Reply to Expanded High school electives at TJ

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Ohhhh Japanese is back. Awesome! That could be good for my kid if they are accepted this year.[/quote]

I really like that this new Principal is doing things to make TJ academically excellent rather than engaging in social engineering.[/quote]

By making TJ like any other high school?[/quote]

+1
I like the guy (and I liked Dr B too) but this is my sr TJ kid's complaint. They've been stripping out some of the things that makes it different. [/quote]

Like what?[/quote]

The entire culture at TJ has become very negative and toxic and this all a result of Mukai's lack of leadership. He doesn't respect his teachers and has shut them out and even the division leaders out of actual collaboration. Instead of coming in and getting to know the staff and the students first, he has dictated everything without any clear vision or justification. He flip-flops constantly to the point that teachers cannot trust anything he says and he bullies any teachers who question anything he says or does. [/quote]

Any specific examples?
Because Mukai has held more useful parent zoom calls in the first year than Bonitatibus did her entire tenure.
He seems significantly more engaged with the parents.  I can't comment on his dynamic with the teachers but I have heard good things from the teachers at his old high school.  Why would his management style have changed so drastically for the worse?[/quote]

If the info shared here is to be believed:

1. He is courting the parents, but ignoring the students and faculty. A good leader collects input from ALL stakeholders.
2. He's withholding climate survey data, which I think is meant to be public, so that seems problematic without knowing the reason for this.
3. He's making curricular changes that are more in line with a base school than a unique, magnet school. I can see how WSHS folks might've been pleased with this kind of decision-making, but attending TJ is a choice. Families select it because they like the vision or the class choices or whatever reason. If the classes now offered at TJ are essentially the same on paper as my kid's base school, and they can take those courses without a longer day and terrible commute, PLUS possibly get better college outcomes, why the heck would they choose TJ?

[/quote]

TJ parent here.

Mukai is a dramatic improvement over Bonitatibus for the parents.
The clarity and transparency is something we never saw with Bonitatibus.  
His primary goal as the principal of a school for gifted kids is to be the principal of a school for gifted kids.

The students overwhelmingly approve of the course curriculum changes because they were doing AP level work honors level weighting.
The juniors are jealous of the sophomores AP Pre-Calc and the sophomores are jealous of the freshman AP everything.
None of the students are salty about this.

I can't speak to every teacher but the ones I have heard of seem to think Mukai is interested in being the principal of TJ as a magnet school rather than TJ as a launching pad for bigger and better things.
Most teachers seem to like their classes becoming AP classes, AP sets a floor on rigor, not a cap.
Some of the teachers are upset that TJ is no longer as focused on being a social experiment.[/quote]

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