of dollars in college scholarships and 800 Special Scholarships from corporate sponsors.

Yes, if you are a finalist. That pathway is not available to Commended recipients. It's disingenuous to suggest otherwise.

One former student said he learned he had won the award through a random email from the school to a school-district email account that students rarely check

If you're not checking your school email, that's on you. Students are expected to check those emails regularly.

But homeroom teachers didn’t distribute the awards until Monday, November 14, after the early-application deadlines had passed.

OK, Bonitatibus/Kosatka/whoever definitely dropped the ball here. No arguing with that.

Bonitatibus didn’t notify parents or the public.

If the school informed all the recipients, they've done their job. They're high schoolers, they can inform their parents themselves. Also, you can't possibly expect a school with as many awardees as TJ to go through and publicly acknowledge hundreds of kids -- that's a waste of time and energy they could have spent teaching or doing some other productive work.

What’s more, it could be a civil rights violation, says local parent advocate Debra Tisler, with most TJ students in a protected class of "gifted" students

Huh? The law is very clear about what counts as a protected class, and "gifted" is most certainly not on that list.

Bonitatibus still hasn’t ... told parents from earlier years that their students won the awards.

Because it's water under the bridge. Your kid is in college (or beyond) -- an award for a test they took in their junior year of high school is irrelevant at this point. Plus, with the sheer number of Commended recipients at TJ, individually contacting them over something they likely won't care about by now is a waste of everyone's time.

Should TJ administration have done a better job notifying Commended recipients ahead of the early application deadlines? Absolutely. But it seems to me that Asra is making a mountain out of a molehill here with some rather specious claims. This is not an "equity" issue; it's essentially an unwise decision on the administration's end, and it really doesn't deserve the attention it's gotten on this board and elsewhere.

All the principal would have to do it publicly apologize and say she did not fully appreciate that the students did not know of the Commendation and we could all move on. She was clearly in the wrong and should just own it rather than letting this collect steam. She has kept quiet. Not a good a look.

Fair. My guess is she assumed Kosatka’s apology would be enough and didn’t bother to make a statement herself. The first article didn’t come out until TJ was on break, so she’s been out of the office the whole time and probably won’t comment until after the new year.