TJ Commended Student Emails Released - Who is really responsible?

[Anonymous]

It's such a weird dynamic.

Asra and her buddies seem to want to destroy TJ under a "if we can't have it the way we want it, no one should have it" philosophy. The brouhaha over the letters of commendation is just the latest salvo.

Which then puts the far-left Democrats in the position of defending TJ, even though it's the epitome of an elitist school that remains un-representative of FCPS as a whole, and where the resources and opportunities made available to TJ students are much greater than those made available to students at other schools.

It's fascinating to watch the mud wrestling if you've stocked up on popcorn, but at some point maybe it's just time to pull the plug on TJHSST, given that there are almost 200 other schools in FCPS that end up getting short-changed as a result of the never-ending conflict.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's such a weird dynamic.

Asra and her buddies seem to want to destroy TJ under a "if we can't have it the way we want it, no one should have it" philosophy. The brouhaha over the letters of commendation is just the latest salvo.

Which then puts the far-left Democrats in the position of defending TJ, even though it's the epitome of an elitist school that remains un-representative of FCPS as a whole, and where the resources and opportunities made available to TJ students are much greater than those made available to students at other schools.

It's fascinating to watch the mud wrestling if you've stocked up on popcorn, but at some point maybe it's just time to pull the plug on TJHSST, given that there are almost 200 other schools in FCPS that end up getting short-changed as a result of the never-ending conflict.

Personally, I think we don't need to completely eliminate TJ, but I agree that we should all really leave it alone. All the scrutiny and fighting is doing no one any good, and the school might even do better if left to its own devices. Besides, investing in the district's other schools, particularly those in the south and east of the county that aren't as affluent, will likely reduce the need for special systems to compensate, such as the new TJ admissions policy that's been causing such a fuss.

[Anonymous]

If TJ has decided that they’re more interested in equity now than excellence then I agree they should just shut it down. The problems come from pretending. Rename it and let it be a regular neighborhood school.

[Anonymous]

I have twin seniors and knew for months before this unfortunate series of events happened that they were commended. Why? Because I looked up the index and then checked their scores to compare. It took maybe 5 minutes. If this is SO important to list college apps (which it's not, it's not that big of an award IMO), it's on the College Board and parents/families to figure it out. My kids turned in apps before their school (not TJ) let us know they'd been commended and were able to note they were Commended on them because we took it on ourselves to find the info. I'm sure many others did the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If TJ has decided that they’re more interested in equity now than excellence then I agree they should just shut it down. The problems come from pretending. Rename it and let it be a regular neighborhood school.

I don't care about equity per see, but they did a great job revamping the old admissions by providing a system that made it harder for wealthy residents to game.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean, he screwed up, finally admitted it and seemingly is working to fix things.

+1
This. It's unfortunate but for sure I've dropped the ball occasionally in my own job and I imagine everyone has at some point as well. Sounds like he forgot about the packet for a few weeks. Also perhaps notable re: timing - TJ only has advisory on Mondays I believe. No school 10/24 or 10/31 so prior to 11/14 there was just one other Monday: 11/7 and it too was after the 11/1 cut-off. Naturally they could have figured out some other way to hand them out but really it seems like just an error. One that's been apologized for, that TJ's working to help clean up with outreach to colleges, and that he already said they would handle it differently moving forward.

Are you trying to make excuse for him? Where are the accountability and responsibility?

He already apologized (accountability) and reached out to all schools applied to by the affected students (responsibility). What else do you think he should do?

Dropping the ball at work happens. Dropping the ball on an important, time sensitive process you have managed for 15+ years and then making of some dumb excuse about not hurting kids feelings? He should probably be reassigned to a different position that has less risk for impacting students with applications. Perhaps a central administrative job or grades below HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean, he screwed up, finally admitted it and seemingly is working to fix things.

+1
This. It's unfortunate but for sure I've dropped the ball occasionally in my own job and I imagine everyone has at some point as well. Sounds like he forgot about the packet for a few weeks. Also perhaps notable re: timing - TJ only has advisory on Mondays I believe. No school 10/24 or 10/31 so prior to 11/14 there was just one other Monday: 11/7 and it too was after the 11/1 cut-off. Naturally they could have figured out some other way to hand them out but really it seems like just an error. One that's been apologized for, that TJ's working to help clean up with outreach to colleges, and that he already said they would handle it differently moving forward.

Are you trying to make excuse for him? Where are the accountability and responsibility?

He already apologized (accountability) and reached out to all schools applied to by the affected students (responsibility). What else do you think he should do?

Dropping the ball at work happens. Dropping the ball on an important, time sensitive process you have managed for 15+ years and then making of some dumb excuse about not hurting kids feelings? He should probably be reassigned to a different position that has less risk for impacting students with applications. Perhaps a central administrative job or grades below HS.

Delaying the distribution of some information which already publicly available, to my standard, is not important. Whether it is important to the kid? My kids don’t think so, the kids showed up in last week’s meeting don’t think so, but some parents think so. They care so much for the education of their kid, so for such an important award, they have to wait for the school to hand over the certificate, ideally as a part of big ceremony, otherwise, their high achieving kids will miss the opportunities to put it in the college applications. Honestly, I feel really sorry for their kids now….

BTW, if CB put on enough postage in the first place, it probably won’t be any issues now. Why no one questioning their motivation and responsibility? Those tests are not free, FCPS paid them already, why they have to ask the school to deliver the result, but not themselves, like what they did for SAT?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look, this was a screw up for sure. But being commended is not a big deal, especially if you’re at TJ. I don’t understand what the fuss is about.

The way he interacted with the parent is pretty problematic imo. I’m not even that worried about the screwup itself, you’re right that it’s not a big deal at all, but he behaved inappropriately in covering up his mess and tried to make it about equity and feelings… which it wasn’t.

Glad to see that Bonitatibus did her job at least.

This is where I disagree…sure, Bonitatibus signed the letters in a timely manner. However, she is the captain of the ship over at TJ. She’s responsible for actions/inactions of her staff. In the emails, she did her typical deflection to her support staff and assumed no responsibility or accountability. She does on EVERY.SINGLE.ISSUE. At some point, the buck has to stop with her. What kind of shop is she running over there where staff feel they are empowered to deviate from FCPS norm as well as policies/procedures.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why is this even the school’s responsibility to notify students? College Board is a business— they can do it themselves.

This happens in other schools where nobody cares or notices. It really should not be the school’s job and it may not be a priority for some schools. College Board is fully capable of contacting students and should be the ones responsible for such notifications.

But it is the school's role and it has been for years: from the Principal's letters: " Moreover, a search of the National Merit website reveals that the notification process has been occurring through the schools and not the College Bard since at least 2018 (see attached search results)."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have twin seniors and knew for months before this unfortunate series of events happened that they were commended. Why? Because I looked up the index and then checked their scores to compare. It took maybe 5 minutes. If this is SO important to list college apps (which it's not, it's not that big of an award IMO), it's on the College Board and parents/families to figure it out. My kids turned in apps before their school (not TJ) let us know they'd been commended and were able to note they were Commended on them because we took it on ourselves to find the info. I'm sure many others did the same.

I think part of the issue is that many parents at that school are immigrants and don’t know the ways to navigate our higher education system. Also, more forward thinking, if there are more URM and farms kids, are their parents expected to know to check scores, look up a private organization and compare states and scores?

If it’s the school’s job, then it’s their job. Otherwise they should make sure they push out resources for parents to learn.

-
No dog in this fight- parent of two teens with special needs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look, this was a screw up for sure. But being commended is not a big deal, especially if you’re at TJ. I don’t understand what the fuss is about.

The way he interacted with the parent is pretty problematic imo. I’m not even that worried about the screwup itself, you’re right that it’s not a big deal at all, but he behaved inappropriately in covering up his mess and tried to make it about equity and feelings… which it wasn’t.

Glad to see that Bonitatibus did her job at least.

This is where I disagree…sure, Bonitatibus signed the letters in a timely manner. However, she is the captain of the ship over at TJ. She’s responsible for actions/inactions of her staff. In the emails, she did her typical deflection to her support staff and assumed no responsibility or accountability. She does on EVERY.SINGLE.ISSUE. At some point, the buck has to stop with her. What kind of shop is she running over there where staff feel they are empowered to deviate from FCPS norm as well as policies/procedures.

In this particular instance, the buck stopping with her means using whatever weight she has to get Kosatka reassigned outside of TJ.

He’s been problematic for years and she inherited him from the Glazer era. He’s the director of that department and this (especially the reaction) is 100% on him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look, this was a screw up for sure. But being commended is not a big deal, especially if you’re at TJ. I don’t understand what the fuss is about.

The way he interacted with the parent is pretty problematic imo. I’m not even that worried about the screwup itself, you’re right that it’s not a big deal at all, but he behaved inappropriately in covering up his mess and tried to make it about equity and feelings… which it wasn’t.

Glad to see that Bonitatibus did her job at least.

This is where I disagree…sure, Bonitatibus signed the letters in a timely manner. However, she is the captain of the ship over at TJ. She’s responsible for actions/inactions of her staff. In the emails, she did her typical deflection to her support staff and assumed no responsibility or accountability. She does on EVERY.SINGLE.ISSUE. At some point, the buck has to stop with her. What kind of shop is she running over there where staff feel they are empowered to deviate from FCPS norm as well as policies/procedures.

It wouldn't shock me if Bonitatibus let Kosatka run his own operation at Student Services, seeing as he's been director for the last 15 years. Expect her to keep a much closer eye on the rest of the administration from here on out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean, he screwed up, finally admitted it and seemingly is working to fix things.

+1
This. It's unfortunate but for sure I've dropped the ball occasionally in my own job and I imagine everyone has at some point as well. Sounds like he forgot about the packet for a few weeks. Also perhaps notable re: timing - TJ only has advisory on Mondays I believe. No school 10/24 or 10/31 so prior to 11/14 there was just one other Monday: 11/7 and it too was after the 11/1 cut-off. Naturally they could have figured out some other way to hand them out but really it seems like just an error. One that's been apologized for, that TJ's working to help clean up with outreach to colleges, and that he already said they would handle it differently moving forward.

Are you trying to make excuse for him? Where are the accountability and responsibility?

He already apologized (accountability) and reached out to all schools applied to by the affected students (responsibility). What else do you think he should do?

Dropping the ball at work happens. Dropping the ball on an important, time sensitive process you have managed for 15+ years and then making of some dumb excuse about not hurting kids feelings? He should probably be reassigned to a different position that has less risk for impacting students with applications. Perhaps a central administrative job or grades below HS.

Every word in this is correct except for “important”. Otherwise, agree completely. He should be reassigned.

[Anonymous]

I’m a PP. I agree with some previous posts. I think Bonitatibus has given administrators too much leeway for years. Frankly this isn’t the first issue where administration failed to do the job they are supposed to and it severely impacted the student when they didn’t do their required jobs. It’s just that it’s blown up.

She should have tightened the reigns years ago but she hasn’t. She’s chosen to focus on the political aspects and dignity visits part of her job. She needs to refocus on the management of the school. If she’s not able to pivot back to managing a school, she need to go too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I mean, he screwed up, finally admitted it and seemingly is working to fix things.

+1
This. It's unfortunate but for sure I've dropped the ball occasionally in my own job and I imagine everyone has at some point as well. Sounds like he forgot about the packet for a few weeks. Also perhaps notable re: timing - TJ only has advisory on Mondays I believe. No school 10/24 or 10/31 so prior to 11/14 there was just one other Monday: 11/7 and it too was after the 11/1 cut-off. Naturally they could have figured out some other way to hand them out but really it seems like just an error. One that's been apologized for, that TJ's working to help clean up with outreach to colleges, and that he already said they would handle it differently moving forward.

Are you trying to make excuse for him? Where are the accountability and responsibility?

He already apologized (accountability) and reached out to all schools applied to by the affected students (responsibility). What else do you think he should do?

Dropping the ball at work happens. Dropping the ball on an important, time sensitive process you have managed for 15+ years and then making of some dumb excuse about not hurting kids feelings? He should probably be reassigned to a different position that has less risk for impacting students with applications. Perhaps a central administrative job or grades below HS.

He was explaining why they stopped ceremonies.