The annual Superintendent’s Breakfast sponsored by the the P-H-M Education Foundation was a great success. This year’s event was held Wednesday, May 15 at St. Joe Farm.

WSBT-TV anchor and P-H-M parent Bob Montgomery emceed the event. Speakers included PHMEF President Mary Stines, PHMEF Executive Director Jennifer Turnblom, and the featured speaker was Penn-Harris-Madison Superintendent Dr. Jerry Thacker delivering the “State of the District” address.

The Superintendent’s Breakfast is a fundraiser for the Education Foundation and helps support academic excellence in all 15 P-H-M schools through awarding innovative teaching grants, staff development and other corporation-wide initiatives.

Thank you to the PHMEF Board of Directors and the Event Committee members for all their help and planning of the event. We also thank ALL of our sponsors, including:

• Everwise Credit Union, Presenting Sponsor
• Fanning Howey, Supporting Sponsor
• Contributing Sponsors:
  • Magnus Engineering, LLC
  • Matthew Frank Moore Foundation
  • Schmidt Associates
  • University of Notre Dame
• PHMEF Patrons:
  • 1^st Source Bank
  • Bethel University
  • Centier Bank
  • Dari Fair
  • Gurley Leep Automotive Family
  • Ivy Tech
  • L.L. Low Associates, Inc.
  • May Oberfell Lober
  • Sodexo

A special thank you also to the following people who helped make this event special:

• April Oppenhiem, Zac Coudret, and Penn High School Orchestra students for the music
• Becky Brown and Penn High School Ceramics Students for the centerpiece art
• Dussel’s Farm Market & Greenhouses for the flower basket centerpieces
• New Life Church Pastor Michael Cramer
• Proshow for the audio visuals
• PHMEF Office Manager Amy Chrise and the PHMEF Planning Committee
• All PHMEF donors whose contributions make excellence in educaiton possible!

#photogallery

Mr. Art Klinger, the man credited with being the “father” of P-H-M’s DVT & Planetarium, was honored today when the facility he helped create 44 years ago was officially renamed in his honor. The new P-H-M Arthur M. Klinger Planetarium sign now hangs on the exterior of Bittersweet Elementary School, where the facility is housed. It was unveiled to cheers and applause on the afternoon of May 14, 2024. Click to watch the video below.

On hand for the unveiling and dedication were Klinger’s wife, son, and longtime friends. Also present was P-H-M Superintendent Dr. Jerry Thacker, Executive Director of P-H-M Education Foundation Jennifer Turnblom, members of PHMEF Executive Board, P-H-M School Board Members Jim Garrett and Ryan McCullough, P-H-M Administrators, and current Planetarium Director Melinda O’Malley. P-H-M former Superintendent Dr. Dean Speicher also attended. It was under Dr. Speicher’s leadership that Bittersweet school and the Planetarium opened in 1980. Bittersweet first grader teachers and students added to the celebration. The students made a banner to mark the occasion.

Click to see the full photo gallery below.

Klinger began his 45 year career with P-H-M in 1970.  He taught Earth and Space Sciences at Schmucker Middle School, a position held for 10 years before taking over the Planetarium as its first director. Klinger’s interests in astronomy, aviation, and space travel made him a natural for the position. He was a pilot receiving his private pilot’s license in 1974. He was a member of the Great Lakes Planetarium Association and the International Planetarium Society. Klinger even authored an Introductory Astronomy text book that was used in Penn High School and IUSB astronomy classes; the last revision was August 2020. 

It was Klinger’s interest in the space travel history and NASA that really transformed the Planetarium. Astronaut Col. James Irwin, Lunar Module Pilot of Apollo 15 (8th man to land on the Moon), was the honorary speaker at the Planetarium’s public dedication in February 1981. He was the first of six astronauts to visit the Planetarium over the years; a Russian cosmonaut even visited in 1994. With every visit, personalized autographed photos were donated.

The Planetarium’s Space Museum came about through a connection Klinger made with the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum because of his application for the “Teacher in Space Project” in 1984. From that connection, 47 artifacts, including 16 that have actually been on the Moon, were loaned to the museum. Klinger eventually secured autographed pictures of all flown astronauts. He even obtained the autographed photos of the scientific minds behind the “Space Race,” like Wernher von Braun and Yuri Gagarin. Klinger states that according to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, P-H-M is the only public school district that not only has artifacts from the space program, but also has items that have been on the Moon. Click here to watch a video of Klinger talking about the importance of space exploration.

Klinger served as Director of P-H-M’s DVT, Planetarium Space Museum for 35 years retiring in 2015 after working at P-H-M for 45 years.

Dr. and Mrs. Thacker donated $10,000 to the Penn-Harris-Madison Education Foundation to rename the Planetarium the Arthur M. Klinger Planetarium.

This $10,000 donation is among four donations to PHMEF that Dr. and Mrs. Thacker have made as part of the Naming Rights Campaign. All recognize the contributions P-H-M employees have made to the community:

• Chris Geesman Kingsmen Athletic Center (formerly the Kingsmen Athletic Center), $25,000 donated in December 2021 
• Al Rhodes Kingsmen Court, $10,000 donated in October 2023 
• P-H-M Arthur M. Klinger Planetarium, $10,000 donated in January 2024
• Yeoman Family Plaza, $10,000 donated in March 2024 (dedication still to come)

Per PHMEF’s Naming Rights fundraising initiative, 80 percent of the donation will go into Foundation’s endowment, which will in turn provide 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 the education and training of teachers is a major priority of the School Corporation.

The mission of the Education Foundation is to develop alternative sources of income to support education initiatives in the School Corporation by strengthening partnerships between the community and the District. PHMEF supports education through awarding innovative teaching grants, staff development and other corporation-wide initiatives.

This week is National Teacher Appreciation Week and Penn-Harris-Madison Superintendent Dr. Jerry Thacker is making his rounds to surprise a couple of P-H-M’s best educators with some good news.

Today, Dr. Thacker with the help of Penn High School Principal Dr. Sean Galiher and Assistant Principal Jeanie Mitchell (a former PHM Teacher of the year herself), Jeremy Starkweather was taken off guard with the news that he had won P-H-M’s 2024 Secondary Teacher of the Year honor! Local TV stations were on hand to capture it all! Mr. Starkweather’s wife, Ally who is also a teacher at Penn, was told ahead of time so she could participate in the surprise. Along with the students, a big group of fellow Penn teachers and PHM District Administrators were in the classroom to congratulate him. Click to watch the video below. 

Mr. and Mrs. Starkweather are both 2013 graduates of Penn High School. Mr. Stakweather attended P-H-M’s Moran Elementary School and Grissom Middle School.

Click here to see the full photo gallery on Penn’s website.

Jeremy Starkweather is wrapping up his 7th year of teaching at P-H-M; but including his time as a student, student-teacher, and now a teacher, he’s been at Penn for a total of 12 years! He’s even still on the Speech & Debate Team just like he was while in school, except now he’s the coach! Mr. Starkweather is everywhere; he serves as the Assistant Coach for the Boys Cross Country Team, Coaching Consultant for the Education Foundation’s Running is Elementary, and Vice President of the Penn Building Trades Board of Directors.

Mr. Starkweather’s interests have carried over from his student days into his teaching career. Along with teaching English, Mr. Starkweather also teaches Debate, and has been serving as Penn’s Speech and Debate Coach since his first year of teaching. Prior to Mr. Starkweather at the helm, the team struggled to attract student participants; now Mr. Starkweather has made it cool to be on the Speech and Debate Team! The 2023-2024 school year both teams did extremely well. The Speech Team has 20 students advancing to the national tournament this summer; and the Debate Team not only won the State Championship, but a couple of the students even broke a record previously held by Coach Starkweather when he was a student!

For the first time in Penn history, the Debate Team won a State Championship. Additionally, out of all five state championship debate categories, three Penn students came in 1st place in two categories (one team and one individual) adding two more State Titles to the list. One of those wins was a student duo in the Policy category. Policy received a traveling trophy that has been around almost a century; and the last time the trophy was in Penn High School’s possession was when Jeremy and a teammate won it back in 2013 (his senior year)! How’s that for full circle? 

Until recently, Jeremy was known for his big bushy, blonde afro. However, thanks to Jeremy’s topnotch debate coaching skills, his team captains convinced him last summer, when the team was at the national competition, that if they won the State Championship, he would allow the students to shave his head. Jeremey Starkweather is a man of his word! He didn’t just allow his students to cut his hair, he let ALL the Speech & Debate students, Speech teacher Danielle Black, and Superintendent Dr. Jerry Thacker get in on the action. It took over an hour to cut off 9 inches of his golden locks! Now that’s showing commitment and dedication to your students! Click here to see that video and full photo gallery.

Speech and Debate has become so popular at Penn that Jeremy enlisted the help of his top students to see if they could create the same interest at the middle school level. Not only was there interest, there’s now Debate teams at all three middle schools with over 80 students. The past few summers Jeremy has also been offering Summer Debate Camp.

What is Jeremy’s secret to creating such an interest for Speech & Debate? It could be that he has the best  and rowdiest student club floats in Penn’s Homecoming parade; but it’s also because he quite simply cares about his students and they know it. There’s no “debating” it!

During the week of May 6 along with surprising the Teacher of the Year winners, Dr. Thacker will also surprise the honoree of Classified Employee of the Year. Monday, May 6 Dr. Thacker surprised 3rd grade Northpoint teacher Nichol Mondy with the news that she was the district’s Elementary Teacher of the Year. All winners will be officially recognized at P-H-M’s Employee Recognition & Retiree Dinner on Wednesday, May 22nd. Along with a plaque, the two Teachers of the Year will also receive a grant from the P-H-M Education Foundation to use in their classroom. Both TOY winners will go on to compete for Indiana’s Teacher of the Year, which will be announced in early Fall 2024 by the IDOE.

This morning Superintendent Dr. Jerry Thacker, P-H-M Board of School Trustees members, and P-H-M administrators were joined by representatives from R. Yoder Construction Inc., and Fanney Howey for the groundbreaking of Penn High School’s new 80,000 square foot Fieldhouse.

Click here to watch the video animation of the features that will be included.

Click here to view a brochure with more details about what the new facility will include. 

Click to see the full photo gallery below.

The new athletic and academic facility will be off McKinley Highway, less than a 10-minute walk from Penn High School for students who will primarily be utilizing the resources after school. This extension of Penn’s campus will be situated in the area between the new Culvers Restaurant and the Penn Fire Station. Penn-Harris-Madison already owned this property.

The groundbreaking took place on site where the clearing of trees had already begun. Construction is anticipated to be completed for the start of the 2025-26 school year. 

This project is years in the making. The need for expanded indoor space to better accommodate student extracurricular and co-curricular activities of Penn’s some 3,400 students was identified in the 2022 P-H-M District Master Facilities Plan. 

This investment for our students will NOT raise taxes for P-H-M residents. The administration and Board of School Trustees are committed to fiscal responsibility and the corporation is in excellent financial health. In fact, P-H-M has the lowest tax rate in St. Joseph County, along with delivering academic excellence for our students. 

Overall, the project will cost $15,926,745. A breakdown of the costs and bids can be found on the P-H-M website (click here to see).

On March 25, 2024, the Board of School Trustees voted to award the construction contract to R. Yoder Construction Inc. (Nappanee). This project is designed by Architect Mike Schipp of Fanning Howey and engineered by P-H-M parent Troy Madlem of Magnus Engineering. Fanning Howey has partnered with P-H-M on projects providing architectural and engineering services for over 40 years.

The multi-use facility will include practice and performance areas for Track and Field, Basketball, Volleyball, Baseball, Softball, Golf, Tennis, Wrestling, Dance, Cheer, Robotics, Marching Band and Color Guard, along with classrooms, a training room, locker and dressing rooms, student commons, and concessions. The Fieldhouse can also accommodate Physical Education classes, intramural sports, as well as PHM youth camps and athletic feeder organizations. For those family and community members wishing to watch athletic or other types of activities, bleacher seating will accommodate more than 800 people with plenty of event parking.

Below are listed those who were in attendance and participated in today’s event (Tuesday, May 7, 2024):

• Dr. Jerry Thacker, Superintendent of Schools, Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation
• Dr. Aaron Leniski, Chief Operating Officer, Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation
• P-H-M Board of School Trustees Members
• Dr. Heather Short, Assistant Superintendent of Instruction
• Dr. Tom Keeley, Executive Director of Business Services
• Joe Winters, Director of Facilities,  Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation
• Dr. Sean Galiher, Principal, Penn High School
• Jeff Hart, Athletic Director, Penn High School
• Nate Yoder, Director of Business Development, R. Yoder Construction
• John Emmons, Senior Project Manager, R. Yoder Construction
• Mike Schipp, Principal Project Manager, Fanning Howey
• Ed Sawa – Construction Administrator, Principal

National Teacher Appreciation Week kicked off with Penn-Harris-Madison Superintendent Dr. Jerry Thacker Monday surprising 3rd grade Northpoint teacher Nichol Mondy that she had won the district’s Elementary Teacher of the Year!

With the help of Northpoint Principal Lorraine White, a handful of P-H-M district administrators, and news crews, Dr. Thacker surprised Mrs. Mondy she had won this year’s award. Click to watch the video below. You can also click here to see the photo gallery on Northpoint’s website.

Mrs. Mondy is in her 12th year with P-H-M and all at Northpoint; she started as a Teacher’s Aide at Walt Disney. Mrs. Mondy started out as a kindergarten teacher, but has chosen to stay a 3rd grade teacher so she can continue to coach Northpoint’s 3rd grade Spell Bowl Team, which has quite the record!

The joy of teaching is different for every teacher. For Mrs. Mondy, her joy comes when a “huge guitar shaped package arrives;” she gets “giddy!” Every year in time for Arbor Day, Mrs. Mondy orders 100+ free trees for every student in 3rd grade to take home and plant.

“I want my students to see that they can do great things,” says Mrs. Mondy. “Just knowing the correct answers to their weekly test will not change our world for the better.” 

Prior to the P-H-M Education Foundation purchasing Spheros for all 11 elementary schools, Mrs. Mondy was already hard at work helping to build this new culture of robotics integration at Northpoint. She worked with the PTO to purchase a set of Sphero Bolts and Interactive Game Balls for the school. By helping her fellow teachers learn code and how to utilize the new resources in their classrooms, she in turn was instrumental in helping all Northpoint students learn coding. She then used the bots for after school learning clubs, as well as school day projects and learning experiences.

Mrs. Mondy put her creativity to work and organized Norhpoint’s own “Macy’s Day Parade.” Third graders programmed their Sphero Bolt to hold a balloon and make it go a specific distance down the hallways. She was the perfect person to help organize Northpoint’s first STEM night this past April. The hope is that this is the first step that will lead to the IDOE naming Northpoint a STEM Certified School. 

Whether it’s with trees or robots, Mrs. Mondy continues to help her students grow, learn and try new things. 

Mrs. Mondy also serves as Northpoint’s High Ability and Academic Coordinator and leads the school’s Teacher Leadership Team (TLT). In her TLT role, she leads discussions with her fellow teachers on how to make lasting impacts on student learning, solving problems and finding solutions, and advocating for the learning potential of every student.

When it comes to her students, Mrs. Mondy says she always tries to remember that children grow up to be adults and that teachers, and others have lasting impacts, “There are always times to show the sweet kids love, but what the class will notice most is when you show love to ones that push away that love. You show that you care when it is hard to love.”

Northpoint Principal Lorraine White says of Mrs. Mondy, “She is one of those people who brings joy to all those around her. She has a contagious joy about her that makes people laugh—students, staff and community members alike.”  

During the week of May 6, Dr. Thacker will also surprise the winners of the Secondary Teacher of the Year and Classified Employee of the Year. All winners will be officially recognized at P-H-M’s Employee Recognition & Retiree Dinner on Wednesday, May 22nd. Along with a plaque, the two Teachers of the Year will also receive a grant from the P-H-M Education Foundation to use in their classroom. Both TOY winners will go on to compete for Indiana’s Teacher of the Year, which will be announced in early Fall 2024 by the IDOE.

For the second time in a year, a Penn-Harris-Madison school has won an Indiana Department of Education an Educational Excellence Award … Grissom Middle School has been recognized with an Excellence in Academic Gains award. This prestigious award comes with a grant with up to $177,000! Fall 2023, Penn High School was recognized with the Excellence in College Readiness Award and received a $250,000 grant from the IDOE! 

The Excellence in Academic Gains Award recognizes an individual school that has made the most progress in improving achievement for all students. One or more of the following must be demonstrated by the award recipient:

• increased academic achievement for students as indicated by ILEARN English/language arts/Mathematics assessment results
• prioritization of initiatives focused on accelerating learning
• implementation of progress monitoring and evidenced-based practices for students in need of extra support

Schools must use the grant funds as indicated by the IDOE to continue the amazing work that the school was doing to earn the recognition; or choose to spend the money on projects related to any of the Educational Excellence Awards categories.

Grissom will be recognized at the 3rd annual Educational Excellence Awards Gala in Indianapolis September 6, 2024.

South Bend Regional Chamber announced Wednesday, April 10, 2024 their 2024 “Forty under 40” class and for the 12th time in 17 years, P-H-M teachers or staff members have made the list! This year’s honorees are Betsy Alwine, Dyslexia Specialist for all Penn-Harris-Madison schools, and Andrew Nemeth, Director of Choirs at Penn High School.

Betsy Alwine has shown incredible dedication and enthusiasm for Penn-Harris-Madison students and teachers since the moment she began teaching in P-H-M as a Reading Specialist at Walt Disney Elementary School during the 2021-2022 school year. Prior to that time, Betsy taught within in Elkhart County for more than a decade. Mrs. Alwine served as a reading specialist at P-H-M’s Walt Disney Elementary School for one year, before being for a leadership role as P-H-M’s Dyslexia Specialist for all 15 schools.  

In this role, Mrs. Alwine coordinates early screening and assessment for students who show academic risk, develops and oversees programming for students who are not yet proficient in reading, and assists in leading professional development for hundreds of P-H-M teachers in the area of research-based reading instruction. Betsy’s involvement as a LETRS (Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling) facilitator has recently taken heightened importance, as Betsy successfully co-wrote competitive grant, which resulted in the Indiana Department of Education awarding P-H-M more than $450,000 to train and certify teachers in the LETRS program! With these funds, all of P-H-M’s K – 3^rd grade teachers along with special education teachers, ENL teachers, and reading specialists will be trained in LETRS! With this important professional development platform in place, P-H-M is aggressively pursuing the Indiana Department of Education goal of 95% of all third grade students passing the IREAD-3 assessment.

Beyond her role in supporting excellent instruction in foundational reading skills across our eleven elementary schools, Mrs. Alwine plays a pivotal role in leading our Teacher Leadership Teams initiative.

This fall brought another opportunity, which highlighted Mrs. Alwine’s talents, as she served in the role of Acting Principal at Elm Road Elementary for 12 weeks. During this time, Betsy led teachers through comprehensive assessment cycles that resulted in gains in student achievement.  She also took the opportunity to enhance student voice, by creating a 5th grade “student coalition”. The student group met with Mrs. Alwine to share their input for improvements the school could make to enhance the students’ overall experience. Betsy has continually used every opportunity to improve others around her, and to impact our P-H-M students.

Michiana Forty under 40 is a distinguished initiative that highlights the achievements of 40 outstanding young adults who, despite being under the age of 40, have demonstrated exceptional leadership, excellence in their respective careers, and a commitment to community service. The program aims to recognize and celebrate the contributions of these individuals who not only excel in their professional endeavors but also make significant efforts to give back to and positively impact their communities.

Andrew Nemeth is the Director of Choirs for Penn High School, a position he’s held since 2015.

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Penn’s Sounds of the Season (Dec. 2023)

Penn Choirs have been consistently been award Gold ratings in Choral performance and music literacy. Penn’s Choirs were state finalists at ISSMA last year, for the first time in more than 20 years. This year Penn had 13 students, nine soloists and the Robertson Barbershop Ensemble with four students, competed in ISSMA; students won five Gold; four Gold with Distinction; and one Silver.

Mr. Nemeth works as Chorus Master regularly for the South Bend Youth Symphony Orchestra and sings as Tenor section leader with South Bend Chamber Singers, as well as serving on their Board. He’s also Penn’s Vocal Music Director of the school spring musical for past 12 years.

Mr. Nemeth sees value in various student performance experiences. He’s taken Penn choirs on several performance trips to places like Ireland, Hawaii, New York, Disney World, just to name a few. Mr. Nemeth in the importance of giving back to the community. He regularly takes his Pen choir groups to perform at nursing homes/assisted living facilities. Personally, he’s very involved with his church, Holy Family Catholic Church in South Bend volunteering and serving as Music Director.

Students feel welcome in Mr. Nemeth’s choir room, and he is continually striving for “the next level” of choir performance. Mr. Nemeth is a lifelong learner, and he is open to changing the paradigm for choral performance at Penn after he learns about what the top high school choirs in the state and nation are doing. One of his best attributes is his gift of collaboration that often translates into once in a lifetime opportunities for his choir students.

He has collaborated with the University of Notre Dame, world-renowned symphony conductors, and teaches his students the importance of knowing the composers of their pieces. He has created opportunities for his students to meet the composers of the music they are performing. He also enjoys collaborating with other P-H-M music programs. To raise awareness of the Fine Arts options at Penn High School, he the choirs on performance tours to P-H-M’s 11 elementary schools and three middle schools. These concerts get younger students interested in taking Fine Arts classes like choir when they get to Penn High school. 

2024 marks the recognition of the program’s 18th class! The program is brought to you by the South Bend Regional Chamber, Young Professionals Network South Bend, in collaboration with program sponsors Community Foundation of Elkhart County, First State Bank and the Mendoza College of Business at Notre Dame, along with chambers of commerce in the Michiana region.

Penn-Harris-Madison is excited to share our offerings for full-day preschool opportunities for eligible families: Madison and Meadow’s Edge Preschool! 

The preschools are currently available for families living in the boundaries of Elm Road, Madison, and Meadow’s Edge Elementary Schools.

Students who are four years old by August 1st, and in the year before kindergarten are invited to enroll.   Eligibility is income-based, with funding grants available through Indiana’s Child Care Development Fund (CCDF) and the On My Way Pre-K grants.  

Information Session

Tuesday, April 9

5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.

Meadow’s Edge Elementary, 16333 Kern Rd, Mishawaka

Click here to RSVP for Information Session

See Preschool State Voucher Income Eligibility Chart below. This is Pre-Tax Monthly Income, total family members, including parents.

To receive enrollment information, please contact:

Ryan Towner, Director of Literacy: rtowner@phm.k12.in.us

Meadow’s Edge Elementary: (574) 255-9347