Petition

For over two years, students and families have been the target of an orchestrated campaign to diminish merit in Fairfax County, Virginia, in a harbinger of similar activity around the country. We demand an end to the war on merit.

Save Merit

A Coalition of Parent Groups and Organizations

Fairfax County School Board 

8115 Gatehouse Road, Suite 5400

Falls Church, VA 22042

Electronic delivery to recipients 

December 29, 2022

Dear Governor Glenn Youngkin, Lieutenant Governor Winsome Sears, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, Virginia Education Secretary Aimee Guidera, Virginia Superintendent Jillian Balow, Fairfax County Superintendent Michelle Reid and Fairfax County School Board,

On behalf of the undersigned organizations, we are writing to express our outrage at the actions of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJHSST) Principal Ann Bonitatibus, who has knowingly withheld for years notification of National Merit Commended Student awards from TJHSST students and their families, hindering the ability of students to benefit from this recognition as they applied for college admission and much-needed scholarship funds. 

This intentional act and its harmful impacts on students should result in the termination of Principal Bonitatibus and should elicit a full investigation into the actions and policies of administrators and staff at TJHSST, a Virginia Governor’s School, and Fairfax County Public Schools that undermine merit in education. 

As parent groups, many of which represent families and students who attend other high schools in Fairfax County Public Schools, feed students from Loudoun County, Arlington County and Prince William County to TJHSST or view TJHSST as an exemplary school, we are gravely concerned that this type of willful disregard for the academic and future success of students at the school district’s most prominent high school sends a signal to students in other schools in the nation, the state and the school district that Fairfax County Public Schools does not care about the academic successes of students at any of its county high schools. This school system used to celebrate academic achievement and merit. All of our students, regardless of which high school they attend, deserve better from our school system and school administrators.

We also seek the immediate termination of TJHSST Director of Student Services, Brandon Kosatka, from his position, for the same cause. The TJHSST administrators acted with reckless indifference to the impact that their decisions would have on the lives of the students they are supposed to be educating and helping to reach their potential.

Based on information we have received from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, among others, Principal Bonitatibus has been deliberately delaying and withholding notification of National Merit awards from TJHSST families, thus denying students the right to use those awards to boost their college-admission prospects and earn scholarships. Put bluntly, those academic achievements were earned by these students. The school principal and other administrators and staff do not have the right to hide that achievement from them. We are incredulous that it even has to be said at all.

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation confirms that it sent a letter to Principal Bonitatibus as early as April 2022, informing her that it would recognize 240 TJHSST students in September 2022 as Commended Students. Indeed, on Sept. 16, 2022, the organization sent Principal Bonitatibus a letter with an announcement to be distributed to students, families and the public. The letter included these words in bold, “Please present the letters of commendation as soon as possible since it is the students’ only notification.” Because of a postage issue this year, Principal Bonitatibus received the package in mid-October 2022. However, the awards were not distributed until Nov. 14, 2022, after the early application deadlines for colleges had passed two weeks earlier. 

In previous years, under her leadership, parents were not notified when their students received National Merit Commended Student awards and did not receive the certificates that the National Merit Scholarship Corporation had sent students. This failure to notify parents, who at TJHSST are frequently new immigrant and second-language learners and often do not know what questions they need to ask about these types of recognitions, is a serious breach of a culturally-responsive culture. It speaks yet again to FCPS giving lip-service to its support for different cultures and communities, while not following up its platitudes with real actions. 

Principal Bonitatibus’ withholding of National Merit Commended Student awards affected the lives of at least 1,200 students over her tenure of five years, starting in July 2017. She undermined these students’ college-admission prospects, and she damaged their chance to receive millions of dollars in college scholarships and Special Scholarships from corporate sponsors, as detailed by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, as well as honors, scholarships and admission opportunities from colleges and universities. 

This abuse of authority and power comes as the school district adopts a new misguided strategy, espousing “equal outcomes for all students.” We seek a reset that engages our parent groups and community members in examining the shortsightedness of this new strategy.

As TJHSST’s Director of Student Services, Brandon Kosatka admitted to a TJHSST parent, the decision to withhold the information from parents and students was intentional and with specific purpose, stating: “We want to recognize students for who they are as individuals, not focus on their achievements.” He further stated that Principal Bonitatibus and he did not want to “hurt” the feelings of students who did not get the award.

The actions of administrators at TJHSST, because of the school’s global recognition, reflect on the entire Fairfax County school system, the state and the nation. It sends a disturbing message to parents: Fairfax County Public Schools prioritizes platitudes over academics and its administrators will sabotage the academic success of students. This is a sad state of affairs for a school system that used to pride itself on the achievements of its students. The TJHSST administration betrayed the trust of students and parents, failed to promote TJHSST’s mission and made a national mockery of the entire Fairfax County Public Schools’ system.

We request the following actions:

1. The Fairfax County School Board should immediately terminate the employment of TJHSST Principal Ann Bonitatibus and TJHSST Director of Student Services ‘Brian Kosatka, effective immediately with cause. It is vital that the school system send a message that it will not tolerate intentional actions by their administrators that cause harm to the academic and financial futures of its hard-working students;
2. The Virginia Attorney General should conduct a thorough investigation of this matter to: (1) identify all TJHSST students awarded National Merit Commended Student awards from 2017 through now; (2) Identify all incidents when Principal Bonitatibus and any other principals gave instructions, orally or in writing, to delay or avoid the release of National Merit awards; (3) publish the investigation results, release the number of students identified, and notify each affected student and their parents of the delayed notification; (4) work with individual families and students to inform institutions of the error; and (5) investigate the methods undertaken by other high schools in Fairfax County Public Schools in handling National Merit commendations;

3. The Virginia Education Secretary and the Virginia Department of Education should issue a policy directive requiring all Virginia high schools, including TJHSST, to publicly announce National Merit awards including Commended Students and Semi-Finalists to students, parents and the public within one week of receiving the results. All Virginia students who earn these recognitions deserve to receive timely notifications, regardless of which high school they attend.
4. The Virginia Department of Education should investigate the failures to support students at TJHSST and should implement a regional governing board, as required by state and county regulations and resolutions, moving TJHSST out of the jurisdiction of the Fairfax County School Board.

We would like to meet with officials from your offices to discuss these important matters – critical to the future of our youth, our state and our country. We can be reached at [email protected] Thank you.

Sincerely,

American Hindu Coalition

Chinese American Parents Association of Northern Virginia

Coalition for TJ

Hispanics for STEM

Do Better FCPS

Fight for Schools

Army of Parents

cc: U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona 

U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights

Loudoun County School Board

Prince William County School Board

Arlington County School Board

Virginia State Senators and Delegates

Virginia U.S. Senators and House of Representative Members