Saturday, March 1, 2025   

9:15 a.m. – 11:25 a.m. 

at Penn High School

for P-H-M students K – 5th grade

FREE! There is no cost for this event, but registration is required and limited.

REGISTRATION: Opens January 17 – deadline is Friday, February 14, https://bit.ly/BooksandBots

Sponsored by the P-H-M Education Foundation, Young Authors’ Conference is an opportunity for P-H-M students in Kindergarten – 5th grade to meet and hear from well-known children’s author and speaker Shannon Anderson, participate in a variety of robotic explorations, and visit a “Make It and Take It” puppet making session!

Shannon Anderson has spent 25 years teaching, from first grade through college level. She is now a full-time author, with picture books titled: B is for Belonging, Heroes Don’t Have to Fly, I Love Strawberries, and more. She is also known for her biography series, with books like The Story of Benjamin Franklin, The Story of Helen Keller, and so many more. A champion of kindness and positivity, Shannon believes that every day offers a new opportunity to make a meaningful difference.  

As part of the morning activities, students will participate in three rotations: one session with Shannon Anderson, one interactive puppet-making session, and one session where students will enjoy the hands-on exploration of technology with Sphero Bots, Dot and Dosh, Bee Bots, Ozobots and more! Our amazing P-H-M teachers and volunteers will guide students and their parents through the interactive session guiding them on how develop a character and create their own puppet.

At least one parent or guardian must accompany the student(s)!  If more than one child is registering for Books and Bots, the family will stay together so only one adult is needed.  Siblings YOUNGER than kindergarten may not accompany adults. This experience is for your young author(s) and the parent/guardian.

CONFIRMATION: Participating students will receive additional information prior to the conference through their home school at the end of February.

QUESTIONS: If you have any questions, please contact Candace Cussen at ccussen@phm.k12.in.us.

Learn more about becoming a Substitute Teacher or a Substitute Support Staff, click here.

Come to the Job Fair on Wednesday, Dec. 18 or apply online today.

Students took ILEARN in the Spring. The students’ results are more than just a reflection on how well they know and retained what they learned in a particular subject area. Teachers work very hard to help their students review and retain the knowledge, and when necessary interventionist educators use RtI (Response to Intervention) tools.

The Fall 2024 P-H-M Teacher Impact Awards are given to educators who had the most significant individual student growth with Spring 2024 ILEARN (grades 3-8 and high school Biology), AP Testing at Penn, and highest RtI growth.

With the help of the building principals, P-H-M Superintendent Dr. Jerry Thacker surprised the teachers with the Impact Awards. He was accompanied by other members of P-H-M Administration Dr. Heather Short, Asst. Superintendent; Director of Professional Development Dr. Lavon Dean-Null; and Ryan Towner, Director of Literacy. P-H-M Education Foundation Executive Director Jennifer Turnblom was also on hand; PHMEF covered the cost for the beautiful awards which teachers can proudly display in their classrooms.

Four awards were given out on Thursday, December 12:

Two awards were given out on Friday, December 13:

One award was given out Wednesday, Dec. 18:

While all P-H-M teachers make an impact with their students, dedicated to helping them achieve personal academic success, the Impact Award shines the spotlight on educators who have helped their students achieve individual academic growth on their formative assessments over time. The first-ever Impact Awards were handed out in September 2023 and recognized the teachers with the most significant overall student growth during the 2022-2023 school year.

At the December 9th Board Meeting, outgoing Board of School Trustees Members, Mr. Jim Garrett and Mrs. Clare Roach were recognized for their time on the Board.

Mr. Garrett, a beloved retired PHM teacher and coach, served on the Board for eight years.

Mrs. Roach, a parent of four PHM students, served on the Board for four years. Mrs. Roach had served as Secretary of the Board.

Both Garrett and Roach were presented with plaques commemorating dedication and years of service.

The new incoming Board Members Katie Bell and Gary Fox will be sworn in at the January 13, 2025 Board Meeting.

At the December 9th Board of School Trustees meeting, the Board approved P-H-M Administration’s recommendation of promoting current Associate Director of Facilities Jason Messner to the P-H-M Director of Facilities position.

Since joining P-H-M in the fall of 2019, Jason has consistently demonstrated exceptional leadership, technical expertise, and a steadfast commitment to the district’s operational success. His experience and deep understanding of our needs position him as an excellent choice to continue advancing our mission.

Jason and his wife, Elisha, are proud members of the P-H-M community with their two children attending P-H-M schools: a 6th grader at Discovery, and a 2nd grader at Northpoint. 

This year’s “Short Hair Because We Care” will hold a hair donation event for the Children With Hair Loss organization will be held Saturday, November 16 at Penn High School’s Studio Theater.

Anyone in the community can donate their hair, but the minimum is 8 inches of hair. Hair that is colored and permed is accepted. Local professional hair stylists will be donating their time to cut volunteers hair for free. Because this is for hair donation, the service provided is just a simple cut, no style.

This event was started in 2019-2020 school year by a group of 7th grade Grissom Middle School students. 

“It started as something that students could give, that wouldn’t be money or something they wouldn’t have control over being young students, but everyone can donate their hair, so that’s why we started it: to give everyone an opportunity to serve even if they don’t have other resources,” Ella Smoker Class of 2024. Click to see the WNDU-TV’s story.

Last year, 33 people donated a total of 334 inches (click to see photos)! Donate this year and help beat last year’s totals!

If you’re interested in donating, click here to sign up using the Google form.

Email shbwcphs@gmail.com with questions, and follow the group on Instagram at @shbwc_phs. 

If you can’t make it to the event or don’t have enough hair to donate, you can still help out by donating directly to Children With Hair Loss.

Children With Hair Loss is a nonprofit organization that provides hair replacements at no cost to children or young adults facing hair loss at no cost. Whatever the cause, hair loss can have effects that go deeper than cosmetics. Providing this hair is how this organization gives back to the community. You can help us give back to your community and the children facing hair loss by donating your hair or simply spreading the word about the event to everyone! 

Our school hosted the Monday, October 7 P-H-M Board of School Trustees meeting. It was an opportunity to shine the spotlight on some of the amazing things our students and staff are doing.

Principal Shonda Masterson kicked the meeting off by sharing with the School Trustees Bittersweet’s test data–Bittersweet students scored in the Top 5% of schools on last year’s ILEARN. Principal Masterson credited the teachers and the use of formative assessment with a focus on fostering stronger and more confident student writers. 

Creative writing exercises are being used at all levels. As an example second graders wrote about their field trip to Kercher’s Apple Orchard using their story vocabulary words. Alyssa Moles, Emmalyn Fazi, Steven Johnson, Cami Cromartie read their stories to the Board Members.

Other Bittersweet highlights included:

• pictures from 1st grade’s visit to nearby Garden at Chapel Hill Cemetery last Memorial Day to honor deceased veterans
• the Pen Pals program for 1st and 5th graders to other P-H-M elementary schools
• sharing the Bittersweet P.A.W.S. Pledge written by Media Aide Julie Villalba 

The spotlight on Bittersweet ended with a performance by Mrs. Cayleen Balbo-Veal’s 5th grade music students.

Thank you to EVERYONE who came to the 2024 Homecoming Parade and Football game. It was a terrific time not only for the Penn students, but also for the entire community.

The Parade, Expo, Fun Zone, Food Trucks and Fireworks were all bigger and better than ever.

After the game was over, the fans in attendance were treated to a fireworks show set to music!

There are three photo galleries below, one of the parade floats and participants, one of the parade spectators and one of the fun zone and expo. Take a look and we’ll see you in 2025!

Parade Floats

[Show slideshow]

1 2 ... 9 ►

Parade Spectators

[Show slideshow]

1 2 ►

Fun Zone & Expo

[Show slideshow]

1 2 3 ►

Today the IDOE announced the recipients of the K-12 Robotics Competition Grants and 15 Penn-Harris-Madison robotics teams from eight P-H-M schools were awarded a total grant of $53,600! 

• Penn High School (2 existing teams) – $14,000
• Grissom Middle School (2 existing teams) – $5,000
• Bittersweet Elementary School (1 new team) – $3,175
• Elm Road Elementary School (2 existing teams) – $6,137.50
• Horizon Elementary School (2 existing teams) -$6,137.50
• Meadows Edge Elementary School (1 new team) – $3,175
• Northpoint Elementary School (4 new teams) – $12,800
• Walt Disney Elementary School (1 new team) – $3,175

For all teams, existing and new teams, the grant pays for coaching stipends, team registration, competition registration, game specific materials, and supplies for building competition robots. Funds can also be used for transportation to events. 

For existing teams, most of their supplies will be updating and replacing used parts, tools, storage, and new parts needed for the new game. New teams’ supplies will be start-up kits, tools, storage, and game specific parts. 

The P-H-M proposal was selected from more than 145 grant proposals submitted for this funding opportunity, 137 school corporations and non-profit groups were ultimately chosen. The IDOE review team was impressed with P-H-M’s plan to design, construct, program, and participate in competitions with the goal of increasing Indiana student interest in STEM.

This grant removes barriers for schools and gives students opportunities to excel. It also creates a P-H-M pipeline of future Kingsmen robotics students with experience and excitement about robotics. Ultimately this opportunity gives students more STEM co-curricular experiences and broadens their horizons for future careers.