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.

The Penn-Harris-Board of School Trustees on Monday night (December 14, 2020) unanimously approved the purchase of Stop-Arm Cameras Systems for all district school buses. Currently, 15 out of 135 P-H-M buses have this technology installed.

Since the spring of 2019, following the incident in Rochester in the fall of 2018, P-H-M installed equipment from the dealer on all new buses purchased by P-H-M. When future school buses are traded in, following the district’s bus replacement cycle, this technology will be moved over to the new buses. The total investment for the purchase and installation of these stop arm camera safety features is $363,739 (approximately $3,200 per school bus). P-H-M Administration anticipates the equipment will be received by the end of December and installation would begin in January 2021.

This past October P-H-M Administration met with representatives from the St. Joseph County Police, Mishawaka Police, and St. Joseph County Prosecutor Ken Cotter to address requirements and protocols for school bus stop-arm violations to be prosecuted. Following that meeting, P-H-M Administration worked with Kerlin Bus Sales and 24-7 Security to review the required specifications and the process for retrofitting P-H-M buses so they would be in compliance.

The 24-7 Security System generates a report with pictures of the violators’ car, license plate, and the location, all of which will be given to police after the violation is reported.

The installation of new equipment will provide completely new camera systems on all buses including higher resolution interior cameras, recorders, and hard drives. This will improve the quality and reliability of all bus videos. 

It is the district’s hope that having stop arm cameras installed on all P-H-M buses that it will raise public and increased compliance by drivers, and ultimately safer transportation environment for our students.

During a normal school year, Penn High School students enrolled in Childhood Development classes would be offering two unique programs for preschoolers in our community,  Playschool and Toddler Time.
 

However due to COVID suspending these programs for the time being, Penn Child Development teachers Mrs. Kylee Wetzel and Ms. Rachael Meyers have created lessons that children can do in their own homes. 

The Penn High School Early Childhood Education Classes are offering free eLearning lessons to children in the P-H-M community within the age ranges of 1-10 years old.

Children can participate at home with a caregiver, or during the school day via Google Meet with the Penn student facilitating the lesson.

Please fill out the Enrollment Form by Friday, Jan. 15 in order to participate.

Please contact Kylee Wetzel at kwetzel@phm.k12.in.us for any further information.

By BRADY SMITH

Penn High School Student Reporter

Penn High School Strength and Conditioning coach Matt Cates, just added another accomplishment to his resume as he was named the State Director of the National High School Strength Coaches Association (NHSSCA).

Cates graduated from Portage High School and went on to Manchester University, where he played football. Cates has coached at multiple schools, including Portage, Michigan City, Martinsville and Penn High School. 

Cates graduated with a Physical Education and Health Teaching K-12 at Manchester. He holds certificates for strength and conditioning through 3 additional organizations (USAW, HSSCS, SSC). Cates has served as the Strength and Conditioning Coach at Penn for five years.

“As a coach, I want students to know that they will be given as many opportunities as needed to grow," Cates said. "We are all in this together, good or bad, we will continue to work and have that growth mindset.”

Cates' goal, as a teacher, is to provide a culture of growth. This will cover leadership, physical strength, mental health, accountability, and of course, pride. When you walk into the weight room, he believes there is one mindset, “Be the best version of yourself.”

Cates explained that enhancing athletic performance is a lot more than lifting weights. Penn's Strength and Conditioning classes gives students opportunities to improve their confidence, show accountability, maintain a healthy lifestyle, demonstrate discipline, and allows all athletes to unite for the same common goal of excellence.

Nina Pulja, now a sophomore at Penn High School, said,  “Coach Cates is a coach that motivates met to get up and work harder every single day so I can grow to not only be a better athlete, but also a better person inside and outside the classroom.”

Cates said that being selected as the State Director of the National High School Strength Coaches Association is an enormous honor. The job entails many different responsibilities and expectations.

Coach Cates vision' for the State Association is to continue the resources and educational experiences/relationships for all high schools in Indiana, and to continue to grow the message of importance of strength and conditioning for high school-aged athletes. The organization is not just for strength coaches and physical education teachers, but all who interact with students and student-athletes. The main goal is to continue Indiana’s success in strength and conditioning and make it a flagship state of the nation.

The state director is a three-year term with the option of an additional three years.

The Indiana State Department of Health last updated the COVID-19 School Attendance Quick Reference Guide for parents and schools on December 4, 2020.

PLEASE NOTE: For families who are not able to isolate from everyone else at home, the start date of quarantine is determined by last date of exposure to a positive or untested person; this may be after the ill person completes their 10 days of isolation.

Click the image below to download and print.

This resource is also provided in the District Overview Return to Learn Fall 2020 document, under “Important Links at the end of the document.