Discovery 

February 22, 23 & 24, 2021

4:30 – 7:30 p.m.

Schmucker 

March 2, 3 & 4, 2021

4:30 – 7:30 p.m.

Grissom 

March 8 & 9, 2021

4:30 – 7:30 p.m.

Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation is nationally recognized as one of the “Best Communities for Music Education” offering choir, band and orchestra at Schmucker, Discovery and Grissom Middle Schools.

Every P-H-M 5th grader who will be attending a P-H-M middle school as an incoming 6th grader in the Fall 2021 has the opportunity to join an instrumental music class, which includes either band or orchestra. “Instrument Selection Night” is when students and families get to make their choice!

In order to join 6th grade band or orchestra, students must select an instrument that they will learn, practice and perform for the school year.  Click this link to sign-up for your appointment at your designated school and date. 
 

At “Instrument Selection Night,” a music professional will be available to give students advice about which instrument may be best suited for them. They will be allowed to “try out” instruments from various instrument groups.

Spring Break Kids Club

April 5 – 9, 2021

6:30 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Northpoint Elementary School (Door E)

Cost is $35 per child, per day or $150 per child for the full week. If you are not currently enrolled in Kids Club, you must also pay the $25 registration fee per child. Registration and payment are due, and non refundable, by Tuesday, March 30, 2021. 

Click here for more details and online registration.

Calling all kindergarten through fifth grade students and their families…it’s time for the VIRTUAL Young Author’s Conference! 

Sponsored by the P-H-M Education Foundation, the Young Authors’ Conference is an opportunity to meet and hear from multi-talented children’s author and speaker, Matthew Gollub.  Mr. Gollub has written over 20 picture books and will share his experiences as a writer during his engaging, grade-level presentations.

Participants will also enjoy an interactive music and movement experience with Horizon Elementary School’s very own music teacher, Jon West. 

Mr. West is a seasoned Elementary music teacher in the P-H-M School Corporation in addition to being the Executive Director of a local nonprofit community theater company, The Main Stage Inc.

COST:

• FREE for any K-5 P-H-M Student.

REGISTRATION:

• Students MUST be registered and registration is limited!
• Every student, including multiple students within the same family must have their own registration.
• Register at YAC Virtual Registration.
• Deadline for registration is Friday, February 19, 2021

VIRTUAL EVENT DETAILS:

Saturday, March 6, 2021       

9:00am – 10:30am

• Prior to the conference at the beginning of March, participating students will receive the link for the virtual event and additional information.

• This information will be sent to the email that was provided on the registration form.

• If you have any questions, please contact Lindsay Schirripa at lschirripa@phm.k12.in.us

Special thanks to our community partners who help make events like these possible: 

May Oberfell Lorber, Laidig Systems, Crowe Horwath, Gibson, Teachers Credit Union, Tuesley Hall Konopa, Lake CityBank,  Holiday Coral, EdwardJones – Joel Laidig & Barnes & Noble.

Interested in joining the P-H-M family and inspiring #PHMExcellence?

WHAT:

The 2021 Job Fair is going virtual! All applicants will be contacted by a P-H-M administrator to set up  a time for a virtual interview.

WHEN:

You MUST submit this form by February 19^th, 2021

TIPS:

Since your virtual interview will occur in a place of your choice, here are some considerations that will allow you to make a good first impression!

• Dress for success. Even though you may be in your house, dress as if you were walking into an in-person interview.
• Have your resume in front of you and be ready to talk about your specific experiences & qualifications.
• Test your technology (internet connection, camera & microphone)  ahead of time…we will be using Google Meets.
• Prepare the scene by considering the following:
  • Find a place that is quiet
  • Make sure you have quality lighting 
  • Remove all distractions from your area
  • Be logged in and ready 10 minutes before your interview begins
  • Consider what is in your background, you want the focus to be on you, not what is on the wall behind you
  • Steady Camera (don’t hold your phone / laptop in your hand)
• Be authentic and answer questions honestly!

At the Penn-Harris-Madison Board of School Trustees meeting held Monday, January 11, 2021, three Board Members were elected by their fellow Members to continue serving their officer positions: Mr. Chris Riley will continue as President, Mr. Larry Beehler will continue to serve as Vice President, and Mrs. Angie Gates will continue to serve as Secretary.
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Newly elected Penn-Harris-Madison Board of School Trustee Mrs. Clare Roach and re-elected Trustees Mr. Jim Garrett and Mr. Jamie Woods were sworn in Friday, January 8, 2021 at the Law Offices of May Oberfell Lorber by Attorney Jon Rogers. January 11, 2021 is the first P-H-M Board Meeting of 2021. Click here for a listing of the School Board Meetings for the 2020-2021 school year.

Mrs. Roach now holds one of the two Harris Township seats (Mrs. Angie Gates holds the other). Mrs. Roach is the Board’s newest member; she was elected in November 2020 and her term runs from 2021 to 2024. She was joined by her family at her swearing-in. See the picture below.

Mr. Garrett and Mr. Woods each represent Penn Township. Both were re-elected in November 2020 and their terms also run from 2021 to 2024.

Click here to meet the members of the entire P-H-M School Board.

Tonight (Monday, January 11, 2021) the Penn-Harris-Madison Board of School Trustees passed two resolutions pertaining to COVID-19.

The first Board Resolution dealt with the length of quarantine time for students and staff identified as close contacts. After consulting with the St. Joseph County Department of Health, the Resolution for Reducing Quarantines from 14 to 10 days allows P-H-M Administration to reduce the quarantine period from 14 days to 10 days for staff and students consistent with the CDC’s revised recommendations for quarantine periods. 

The revised guidelines state close contacts who have been exposed should quarantine at home for a minimum of 10 days after the last date of exposure to the positive case. Effective January 12, 2021, P-H-M students or staff identified as close contacts may return after 10 days IF they meet the following criteria:

• are symptom-free and they continue to self-monitor
• wear a mask 100% of the time
• follow ALL COVID safety protocols

Otherwise, the employee or student must quarantine for 14 days.

The Indiana Department of Health has provided these useful tools to help parents and staff figure out quarantine and isolation time periods:

• When to Quarantine Guide
• When to Isolate Guide
• School Attendance Quick Refrence Guide
• COVID-19 in Indiana Frequently Asked Questions & Answers
• Screening Guide
   

For P-H-M employees or students who start a quarantine period beginning  January 12, 2021, the quarantine period will be 10 days, not 14 days.  Employees or students who started their quarantine period prior to January 12th and were told that the quarantine period was 14 days, and are still in their quarantine period, will be informed that they are now allowed to return to work or school any time after the expiration of the 10th day of quarantine if they are able. If they are not able to, they will be allowed to complete the 14-day quarantine period.

The second Board Resolution adopted at the Jan. 11 Board Meeting is an extension of the essential provisions of Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), which was enacted by the U.S. Congress last Spring and expired December 31, 2020. Under FFCRA, employees who missed scheduled work days for certain specific reasons related to COVID-19, would be eligible to be paid up to 10 days, separate from the sick days that an employer might normally provide for its employees.  P-H-M called these COVID days. 

FFCRA and the federal requirement to provide this benefit expired at the end of the year 2020.  The Board Resolution for Additional Leave Due to COVID-19 will extend the time that P-H-M staff can receive up to a maximum of 10 COVID days from January 4, 2021 through the end 2020-21 school year.

This email was sent to parents on Thursday, January 7, 2021

Back on November 18 when I notified P-H-M secondary families that St. Joseph County Department of Health (SJCDH) was recommending area school districts revert secondary students from hybrid to virtual, I explained that this would only be temporary to cover the time before, during and after Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s holidays. This was one of several recommendations that SJCDH made in mid-November in an effort to help lessen the impact of COVID community cases on our local health systems. 
 

I shared with you at that time that it was our goal to bring middle and high school students back to school on the hybrid model beginning Tuesday, January 19, pending SJCDH guidance. This week P-H-M Administration discussed secondary students’ return to school with the SJCDH and I am happy to report that they support the return of our middle and high school students to the hybrid model on Jan.19th.
 

We know that our students receive the most ideal instruction through face-to-face learning. It is in our students’ best interest for their academic success and social emotional well being to receive as much face-to-face instruction as COVID health safety precautions will allow. We are in a position to return to hybrid learning because of the following:
 

• The most common contributors to community spread are social gatherings in which COVID safety protocols are not observed.
• In recent local news reports, SJCDH states local hospitals are in a better position now than they were before Thanksgiving and that the post Thanksgiving surge was relatively modest. SJCDH is relatively hopeful that the post Christmas/New Year’s holiday surge will also be modest.
• P-H-M tracks the number of student and staff COVID cases and actively conducts contact tracing on all cases reported to us. We proactively ask students and staff identified as close contacts to quarantine. The cases reported to us are reflected on P-H-M’s COVID Dashboard; a link to the Dashboard is on the homepage of P-H-M’s district website. The Dashboard is updated daily except for weekends, holidays, and district breaks.
• Most secondary parents support their students returning to the Hybrid model for their students’ academic and social emotional well being.
• All P-H-M parents, at all grade levels, have the option to keep their students 100% virtual. 
• We expect a modest number of secondary families will choose to keep their students virtual, which will further reduce the number of students in the buildings and classrooms.

Secondary principals will be asking their parents to return a survey declaring whether their student will remain virtual or return on hybrid. If you are a parent of a secondary student, please look for that email from your building principal and return your responses as soon as possible.

All COVID safety protocols as laid out in the Staff Return to Learn, the District Overview Return to Learn, and building level Return to Learn plans remain in effect. Among our many protocols, masks will still be required along with social distancing of 6 feet or more whenever possible.

Regardless if your child is virtual, in-person or hybrid, please continue to monitor your child’s health every day using this ISDH screening tool. Please do not send your child(ren) to school if they experience any of the following symptoms: fever or chills, sore throat, uncontrollable or new cough or shortness of breath or difficulty breathing (especially new onset), diarrhea, nausea, vomiting or abdominal pain, headache (especially new onset of severe headache with fever, or new loss of taste or smell). 
 

Also, please do not send your student(s) to school if they have had close contact with a known positive case, including in your own household, or awaiting test results. When you have a positive case (tested or clinical) in your household, the positive case should self-isolate away from the rest of the family members and the family should remain in quarantine. 
 

We also ask all P-H-M staff members to self-monitor their health and practice these same safety prevention guidelines. We continue to record cases of students and staff who are virtual. Therefore, parents should still report to your school principal if your virtual student has tested positive, and staff should also report if they are aware of a virtual student who is positive.

For more information on COVID-19 & P-H-M’s safety mitigation protocols, please visit our Return to Learn page.
 

Stay healthy and well and thank you for your continued flexibility and partnership as we work to provide the best education possible to your students.
 

Sincerely,

Dr. Jerry Thacker

Superintendent of Schools

CLICK HERE to download and print the secondary hybrid model beginning 1/19/21.

Third grade Prairie Vista Math teacher Amanda Fox was recently notified that she has been named an Indiana finalist for the prestigious national Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching (PAEMST) award. PAEMST is the highest honors bestowed by the United States government specifically for K-12 science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and/or computer science teaching. The National Science Foundation administers PAEMST on behalf of The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. This is the second time a PHM teacher has been honored as a PAEMST finalist. Penn's John Gensic was a Indiana finalist and was a national award recipient in 2017. Click to read that story.

Ms. Fox has spent the past four summers (2017-2020) working with Department of Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Notre Dame on various educational outreach, training, and research efforts funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The NSF grants funded K-6 computer science summer program at the University of
Notre Dame, and her innovative after-school coding classes. Ms. Fox worked to expand the after-school coding courses opening them up to all 2nd-5th graders. In the words of Prairie Vista parent Clare Roach, “She is indefatigable and single handedly brought a love for computer science to an entire school.”

She was among the first cohort of teachers to help K-8 teachers develop age-appropriate curriculum to introduce students to computer science within existing STEM curricula. Notre Dame Professor Michael T. Niemier praises Ms. Fox for mentoring other area teachers as well as working to help create content for K-8 students in various local school districts other than just P-H-M.

Ms. Fox has worked to help transform computer science education at Prairie Vista. She’s also established a northern Indiana chapter of the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA). 

National PAEMST award winners are expected to be announced in August.

Penn-Harris-Madison Board of School Trustees thanked resigning member Mr. Gary Fox for his 20 years of service as a member of the P-H-M Board of School Trustees at the meeting held Monday, Dec. 14, 2020.

Mr. Fox, who did not seek re-election for another four-year term in November 2020. Mr. Fox has served in Board leadership roles 5 1/2  years as president, 3 years as vice president, and as a member for 11 1/2 years, having served since January 2001.