Thomas Jefferson class of 2018 welcomes freshmen on their first day of high school. photo by Jon Poole
Thomas Jefferson holds high expectations and goals for their students, and the Spartans welcome these challenges and the new year with open arms.
As another school year begins, TJ looks to welcome incoming freshman into the family. Again, the bar is set very high for the students, coming off of a fantastic 2016-2017 school year both academically and athletically. Mike Christoff will be returning for his second year as principal after a successful first year with the Spartans, leading the school to be ranked 28th of the best Colorado High Schools. During his first year as principal, Christoff witnessed impressive athletic achievements as several sports made it to the state level last year including volleyball, softball, baseball, girls’ swim and dive, and track and field.
At the end of the summer, Spartans came back to TJ on August 5th to participate in the TJ Clean Up Day. Students, parents, faculty, and staff picked up trash, maintained flower beds and the landscape, and gave the logo in the front of the school a fresh coat of gold paint. The seniors brought back an age-old tradition as well they carefully planned out their senior sleepout so they could wake up and greet the freshmen on their first day. The Leadership students, parents, and faculty volunteers worked tirelessly to make Slumped Under the Stars extremely fun, safe, and enjoyable. Seniors met in the evening for check in, then played volleyball, whiffle ball, and badminton, before they began watching movies after dark. Seniors set up sleeping bags, pillows, and blankets and spent the remainder of the night under the stars. In the morning, all of the seniors greeted the incoming freshmen at the front door, and passed out words of advice and encouragement to help welcome them to high school.
To aid in modernizing TJ and keeping up to date with recent technological trends, a mobile app has been launched that gives Spartans a mobile-friendly version of the journal. It includes school news and athletics, access to Infinite Campus Parent Portal, and even receive push notifications for important events. “Preparing students for the 21st century means we need to use 21st century tools to keep everyone engaged. Data is pulled right from our website as well as what we push to the app. It is a lot more convenient to reach parents and students to get more information out to people, instead of telling them to just check the website, they can just check the app.” This app will be very helpful for this school year and many to come. Best wishes to incoming and returning students for a wonderful year filled with academic achievement and impressive accomplishments.
