Dear Grove Families,

Welcome to the 2025–2026 school year at Grove Junior High School! I am excited to begin another year together, my fourth as principal at Grove. It is truly an honor to serve this community.  Whether you’re returning to Grove or joining us for the first time, we’re so glad to have you as part of our school community.

This year, our school community is coming together around the theme: “Every Piece Matters” Learning and growing in middle school is like building a puzzle. Students are adding academic skills, problem-solving abilities, and life lessons piece by piece in order to progress and grow and figure out who they are and who they want to become. Sometimes they try a piece that doesn’t fit, just like making a mistake in learning. But with persistence, reflection, and practice, they find the right connections. Mistakes are part of the process. Each piece, each step, and each effort matters. 

“Every Piece Matters” in four specific areas as a school this year: 

1. 1. Goal Setting: Every student this year will regularly look at their own data and set long-term and short-term goals for themselves. Learning how to break apart a dream or goal into small manageable pieces is an essential skill for school and life. 
   2. Vocabulary: Every student this year will learn how to break words into “pieces” or word-parts. This will be a focus in all subject areas. 60% of words in the dictionary have recognizable word parts. When a person knows what word parts mean, they are able to predict the meaning of new words and can then literally piece together meanings of new words in order to engage in and comprehend more challenging reading.
   3. Personal Growth: Every student this year will make mistakes, no doubt about it. Some mistakes will lead to academic lessons and some will be life lessons. But all will require reflection, owning their mistakes and persistence in how to progress forward, even if on a different path.

• Perspective-taking: Understanding other’s perspectives and life experiences are essential in creating a safe and accepting school community. Every person that makes up our community is valued and appreciated. This is a thread throughout everything we do at Grove and we will continue to develop this through social emotional learning lessons and guest speakers.

At Grove, we are committed to fostering and maintaining a safe, supportive, and engaging learning environment. We value open dialogue and collaboration and I look forward to building lasting connections with the community, families, students, and staff. Educating and developing children takes a village, and I feel privileged to be able to be a part of your child’s junior high school experience. Please do not hesitate to reach out.

Looking forward to another great year,

Alison Jenski