While many of our surrounding high schools continue to sprawl into neighboring farm land, Jenison’s size has remained steady at around 1,400 high school students. In our eyes, this as a huge “plus” because it allows our teachers to really get to know the faces in the hallways, minimizing the possibility of kids “getting lost” in the crowd. Additionally, it offers more students the opportunity to get involved in clubs and other activities as there is less competition for coveted openings.

Being a smaller school, however, can sometimes pose a challenge when it comes to athletics. Rather than having dozens of kids trying out for a given team, for example, Jenison may only have a handful. For this and other reasons, we have been working diligently to level the playing field by leaving the OK-Red conference and join the OK-White. This proved to be more difficult than we initially expected, but we are pleased to announce that our colleagues around the voting table have given the thumbs up to our move. We are grateful and excited about this new chapter!

Beginning in September 2012, we will be playing teams from East Grand Rapids, Forest Hills Central, Caledonia, Grand Rapids Christian, and Lowell. My thanks go out to Jenison’s Athletic Director Leroy Hackley and the entire OK Conference!