Principal Michael Mukai recently became the new principal of Jefferson starting Jan. 20, following serving as the West Springfield High School Principal for ten years. Mukai graduated from Jefferson as the Class of 1989, the first graduating class, and is the first Jefferson student to become principal at Jefferson. On Feb. 14, tjTODAY interviewed Mr. Mukai to learn more about his journey and visions for the school.
Q: What were some of your goals and changes in the first few days here at [Jefferson]?
A: Every year, the county has curriculum updates, where they talk about new classes that can be taught at schools. [This year], [the] State of Virginia and Fairfax Public Schools added four advanced placement courses. For the first time, we’re going to make sure that you guys get credit for some AP courses where previously you guys were getting honors credit.
The biggest one is that the state longer is going to have Geosystems. They’re going to have Earth Science 1 and 2. You can’t require people to take a course that doesn’t exist.
When you’re applying for colleges, you get matched against your cohort. All the other schools in Virginia could now offer these courses, and if we didn’t give them to you, they would have them, and when it came time for you to apply to colleges, you would not. I wanted to keep [the promise] of having more and [doing] more.
When you’re late to school, we [added] that punch clock for the passes at the [front office] too. The teachers are saying it was taking [students] sometimes 15 minutes to get to the late line to check in. They’re late already, and then they miss another 15 minutes waiting in line to get a pass to be late. We’ve streamlined that. We’re using the old-fashioned punch clock and getting [students] through a little faster.
Q: Journalist: What has surprised you most about being back?
A: When I came here a long time ago, for the first five or six years, kids didn’t want to come here. The first principal of [Jefferson] had to go around all the middle schools, and he would meet with parents and beg them for [their] kids to go [to Jefferson]. One of the biggest things that has changed is just the desire for kids to be here. It [started off] as an experiment. Now, it’s gotten harder to get into [Jefferson].
What’s stayed the same is that you’ve all chosen to be here. You could have gone to their neighborhood schools. When your friends have been home for an hour or two back in the neighborhood, you’re still here or on a bus somewhere. Having a place where you can be one group, one mind, one teaching force makes it so that things are possible that cannot be possible anywhere else.
Q: What are some more specific ways [administration] is working to adjust the curriculum changes?
A: Some things that you guys are going to see soon is that you’ll have more choice for some of your courses. It’s going to open up some flexibility in the electives you take. That will affect staffing, [and since] staffing is driven by student choice, we won’t know until you guys choose. Once we have those numbers, we’ll make final decisions in terms of staffing and adjustments.
Whenever you teach Advanced Placement (AP) courses, the College Board requires teachers to complete AP training and have them certified to teach courses. We are going to provide some of those training to make sure our teachers are prepared, so that classes are certified, so that you guys get credit.
Q: When you were in high school, did you ever think you would come back here?
A: No, it was never one of those things that I thought I would do. There are very few people who ever think that they’re going to be principal. There’s probably more people that think that are going to be a fireman or policeman than they think are going to be a principal.
One of the greatest things is that my education here prepared me for whatever I was going to do. I got a degree in chemistry, I did chemistry work [and] I did work in a lab at Virginia Tech, [but] how many days in my life have I actually been a chemist? Zero. My first job out of college, I worked for Fairfax County. I’ve had the chance to teach math, to teach science, to coach four different sports. I’ve been the admission specialist, I’ve been an assistant principal, associate principal and I’ve been a principal at West Springfield High School for [ten years]. But I’ve never been what I trained to be. I was fortunate enough along the way to have some experiences along the way.
If you want to pick a principal of Thomas Jefferson High School science technology, it would be nice if they had a math and science background, some experience working for Fairfax County, if they had experience being a principal, if they knew what it meant to be a student here. Along the way, I’ve had a chance to do all those things.
Fairfax County changed my life and the trajectory of what I could do. To be able to repay that, to come back and give back to the school that changed my life and made a difference when I needed it most– what an amazing thing, right?