Assistant Principal Gary Grosicki passed away on the night of Aug. 5th.

Grosicki was a dedicated administrator and member of the community. During his two years at Jefferson, he showed his devotion to education as a class administrator and former teacher.

“Mr. Grosicki was definitely an amazing addition to the TJ community when he came during my sophomore year,” senior Liana Keesing said. “He was a model leader at a school that values innovation so much. He was always willing to talk through both of our crazy ideas, and he always had a novel suggestion for improving TJ’s culture.”

Some students also remember Grosicki for his administrative instruction for the Class of 2019.

“[It] was his first year as our assistant principal and I went to go meet with him because I felt the administration needed a more direct connection with the student body,” senior Ethan Phillips said. Just his willingness to connect with students really [made] it apparent that he chose to be a teacher and an administrator because he cared first and foremost about students.” Though his role as one of Jefferson’s assistant principals was for only two years, Grosicki stood out in his commitment to reaching out to the students and making sure they were heard.

“He set up a sort of conferencing session during eighth period where any students… could just come meet with him, talk to him,” Phillips said.  “The effort he put into connecting his administrative efforts to direct communication with students and valuing the relationship that he had with our class and with the entire student population was just above and beyond. He brought value by making his job about students.”

While Grosicki took academics very seriously, he also knew how to be light-hearted and make students smile.

“Sometimes I would randomly laugh during SGA or committee meetings,” Keesing said, “because Mr. Grosicki would notice if we were starting to look a little bored or doze off a little and if we were, he would always look over and make a weird face to make sure that we didn’t completely fall asleep.”

Almost a month after his passing, students continue to remember Mr. Grosicki as a valuable member to the integrity of the school.

“He really really cared about students and he made that clear, which is something that I don’t think we see enough of a lot of times. He made it apparent that whatever he did it was because it was improving school integrity or working towards making a more transparent administration. He did it because he really really cared about students,” Phillips said.

Please reach out to the counselors and administrators if you need someone to speak to in the wake of this event.