Category Archives: News

News about what’s happening. This is not newsletter archives.

2021-04-11 Graduation and Prom Updates for Class of 2021

This email was sent out by Principal Ann N. Bonitatibus on 04/09/2021.

We have received some graduation and prom updates from FCPS that we’d like to pass along.

The Class of 2021 will graduate together at the Woodson High School Stadium on Saturday, June 5 at 9 a.m. The rain date is scheduled for Saturday, June 12 at 9 a.m., also at the Woodson High School Stadium. More details (including how many guests will be allowed) will be released at a later time.

FCPS has given all high schools the go ahead to hold a prom on campus, but there is a significant limitation. The prom has to be limited to no more than 100 students on site at a time. The restriction is due to proms being classified by the Governor as entertainment as opposed to educational or athletic. 

TJ Administration is working with the 2021 prom committee to create the best experience possible. To be clear, NOTHING has been decided yet, but here are some potential ideas:

  • Seniors could still get dressed up, come to campus in shifts for pictures, get a gift bag, have music playing, get a snack bag, etc.
  • Seniors could sign up to attend the prom in shifts. Groups of friends could sign up together.
  • Hiring a DJ and setting up a decorated entertainment area.
  • Find a creative way to allow people to take pictures similar to a red carpet arrival.

Again these are just some very preliminary ideas. More information on the final plan, including the date of the event, will come.

2021-04-11 Grade Guideline Changes for 2020-21 School Year

This was sent out by Principal Ann N. Bonitatibus on 04/09/2021.

As shared in an email from the Superintendent’s Office, FCPS has adopted a series of secondary grading policy changes to help our students achieve a strong finish to the school year.

In conjunction with FCPS, TJ is adjusting its grading policy for the 2020-21 school year to ensure students are not penalized by the challenges brought on by pandemic learning. 

Key policy changes for students are listed below:

  • Final Exam flexibility that ensures an exam can only serve to improve a student’s grade for the year. Teachers will apply this in their grading practices for each class.
  • Use of No Mark, “NM”, instead of “F” grades for all courses. This will be automatically applied for any course in which a student receives an “F.”
  • Allowing students to select a mark of “P” for pass for up to two courses for which a passing grade is earned for the final mark. 
    • ACTION NEEDED: Should you wish to designate one or two courses as Pass – No Mark status, submit this form to your school counselor by May 10, 2021.

2021-04-11 4-day/week in-person instruction

Here is the email sent out by Principal Ann N. Bonitatibus. If you have questions about the context, please contact your counselors and/or administration.

04/09/2021

Dear TJHSST Families of In-Person Students,

FCPS has welcomed a drop in community transmission rates for the current week ending April 9, which will allow high schools to move to a 3 ft standard for in-person learning. Therefore, effective the week of April 20, TJ students who currently attend 2 days in person may now attend 4 days in person.

As a family, the decision is yours. Consider what will provide the greatest benefit and consistency for your child. We will need to know if you plan to send your child 4 days per week and if transportation is needed.

Please complete this form by April 15. The form needs to be completed by the enrolling parent. If we do not hear from you our assumption will be you choose to remain sending your child to campus 2 days per week. Please be aware that no further changes will be allowed after April.

Here are some frequently asked questions:

  • Am I required to change my child from 2 days to 4 days per week?  No, students attending 2 days per week are not required to return 4 days per week.
  • Even if I don’t want to change to 4 days per week, can I change the days to attend? For instance, if my child wants to attend Tuesdays and Wednesdays now instead of Thursdays and Fridays, can I change? No, students cannot change the days they attend.
  • Is there enough space for my child to change from 2 days to 4 days per week? We have a high degree of confidence we will be able to accommodate families wishing to exercise this option.
  • If my child is currently online fulltime, can we change to in-person learning 2 or 4 days per week for the rest of the year? At this time we are only working with students currently attending in person because there are safety, instructional, and transportation logistics requiring significant planning.
  • If virus transmission rates increase, will the 4 days per week be changed back to 2 days per week? FCPS is working with the Health Department on a plan that minimizes disrupting education given the recent CDC guidance.

Sincerely,

Ann N. Bonitatibus, Ed.D.

TJHSST Principal

2021-04-11 TJ Students Earn National Recognition in 2021 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards

Original works of art and writing by students from Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) earned 27 national medals in the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards program. In addition to Gold Medals and Silver Medals, Lyat Melese of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJHSST) received the American Voices Medal in writing, Alison Wan of TJHSST received the Best in Grade Award for Grade 11. Congratulations to the following TJHSST students: Thanisha Chowdhury, Sagar Gupta, Michelle Lin, Michelle Liu, Melese Lyat, Mulan Pan, Mayuka Valluri, Alison Wan, Aileen Zhao. Please click here for the original announcement.

2021-04-10 TJ Students Win Grand Prize Awards at 2021 Regional Science and Engineering Fair

Congratulations to the following TJ students for winning the 2021 Regional Science and Engineering Fair prizes:

Animal Sciences, Shan Lateef, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJHSST), What’s All Buzz? Drosophila melanogaster as a Unique Model for Addiction Disorders after Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).

Biochemistry: Sagar Gupta and Sumanth Ratna, TJHSST, Protein Secondary Structure Assignment (SSA) by Clustering Amino Acid Residues in the Space of Topological Descriptors

Chemistry: Kaien Yang of TJHSST, New Methods for Computing the Configurational Entropy of Deeply Supercooled Liquids with the Potential Energy Landscape

Physics and Astronomy, Aditi Chandrashekar and Vance Kreider of TJHSST, Modeling Coronal Faraday Rotation of Radiation from Extragalactic Radio Sources

Systems Software: Pravalika Putalapattu of TJHSST, DORC: Dynamic Operating Room Companion for Gallbladder Removal Surgery Workflow Verification.

Translational Medical Sciences: Ron Nachum of TJHSST, PANDwriting: An Accessible Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s Novel Diagnostic Framework Using Vision-Based Handwriting Kinematic Analysis and Machine Learning.

Click here for the FCPS announcement:

The 66th annual Fairfax County Regional Science and Engineering Fair virtually showcased over 200 high school science projects via recorded videos. Over 290 students presented their research projects in a wide variety of science and engineering fields. Projects were judged by over 300 professionals and 50 professional organizations and businesses. 

The Grand Prize and first place winners are eligible to compete in the Virginia State Science and Engineering Fair to be held virtually in April. See who received awards. 

2021-04-04 TJ PTSA Nominating Committee Report

Nominating Committee Report

Thank you to all of the candidates who self-nominated for the 2021-2022 TJ PTSA Executive Committee. We had top candidates who have a proven track record of service to the community. The winners of the voting, based on a candidate collecting at least three votes and a majority of the nominating committee’s votes, are the following candidates: 

  1. President-elect: Harry Jackson
  2. 1st Vice President, Li Yang
  3. 2nd Vice President, Jun Wang
  4. Recording Secretary, Julia McCaskill
  5. Corresponding Secretary, Hanning Chen
  6. Treasurer, Himanshu Verma

Their bios are below, and we support these candidates for the 2021-2022 TJ PTSA Executive Committee. 

We thank all of the stellar candidates who raised their hands to volunteer their time for our community. We hope that all candidates will continue to volunteer with the TJ PTSA and participate in leadership positions.

In addition to this slate of candidates, TJ PTSA members can self-nominate for the 2021-2022 TJ PTSA Executive Committee. We will have details coming shortly, so keep an eye on the website and your email.

TJ PTSA Nominating Committee 

Slate of Candidates for the TJ PTSA Executive Committee

President-elect — Harry Jackson

The father of a TJ Class of 2024 student, Mr. Jackson has been a volunteer in his children’s schools for the past decade, volunteering countless hours in athletics, parent groups and school activities. He is committed to leading the TJ PTSA with openness and transparency, and he is committed to supporting diversity and excellence within the TJ community. This year, he served as a member of the TJ PTSA Diversity Committee and established key partnerships and initiatives to improve TJ diversity. In addition to supporting the TJ PTSA’s Diversity Talks, he has collected a database of STEM providers willing to offer free and reduced-fee services to socio-economically disadvantaged children, partnered with the Black Student Fund to provide summer STEM enrichment for children from low-income households, and established a conference to put families in contact with these resources. 

Mr. Jackson has over 15 years of federal government experience in information system security, including risk assessment, information assurance and compliance, security test and evaluations, system security engineering, systems development, test and evaluation and project management. He is currently an IT consultant specializing in support to the Intelligence Community and the Department of Defense. Mr. Jackson is also a member of the Washington Area Lacrosse Officials Association with 15 years of experience, He is also an assistant professor at National Intelligence University, and an adjunct professor at numerous universities. He has a bachelor’s in general engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy, an MA in strategic intelligence studies from American Military University, an MA in national security and strategic studies from the Naval War College, an MS in government information systems from National Defense University, and Ph.D. in strategic security from Henley-Putnam University.

1st Vice President — Li Yang

As the current treasurer of the TJPTSA Executive Committee, Ms. Yang is well positioned to continue to serve the TJ community, as a mentor to the new incoming treasurer and in a role that will allow her to bring her experience to building a strong Executive Committee that serves parents, teachers and students over the coming year. She is a statistician at NIH Clinical Center and received her medical degree in Clinical Medicine, M.S. in epidemiology and biostatistics and Ph.D. in statistics. She has volunteered for school activities and numerous community organizations over the past ten years, including as an adult leader in Boys Scouts of America Troop 55G. She has three children who are TJ students in the Class of 2021, 2022, and 2024. In her free time, she enjoys playing with her family’s energetic goldendoodle, hiking and camping with scouts, watching TV shows and movies, running, reading, and playing Ping-Pong. 

2nd Vice President — Jun Wang

Born and raised in a rural area of Beijing region, Mr. Wang did farming and construction work through elementary school to college on weekends and summer breaks. Even though he lived in a disadvantaged environment in terms of educational opportunities, he progressed step by step, participating in chemistry and physics competitions, and entering Tsinghua University, one of China’s top colleges, especially in engineering. Humble about his background, he understands deeply the importance of  helping students from disadvantaged backgrounds make progress and succeed in their studies. He has a BS and MS degrees in electrical engineering, with over 20 years’ experience in software engineering and web development with Oracle, SQL Server, Visual Studio.NET, HTML, CSS, Java Script, AJAX and JSON. As a result, he will be able to lead technology needs for the TJ PTSA. Since 2008, he has volunteered regularly at Hope Chinese Schools, leading student registration and the organization of large parties, reaching as many as 800 participants, and serving as an assistant principal and board member. 

He has been a MATHCOUNTS team coach at Greenbriar West ES, Churchill Road ES and Cooper MS. He chaperoned school field trips many times at Churchill Road ES, Longfellow MS, Cooper MS and TJ. He has also volunteered as an AP exam proctor at TJ. He has regularly driven his Toyota Tundra pickup truck to schools to haul food boxes, watermelons, water, ice cream cakes and instruments  for parties, TJ iNite and other events. A business owner, he facilitates helping people with diverse views find common ground. This past year, he has been actively involved in donation drives for personal protective equipment at the New York City Javits Center and local northern Virginia hospitals, COVID test stations, nursing homes and shelters. Mr. Wang has been volunteering with FCPS schools, including TJ, and Hope Chinese School for nearly 15 years. He wants to make more contributions to the TJ community and serve TJ parents, teachers and students, keeping the community united during this period of drastic changes.

Recording Secretary — Julia McCaskill

A former high school teacher from China. Ms. McCaskill  has been volunteering in all of her three children’s schools and classes over the past decade. With her youngest child graduating from elementary school this year, she is positioned to volunteer more of her time to serve the TJ community. She has worked as a recording secretary on a part-time basis early in her career. She describes herself as very systemic and well-equipped to document and share minutes and news and announcements from PTSA activities to the TJ community. 

Hanning Chen — Corresponding Secretary

Born in China, Mr. Chen earned his undergraduate degree in China, before moving to the United States to pursue his doctoral degree in chemistry. As a college professor of chemistry, he has managed a productive research group that has persistently secured financial support from many federal agencies, non-profit organizations and industrial partners over the past decade. Mr. Chen is the parent of TJ student of Class 2023. Since his eldest daughter’s enrollment in Fairfax County Public Schools almost 10 years ago, he has been a parent volunteer for a wide range of school events, including the Fun Fair at Spring Hill Elementary School, International Night at Cooper Middle School and Welcome Greeters at TJ. In addition, has volunteered in numerous sports competitions as a record keeper and officiating staff member. 

Most recently, he was co-organizer of Summit 2021, a two-day conference sponsored by the Chinese American Parents Association-Northern Virginia Chapter (CAPA-NOVA), which drew about 500 parents, students, educators, community leaders and elected officers  from the D.C. metropolitan area to the event for constructive discussions on pressing issues related to education. As co-organizer, he communicated with potential panelists via email, phone call and in-person meetings to enlist them to speak at the summit, coordinated a one-hour virtual panel discussion with ten panelists and hundreds of participants; and summarized the panel discussion in a report shared with panelists and summit organizers. As a member of the TJ PTSA Diversity Committee, he has been trained on how to use the AtoZ platform through which newsletters are currently sent to members to send communications to TJ PTSA members. He is sending out the next “Faces of TJ” feature to TJ PTSA members, and he is getting trained on sending out the newsletter through AtoZ. His commitment to community service and community service makes him an ideal candidate to serve the TJ PTSA as corresponding secretary and amplify messages about the talented students of the nation’s No. 1 high school.

Treasurer — Himanshu Verma

The father of TJ ninth grader, Mr. Verma has a B-tech degree in engineering physics from Indian Institute of Technology in Bombay, and he has a master’s degree in information systems from the University of Akron in Ohio. His family and he have lived in Fairfax county since 2006, and he specializes in data analytics and artificial intelligence application development. His current interests include developing COVID-19 apps, mental health AI apps and reading about theories of missing dark matter and dark energy. He has also recently started working with the Black Student Fund, a nonprofit that provides advocacy and academic and retention support to academically motivated Black students and other underserved students to facilitate their access, admission and successful matriculation and graduation. He hopes to work with the Black Student Fund to students from underrepresented communities at TJ. He looks forward to being a part of the TJ family over the next few years, and he is happy to volunteer his time to support the TJ PTSA. As the owner of a local data analytics company, he has a good understanding of managing accounts and account automation. He has also been on the board of a housing association for about four years, so he understands the accounting requirements for nonprofits. His goal is to automate as many processes as possible within the TJ PTSA and provide PTSA members data visualizations that will improve the transparency of TJ PTSA accounts.

2021-03-28 Class of 2021 Graduation Yard Signs Still Available

Class of 2021 Graduation Yard Signs are still on sale while supplies last. As of now, there are only 13 generic yard signs left. Login to AtoZ Connect (https://atozconnect.com/cls/login.php) to purchase a yard sign before they are gone.

Visit the ANGP & Senior Celebration Committee page on TJPTSA website at https://tjptsa.com/committees/angp-committee/ for more information related to ANGP & Senior Celebration.

2021-04-04 TJ Parents May Opt Students Out of SEL Lessons

Some parents have asked to see the material that was taught in the March 19 SEL lesson. Some of the material is attached below, so you can review most of it. There were additional materials that were not released to the TJ PTSA, including a video on Intersectionality and interviews with members of the TJ Alumni Action Group (TJAAG).

VFOIA-4748-PresentationDownload
VFOIA-4748-Teacher-GuideDownload

This type of critical race theory lesson is recommended in the TJAAG September 2020 report (page 6, 2nd column). The President of the TJAAG, which is a political lobbying organization, serves as a director on the board of the TJ Partnership Fund, which is a charitable organization.

If you would like your student to be opted out of the rest of the SEL lessons, for whatever reason (some may not appreciate the material presented, some students may want to have their 8th period time for their normal purpose), Dr. Bonitatibus has provided a streamlined process for doing so.

From Dr. Bonitatibus’ email:

Finally, if a parent wants a child to opt out of SEL lessons and/or participation in homeroom activities through June 2021, parents may submit an email request to the Department of Student Services at tjhsstdss@fcps.edu. This path is more streamlined at this time of the year since the form you reference in the link is more comprehensive about counseling services and may inadvertently signal broader counseling opt-out than intended.

If you have feedback (positive or negative) on the material being taught please provide it to your policymakers and the TJ administration. 

2021-03-25 TJ PTSA Will Fund Homecoming Activities & Prizes

Thanks to your generous donations and purchases of annual memberships, we can fund requests from TJ SGA for a Balloon Arch for Homecoming, as well as purchase prizes to help incentivize student participation in the virtual Homecoming events such as the Minecraft and Chess Tournaments.

Thank you members for funding these student activities.

2021-03-25 TJ Dominates All-Virginia Band and Orchestra 2021

Congratulations to 17 TJ students and 4 alternates who won seats at All-Virginia Band and Orchestra this year!  This is the highest representation from any school in the state.  The students played a rigorous video audition comprised of scales, prepared excerpts, and sight reading.  It was extremely competitive with over 1,000 students auditioning.  The TJ Music Department is very proud!

Jeb Barker (bass clarinet)
Anais Beauvais (trumpet)
Daniel Fu (clarinet)
Ramya Griddaluri (violin)
Sophia Go (violin)
Mira Kim (clarinet)
Vance Kreider (trumpet)
Katie-May Kretzer (horn)
Prashanth Kumaran (horn)
Grace Lee (violin)
Erin Li (viola)
Michelle Lin (flute)
Evan Ling (bass trombone)
Mikhail Mints (clarinet)
Ryan Payne (percussion)
Serenna Semonsen (violin)
Kai Wang (cello)

Aditi Chandrashekar (alternate bass clarinet)
Ben Chang (tenor trombone)
Danielle Cheong (alternate violin)
Steven Lu (alternate euphonium)