South Elementary

Greetings!

My name is James Groves and I feel extraordinarily blessed to be a part of Jefferson City School District.  My wife and best friend of 29 years, Renee, and I moved to Jefferson City from Fairbanks, Alaska and before that Mauritius where I was a principal of both elementary and secondary students.  We now reside here in Jefferson City with the last two of our seven children.  My family and I are excited to be back in the Midwest, as Southern Illinois was our home for most of our lives.  We have many passions that excite us, chief among them are growing in our faith, helping people in need, as well as hiking, backpacking, camping and generally just being outdoors.  

As an educator, I started my career teaching pre-school and then 1^st Grade.  I taught in the Department of Corrections in Illinois in both juvenile and adult institutions and then spent the bulk of my career split between teaching 5^th grade and 6^th-8^th grade English.  As an administrator, I was the founding Headmaster of a Cambridge international secondary school in the Republic of Mauritius and later administered a K-8 magnet school in Fairbanks, Alaska.

I earned my B.S. in Elementary Education and later my M.A. in Educational Administration.  I also studied full-time at Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis for more than two years and most recently completed my doctoral degree in Curriculum and Instruction.  My passion in education is for simplifying educational systems, creating positive school cultures, Restorative Practices, and research-based educational practices.

I am thoroughly excited to be the Principal at South Elementary School and to be a part of this amazing team.  My wife and I have felt so welcomed in Jefferson City as a result of the good people we have met and the compassionate culture of this town.  I was an assistant principal at Thomas Jefferson Middle School for three years and quickly grew to count the entire staff and student body as my extended family. I will always consider my time there to be a true blessing and I look forward to creating the same positive relationships with the South family.