History of JYMS

A middle school was built on North Main Street between Main Street and Liberty Drive in 1972. This replaced Main Junior High School, which had been the original high school in Mishawaka. Main Junior High School operated in 1910-1973. The first classes at John Young Middle School began on February 19, 1973. John Young Middle School is named after Dr. John J. Young, who was superintendent of Mishawaka schools from 1948 until 1967.

The school had a planetarium, the only one in the city of Mishawaka. The planetarium had 81 seats under a 30’ diameter dome that offered a wide-screen effect. It weighed four tons and was covered with five layers of acoustically treated plaster which formed a perfect sound chamber. JYMS also had a dark room for photography, offices, a gymnasium, cafeteria, and library.

In 1999, an 87,630 sq. ft. addition was added creating 25 classrooms and 27 support areas. This new design of JYMS is to support a “team based” instructional program. Seven hallways house classrooms for core subjects: English, math, science, social studies, and foreign language exploration. Students move within their “team hallway” for these classes. For the exploratory classes that round out the academic program, students would travel to computer labs, art, and music rooms, family and consumer science areas, an industrial technology room, the construction/manufacturing lab, and two gymnasiums.

Did you know that John Young Middle School used to be known as the Vikings? After Beiger Middle School closed in 2002 and Mishawaka only had one middle school, JYMS became the home of the Jaguars.