Thomas Jefferson Celebrates 3o Years

By Amy Howe

Thomas Jefferson Independent Day School (TJ) has a long-standing tradition of academic excellence in the Four States community. Celebrating its 30-year anniversary, TJ is committed to preparing students to succeed in college and to be engaged members of their community, now and for many years to come.

TJ is a pre-K through 12th grade liberal arts college prep independent school with roughly 315 students enrolled. The school budget is funded exclusively through tuition and gifts to the school.

“One hundred percent of our students go to a four-year college or university upon graduation, and all of them receive significant merit-based scholarship offers from colleges and universities,” said Director of Communications Robert Carlson.

The average composite ACT score for the Class of 2023 is 30, and the members of that class earned more than $7 million in merit-based scholarship offers. Seven of them were recognized by the National Merit Scholarship program, and three had perfect ACT scores (36).

“Our school just celebrated its 30th anniversary, and we recently received a multi-year, multimillion-dollar legacy gift from co-founders of the school Debra and David Humphreys,” said Carlson. “That gift allowed us to reset tuition last year and make a TJ education accessible to even more families over the next 30 years.”

To celebrate its 30th anniversary, the school had special events throughout the school year that brought alumni back to campus for special events; saw world-class authors visit with their students, faculty, graduates and parents; saw dozens more of alumni athletes inducted into the Cavalier Hall of Fame; and saw enrollment grow. The school also earned the No. 4 ranking in the state for the fourth straight year in the Niche rankings for Missouri K-12 private schools.

As for what the next 30 years will look like for TJ? The school looks forward to seeing students reach their full potential year after year. They are dedicated to ensuring their students achieve this by offering time-tested curriculum in a supportive academic environment. With their size and available facilities, students at TJ receive individualized attention from a world-class faculty in a school community where all of the families have a shared vision of academic excellence.