Virgil I Grissom Middle School

Virgil I Grissom Middle School operates as a moderately sized middle school in Mishawaka, Indiana, overseen by Penn-Harris-Madison School Corp. Current enrollment sits at 662 students spanning grades 6 through 8.

Penn-Harris-Madison School Corp comprises 15 schools with combined enrollment of 11,329 students; Virgil I Grissom Middle School is among them.

On the student-mix side, Virgil I Grissom Middle School logs that 68% of the student body identifies as White. The remainder breaks down as 12% Hispanic, 10% multiracial, 9% Black. That mix tracks the wider county fairly closely.

Looking at the economic backdrop, Staff filings list 43 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 15.6:1 students per teacher. The state averages about 15.6:1, putting this campus right in line with peers. About 51% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, which schools and policymakers use as a rough income-mix signal.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, Virgil I Grissom Middle School tracks the demographic baseline. The model predicts 39.7% given the school's FRL share; actual proficiency is 43.8%.

Across the wider county, ACS estimates for St. Joseph County put median household earnings sit near $66,868, roughly 34% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 9% of residents live below the federal poverty line. In all, St. Joseph County runs 73 public schools (combined enrollment of about 35,614 students), of which Virgil I Grissom Middle School is one.

Elm Road Elementary School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 1.5 miles from this campus. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 7 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Virgil I Grissom Middle School ranks 4th on composite proficiency, higher than the local average of 40.7%.

The campus sits in a countryside setting.

Over the past 7-year window. Over the past 7-year window, the student count remained close to its prior level: 650 students in 2018 compared to 662 in 2025. Over the same period, the White share fell from 78% to 68%. Class-load math has pulled in: from 17.8:1 in 2018 to 15.6:1 in 2025.

In the discussion threads here, recent activity here tends to focus on school events, parent volunteer needs, and clubs. Parents, students, alumni, and staff are welcome to weigh in.