The annual Superintendent’s Luncheon is coming soon! On October 17, 2017, P-H-M Superintendent Dr. Jerry Thacker will give his State of the Corporation address to parents, business, community and education leaders.

The luncheon, hosted by the  P-H-M Education Foundation, is a District fundraiser and also a chance to say thank you to all of the partners who have made grant funding possible. Those grants help make many important programs for P-H-M schools possible.

The featured speakers this year will be former Bethel men’s basketball head coach Mike Lightfoot and his wife, Jacci Lightfoot. Mike and Jacci will speak about how their new calling to lead was fueled by their passion for education and athletics.

For tickets, please click here to pay online. For more information, contact Amber Kennedy at 254-2893 (ext. 10721).

Registration for P-H-M’s Fall Classes is now open!  Sign up with a friend to do everything from Cardio Drumming to Knitting!

Click here to view a pdf copy of the Fall 2017 brochure or click here to view the schedule register and pay for classes online.

Visit PHM.Revtrak.net today!

The application window for P-H-M Education Foundation’s Fall 2017 Grant Cycle is now open!

And thanks to the  success of the P-H-M Education Foundation’s 20th Anniversary Gala in May 2016, an additional $10,000 is available for grants. A total of $ 33,920 is available this academic year!!!

PHMEF is seeking innovative programs that have not been previous funding through past grant cycles. Note there are funding restrictions such as not paying for substitutes, food, party supplies, etc. A complete list of restrictions can be found in the application packet. Those applications requesting non-funded expenses will not be presented to the Grants Committee.

So parents work with your student’s teacher or principal to write up a grant proposal for a program you’ve been wishing you child’s school had. PHMEF grants are eligible to any staff member who can demonstrate their program’s innovation, creativity and reflects commitment to excellence in education. Click here for a list of the unique Spring grant awardees.

The window for applications closes on Thursday, October 26. Applications are due promptly at 4:00 p.m. on Thursday, October 26. If you are turning your applications in at the ESC, please come to 55900 Bittersweet Rd., Mishawaka. No late applications will be accepted. Note that there must be 10 copies for the traditional form.

There are two ways to apply:

• EZ Form: for grants less than $250

• Traditional Form: to be used for grants requesting $250 or more and/or a request that is comprehensive (multi-classroom, school-wide or district-wide requests)

Application and filing details can be found on the Education Foundation’s website. Click here to access the application.

The timeline for the PHMEF Fall Grant Cycle is as follows:
 

Thursday, Oct. 26 – All applications (EZ Form and Traditional Form) must be turned in by 4 p.m. No late applications will be accepted. Note there must be 10 copies for the traditional form. 
 

Between Oct. 31 and Nov. 27 – PHMEF grant committee meets to select recipients and presents grants for approval to the P-H-M Education Foundation Board of Directors.

By Nov. 30 – Recipients will be notified by email with formal letter to follow

By Dec. 8 – Checks will be sent to the recipient’s home school.

Last Friday night (September 15) was a big night … not only was it Penn’s Homecoming game vs. Adams High School, it was also the dedication of the Larry Beehler Ticket Center! 

Mr. Beehler was honored in a pregame ceremony with his family before kickoff. He was joined by his wife, four children and their spouses, six grand children with spouses, and one great grand child! Members of P-H-M Board of School Trustees, Education Foundation, P-H-M Administration, along with Superintendent Dr. Jerry Thacker were also on hand. Click to watch the video below of the night’s highlights.

Mr. Beehler is the longest serving Board Member on the Penn-Harris-Madison Board of School Trustees. In his 31^st year of service with P-H-M, Mr. Beehler was elected to the Board as the Madison Township representative ​ in July 1986. He is a graduate and class valedictorian of then Madison Township High School (Wakarusa), which is now Madison Elementary School, one of P-H-M’s 11 elementary schools. Larry and his wife of 55 years, Judy, are lifelong residents of the Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation. 

This past August, anonymous donors donated $25,000 to the P-H-M Education Foundation Naming Rights campaign to have the newly constructed ticket center at Penn High School’s TCU Freed Field named after Larry Beehler. Click here to read more about the Education Foundation naming rights campaign.

In recognition of Larry Beehler’s 31 years of service on the Penn-Harris-Madison Board of School Trustees, the Larry Beehler Ticket Center at TCU Freed Field will be dedicated before kickoff of Penn Football game Friday night, September 15. The dedication will take place on the field before the coin toss and kickoff. This wil be the first time the public will have a chance to see the new ticket center with the signage of the new name. Friday night is Penn’s Homecoming game vs. Adams High School.

The ticket center is part of the facility updates that took place over the summer at Penn High School’s football field. P-H-M’s Board of School Trustees voted to approve the name the ticket center after Larry Beehler at their meeting held on August 14. Anonymous donors established a naming rights partnership with the P-H-M Education Foundation to name the ticket center after Mr. Beehler.

Mr. Beehler is a graduate and class valedictorian of then Madison Township High School (Wakarusa), which is now Madison Elementary School, one of P-H-M’s 11 elementary schools. Larry and his wife of 55 years, Judy, are lifelong residents of the Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation. In July of 1986, he was elected to the Board as the Madison Township representative and is currently serving his 31st year as a Board Member. During his time on the Board, Mr. Beehler served in leadership roles as Board Secretary for three years, Board Vice President for nine years, and Board President for six years. He has also served as P-H-M’s representative on several different Indiana School Boards Association (ISBA) boards, including as Board Policy Liaison and Legislative Liaison. He is also an active member of the National Schools Boards Association (NSBA).

During his time on the Board, Mr. Beehler’s roles have ranged from also serving on District Strategic Planning Committees to Smaller Learning Communities Achievement Design Committee for Penn High School. Mr. Beehler was nominated and received the Penn High School Distinguished Staff Award in 2010 sponsored by the Penn High School Alumni Association.

Aware of the P-H-M Education Foundation’s ongoing naming rights campaign, anonymous donors contacted the P-H-M Education Foundation wishing to contribute to the Foundation’s endowment. Wanting to also find a way to honor Mr. Beehler’s three decades of civil service and dedication to P-H-M, the naming rights partnership for the new ticket center was suggested. Per the agreement, the donors have donated $25,000 to the P-H-M Education Foundation endowment.

When a donor partners with PHMEF on the naming rights fundraising initiative, 80 percent of the donation goes into the Foundation’s endowment. This in turn provides alternative and additional funding for various co-curricular and extracurricular programs. The remaining 20 percent directly funds professional development initiatives for P-H-M teachers. Continuing education and training of educators is a major priority for P-H-M School District. The key to providing an excellent education is having excellent teachers. P-H-M teachers are excellent at what they do because of their passion, but also because of the ongoing professional development the District provides.

This story was written by CARSON COCQUYT

Penn High School Student Reporter

Granting teachers the opportunity explore the world of education outside the United States is very promising. Given that the world offers such a great variety of culture, there is so much new knowledge to be gained abroad.

One of the ways an educator can explore and study in an unfamiliar country is through Fulbright Scholarship. This scholarship, which was proposed by Senator J. William Fulbright in 1945, sought to promote international learning for teaching professionals in the U.S.

There are more than 3,000 applicants who apply for a Fulbright Scholarship each year, but only just a handful of teaching faculty are awarded with the opportunity of a lifetime to research, study and teach in a country of their choice.

Eric Bowers, an AP European and AP U.S. History teacher and tennis coach at Penn High School, was one of the few applicants accepted into the program.

Bowers was assigned to visit Bavaria, Germany, and was permitted to study at Regensburg University.

Bowers spent a total of four weeks in Europe. Even though the scholarship only funded two weeks of the trip, Bowers decided to head to Europe and week early and stay a week late. By doing this, he was able to visit more countries other than just Germany.

During July, Bowers was in and out of countries daily, submerging himself a new culture each few days at a time. Click here to see the full photo gallery on Penn High School’s website.

While in Germany, Bowers sat in on presentations, classes, and guest speakers at each level of study in Germany. His task in was to learn from the educators who live and work in Germany, and apply their work into his life back home at Penn.

Whenever he had freetime from his studies in the classroom, Bowers said he would, “walk the streets of Germany and get a taste for everything it had to offer. Whether it be visiting schools or local businesses, I saw a new aspect of life everywhere I went.”

One of the most eye-opening things Bowers witnessed on his trip was the Syrian Refugee camps located in Germany.

“I found it interesting that Germany was fond of welcoming the refugees into the country as they planned to help them assimilate into the population.”

It was situations like these that help Bowers realize the culture of Germany has endured great change since the World Wars they were responsible for.

Overall, Bowers truly did learn a lot about the system of education in Germany and the cultural life as well. By taking time out of his summer to do this trip, Bowers feels that it was worth it. The amount of knowledge he gained from the countries abroad have helped him understand the world better as a whole.

The biggest take-away that Bowers took from his trip was that he learned to accept new strategies of learning teaching in the classroom. Now that Mr. Bowers in back home, he can apply is experience and knowledge into the classroom at Penn High school.

With the release of the Spring 2017 ISTEP+ results, Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation now ranks in the state’s top 4% of public school districts.

Based on both Math and ELA pass results of grades 3-8, P-H-M ranks 12th out of all 292 public school districts in Indiana. For grade 10, P-H-M ranks 9th out of all 292 public school corporations—the Michiana area’s only public school district to make the top 20!

P-H-M’s overall district pass rate for grades 3-8 was 70.8%, compared to Brownsburg Community School Corp. who received the highest overall pass rate of 83.1%. Penn-Harris-Madison’s pass rate for grade 10 was 59.9%, compared to Carmel Clay Schools 68.3%

“When you compare P-H-M to the state’s other top performing school districts, you can see the level of excellence that our students and teachers are achieving in the classrooms,” said P-H-M Superintendent Dr. Jerry Thacker commenting on yesterday afternoon’s (Wednesday, September 6, 2017) testing results release by the Indiana Department of Education. “P-H-M has been able to achieve high performing test results not just by teaching the academic standards, but by empowering our teachers with ongoing professional development, equipping them with technology providing timely and efficient student assessment, while also growing our students’ academic stamina with rigor and relevant preparatory tools.”

As part of Penn-Harris-Madison’s own self-district assessment, P-H-M administration reviewed the 2017 ISTEP+ results information from across the state and also notes the following examples of P-H-M Excellence:
 

• Northpoint is Indiana’s #1 public elementary school!
• Discovery ranks #3 out of the state’s 205 public middle schools.
• P-H-M has four schools (Northpoint, Prairie Vista and Horizon Elementary Schools, along with Discovery Middle School) ranked among the state’s top 50 of all 1,437 public schools.
• P-H-M ranks 4th among public school corporations with large high schools (student population more than 500).
   

After analyzing the data, Dr. Thacker also noted “I am extremely proud of what our students and teachers have been able to achieve. It is with the parent and community support that they receive that P-H-M is able to achieve academic excellence at all levels. I look forward to using the data from 2017 ISTEP to build on and improve for this coming 2018 spring testing.”

Two of the highest honors for the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts are the Eagle Scout rank and Gold Award, respectively. Attaining these prestigious achievements not only requires dedication and hard work from the scouts, but also stresses the importance of community service through projects. 

At Penn High School, we encourage student participation in community service through project-based learning. It’s always gratifying when the students then apply these concepts in their own activities outside of school.

Last school year, nine Penn High School students (five graduates and four current students) gave back to their community on their way to achieving their Eagle Scout rank and Gold Awards.  In this latest example of #PHMExcellence, the students walk us through their community service projects at Prairie Vista and Madison Elementary Schools, and at Birch Lake in Vandalia, Michigan.

The P-H-M Community Tailgate was held Friday, August 25 before Penn’s home opener football game against Merriville. The popular annual event brings together members of the community, Penn faculty, staff and students, as well as parents and families from across the District. This was the 30^th year for the event.

Approximately 200 fans and supporters showed up to enjoy the food and good times served up by the P-H-M Educational Resource Staff and Administrators. Penn beat Merriville 7-0, so the night was a huge success!

If you missed the Community Tailgate this year, be sure to mark your calendar for next year. It’s always held the night of Penn’s first home game from 5:30-7:00 in the ESC parking lot! It’s quite a deal; for just $3.50 you get a grilled hot dog or brat, chips, cookies and a drink!

Today (Thursday, August 24, 2017) more than 800 children walked into Penn-Harris-Madison’s 11 elementary schools as kindergartners! Teachers and staff were excited to begin educating the future Class of 2030 and start them on their journey of academic excellence in P-H-M schools.

We visited four of the 11 elementary schools to capture the excitement: Elsie Rogers, Mary Frank, Northpoint and Prairie Vista. And we caught up with P-H-M Superintendent Dr. Jerry Thacker and School Trustee Board Members Larry Beehler and Jim Garrett during their visit to Northpoint. Dr. Thacker visits all of P-H-M’s 15 schools during the first three days of school. View the photo gallery below.