UPDATED 2021-05-27 15:16

This is your TJ PTSA official source of EC Officer Election information. If you have questions please email the president and he’ll add them to this FAQ.

Q1: One question which I’ve heard from several people about the upcoming EC election is if balloting will be secret.  I’m assuming it is, but is that so?  If anyone on the EC will know how people vote, whom would it be?
A1: As with all PTSA elections, and according to VA PTA training on elections, the Tellers committee will be able to see the ballots. The Tellers Committee for this election is Nick Costescu, Anna Lee Kim, Stacey Heller, Kaushik Goswami (all on the EC). Normally you have 3 or 5 so there isn’t a tie on the results but since we don’t actually have to count physical ballots, and the ezvoteonline system gives us the results, we don’t need an odd #. Our function is also different with an online vote. Normally tellers hand out ballots, collect them, count them, and report results. The equivalent functions for online vote is that we will help people who have technical issues voting (with the email validation, etc.) and look for folks who started but didn’t finish a ballot to see if they had technical issues (we have found that sometimes people have trouble if they don’t finish the ballot in one sitting). Paper ballots are destroyed after an election. In our case with online voting, they are archived so as an ezvoteonline admin I can go look at them anytime. I kept them there in case someone decided to audit, we can go in together and see exactly when and how folks voted. At the end of this school year, I will delete all the old ballots, retaining only the vote results in our meeting minutes. The new EC will not be able to see who voted for whom, and after the ballot closes I will remove the other Tellers access from ezvoteonline (maybe keep Kaushik just in case I get run over by a bus and someone wants to audit).

Q2: We saw the bios for the candidates recommended by the TJ PTSA Nominating Committee in their report. Where can we read similar info about the self-nominated candidates running against them?
A2: Soon we will post info from all the candidates in the same format (their name, class(es) their children are in, the position they’re running for, why they want to serve, and a short bio). Look for a news post / featured item on our website. We’re just waiting on folks to make some final edits to their info.

Q3: Who can vote in the upcoming 2021-22 TJ PTSA Officer Election?
A3: All TJ PTSA members. You are a member for the 2020-21 school year if you have purchased a 2020-21 membership of the appropriate type (adult, student, or faculty) in AtoZ.

Q4: Who can be a TJ PTSA member?
A4: According to the VA PTA Membership Handbook any living person can join any PTA.

From Section 7.1 Membership eligibility
Any living person may join a PTA, regardless of age, occupation, geographic location, familiarity with the school or district supported by the PTA, membership in other PTAs, or any other factor.

Q5: That’s nuts! A bunch of people who have nothing to do with the current school community could buy memberships and take over the TJ PTSA.
A5: True. Seems crazy to me too. I can’t vote in some other state’s state election, why can random people vote in our TJ PTSA elections?

If you’d like to see that policy change, with something like a community membership that confers voting rights but is only available to current parents/guardians, students, teachers/staff, and a support only membership with no voting rights but that is available to people that are not in the current parent/guardian, student, faculty/staff community, let the VA PTA know. I have.

Free: 866.4VA.KIDS (866.482.5437)
Ph: 804.264.1234
Fax: 804.264.4014
E: info@vapta.org

Virginia PTA
1027 Wilmer Ave
Richmond, VA 23227

Q6: When will you stop selling 2020-21 TJ PTSA Memberships?
Updated A6: Click here for the finalized timeline.
Original A6: Not sure, but we will announce when we close the voter registration roll. That will happen before the ballot starts. Check back here for updates as we figure out the dates.

Q7: When will the election will be? What’s the first date when I can vote and when’s the last date I can vote?
Updated A7: Click here for the finalized timeline.
Original A7: We don’t have the dates yet. We will post them as soon as we have them. It takes a lot of work and this is probably our first ever contested election. We have to make sure everything is done right.
We use an online voting system that does not integrate with the membership system so we have to export and manually massage and import the voter list and then maintain it manually. We want the process to be auditable. We’re also all parent volunteers with daytime jobs and families.
We’ll get you this info as soon as we have it. You will have time to read about the candidates before the election, and the election will be finished before our fiscal year ends (end of June).

There is another issue we have not faced before. Our bylaws require the EC transition as soon as the election results are in. This was fine when we did it in person and we did it in June. Now we’re doing it online which lets us do it at any time, without waiting for a meeting. If we ran the ballot in May we would leave the new EC to wrap up our business for this year. There are still events to be organized and run in May and early June, and it would not be fair to the new EC to drop them into that unfinished business. We’ve received guidance from VA PTA and they recommend waiting and also changing our bylaws in future to transition at the end of the school year rather than at the election. That would let us have the election earlier but still finish out the year

Q8: How can I check if I’m a member?
A8: Log in to atozconnect.com, click the hamburger menu, click Store, click My Orders. Look for a 2020-21 Adult Membership if you’re an adult (non faculty/staff), a 2020-21 Student Membership for students, or a 2020-21 Faculty Membership if you’re a faculty or staff.

If you purchased more than one Adult or Student membership, make sure they are each assigned to a correct type of family members (adult or student). See screenshot below.

If you need help figuring this out, feel free to email the Tellers Committee (tellers@tjptsa.org).

Q9: My kids want to join the TJ PTSA and vote. What do I do?
A9: Do the following:

• Buy a 2020-21 Student Membership for each child.
• Make sure you assign each membership to the correct child in the AtoZ cart when buying it.
• From your AtoZ email account (the one you have associated with your name in AtoZ) email tellers@tjptsa.org with your child’s name and their non-FCPS email address. The child’s email will not be visible in the directory, but we will be able to register them to vote.
• IF YOU DON’T GET US THEIR EMAIL ADDRESS THEY CAN’T VOTE. This is because the online voting system uses email validation.
• Remember you can always create a new gmail or other email account for them to use for PTSA business if you don’t want to give us their personal email.

Q10: I hear rumors and see forwarded emails from people about dates and other information about the election. Should I trust those sources? Where can I go for official information about this election?
A10: A good rule in general is that if you didn’t read it in one of our official communication channels, you risk getting bad information. Look for info on our website, in our newsletter, or in an email sent to you by the President of the TJ PTSA. If you still can’t get the info you need, email the President of the TJ PTSA.

Q11: Who is on the Tellers Committee and what do they do?
A11: For this election, the Tellers Committee is composed of Nicolae Costescu (President), Kaushik Goswami (2nd VP), Anna Lee Kim (1st VP) and Stacey Heller (Recording Secretary). The Tellers Committee normally creates the paper ballots and passes them out and then tallies them. Since our election is online, the Tellers Committee will create the online ballot and then manage the election (answering questions, helping with technical issues such as email validation, etc.) and then present the results. If you need help during the election you can email tellers@tjptsa.org and we’ll help you out.