Dear JP Schools Family,

As we embark on a new year, I’m compelled to extend my deepest gratitude to our JP Schools family. Your strong sense of unity, communal pride, and willingness to look after one another has led the way for us to overcome the obstacles and adverse circumstances we were presented with last year. As a community, you have shown continuous commitment and dedication to our children. This has helped to advance our district and give me great optimism for the upcoming year.

The start of the new year also allows us to reflect on what we have accomplished together. I’m proud of the notable steps our district has taken since my tenure began. We have maintained the ability to consistently keep our schools open despite the fluctuating circumstances of the ongoing pandemic and Hurricane Ida devastating our area. We’ve implemented programs such as Summer Bridge and Mission to Mastery, two solution-oriented programs developed to address and resolve learning loss amongst our students. We are also one of only 20 Louisiana school systems to improve on our District Performance Score, which serves as our state report card.

While I’m proud of those accomplishments, I also recognize that we have a long road ahead to create the school system that our families and students deserve. When you have a quality school system and people invest in that system, the better off we all are as a community. We view Jefferson Parish Schools as a subset of Jefferson Parish as a whole. The more we work together, the more we can make Jefferson Parish better.

I’m certain that we will accomplish great things together this year and look forward to continuing to advance our district by working together. I wish you and your families a happy and successful year and am looking forward to 2022 with great expectation.

Dr. James Gray