Registration for the Penn Boys Basketball League for students in Grades 2-8 will be held on Wednesday, Sept. 1, from 5:45-8 p.m..

When: Wednesday, Sept. 1, 5:45-8 p.m.

Where: Penn High School/ Enter through Door D 

Price: $75 Grades 2-6 /  $60 Grades 7 & 8^th

Discount: $10 Discount for Summer Basketball Camp Attendees

Information: If you have any questions please contact Assistant Varsity Coach Julius Smith at jsmith5@phm.k12.in.us

We have a National Champion! Meet Sreeja Bhattacharjee, a Discovery Middle Student who just completed 7th Grade.

The National History Day's theme was "Communication in History: The Key to Understanding."

Sreeja's project was about how effective communication was key to Apollo 11's success. Space Exploration is a topic that Sreeja feels passionate about.

In addition to all of her research and planning, another obstacle to overcome was moving from the physical exhibit at Regionals to a virtual exhibit at State.

Sreeja is extremely grateful to her teachers and judges for their feedback throughout this process, which helped shape the exhibit for the final NHD contest!

Congratulations to Sreeja, we are so proud of her success!!!

Penn-Harris-Madison continues to monitor the spread of COVID-19. With more than 13,000 students and employees, we all play an important role in minimizing the risk and impact on each other and our operations. The health and safety of students and staff is our top priority. As a result, P-H-M Schools will implement various measures to keep everyone as safe as possible. 

Please click here to read an overview of the district’s plan for a safe and healthy learning environment for Summer 2021 In-Person Instruction.

Throughout Summer 2021, P-H-M will continue to track COVID cases of students and staff that are made known to district and school personnel. Click here to view the P-H-M Positive COVID Dashboard.

To read documents related to P-H-M’s Return to Learn Plan for the 2020-2021 school year, please click here.

Discovery Middle School 8^th grader Julianna Ocampo recently qualified for the Team USA U15 Pan Am Team by winning the Team USA U15 Women's Nationals 46-kg division.

Julianna didn’t give up a single point in the entire Nationals tournament; she was one of 10 athletes who will represent the U.S. in the U15 Women's Wrestling competition at the Pan Am Junior Games, Oct. 21-24, in Mexico City. 

Julianna’s younger sister Ysabelle, who is in 6^th grade also at Discovery, also competed in the U15 Women's Nationals and placed fourth in the 42-kg division.

Julianna will be a Freshman at Penn next year and will join Penn’s female wrestling team coached by Brad Harper. "Julianna Ocampo has an outstanding work ethic and an outstanding mindset to be the best," Penn Wrestling/MXW Head Coach Harper said. "She didn't just win the Women's National qualifier, she dominated it! And this is against the best wrestlers in the nation! She teched and pinned every girl and didn't give up one single point. That's very special!” Coach Harper’s brother, Chad Harper, was with the Ocampos Team USA U15 Women's Nationals 46-kg division in Irving Texas this past Sunday, May 9, 2021.

"It's exciting that we have a girl in our program who is fired up to be the very best," Harper went on to say. “This is the start of something special – Team USA goes U15, Cadets, Juniors and then Seniors to the Olympics. Julianna wants to be the best, and she trains like it. We have Sarah Hildebrandt from Penn going to the Olympics, and now we have another girl who has a goal and she wants to be where Sarah is."

Penn owns four state championships in Girls Wrestling in the five seasons that there has been a state tournament.

Class of 2011 Penn alumna Sarah Hildebrandt in April made the Team USA Women’s Wrestling Team and a chance to compete in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

In honor of Teacher Appreciation Week, our wonderful PTO has gone above and beyond in making our Teachers feel appreciated. 

Each day this week there has been a meal or treat ready for our teachers to enjoy. Take a look at some of the offerings!

If you would like more information on how to join our incredible PTO, click here.

In addition to the yummy treats that were set up for our teachers, our PTO also obtained generous coupons from area businesses that teachers can use at their leisure. Take a look at some of the offerings below!

National History Day® (NHD) announced April 20th that the NHD program in Indiana has nominated Discovery History teacher Tanner Givens, for the 2021 Patricia Behring Teacher of the Year Award in the junior division of the NHD National Contest.

Each of the 58 NHD affiliates across the country may nominate one middle school teacher for this award, and Mr. Givens is the junior division nominee from Indiana. This award is sponsored by Patricia Behring in recognition of the pivotal role teachers play in the lives of students.

To be nominated for this award, NHD states that Mr. Givens demonstrated commitment to engaging his students in historical learning through innovative uses of primary sources, implementation of active learning strategies to foster historical thinking skills, and participation in National History Day. 

One national winner in each division will be selected by a committee of experienced teachers and historians, and announced on Saturday, June 19, 2021, at the NHD National Contest Awards Ceremony to be held virtually due to COVID-19. All nominees will receive $500 as a result of their nominations, and the two national winners will receive $10,000. Click to read more about NHD, and the Patricia Behring Teacher of the Year Award.

With the announcement that Tuesday, March 30, 2021 will be an eLearning day, the meal plan for March 30th is as follows:

Elementary:

• Every elementary student in school on Monday, March 29th will receive a meal for Tuesday, March 30th as they leave. 
• Breakfast AND lunch will be included for students who attend Bittersweet, Elm Road, Elsie Rogers, Horizon, Mary Frank, Meadow’s Edge, Walt Disney, Moran & Madison.
• Lunch only will be provided for students who attend Northpoint & Prairie Vista
• Elementary School Menu

Middle:

• When students leave school on Friday, March 26th, they will receive 2 days worth of meals. Those meals will cover Monday, March 29th and Tuesday March 30th.
• Students at Grissom and Schmucker will receive pre-packaged breakfast and lunch.
• Students at Discovery will receive pre-packaged lunches.
• Middle School Menu

High School

• When students leave school on Friday, March 26th, they will receive 2 days worth of meals. Those meals will cover Monday, March 29th and Tuesday March 30th.

• High School Menu

Meals for 100% Virtual Learners:

• Pick up meals at Door K at Penn High School
• Day & Time: Monday, March 29, 1-3 p.m.
• Students will receive a refrigerated box and a frozen bag with four (4) breakfasts and four (4) lunches since Friday, April 2nd is a recess day.

Additional Information

• Students do not need to be present for the parent or guardian to pick up meals.
• Student ID’s WILL NOT be required.

*Meals will not be provided on Recess Days.

Menus for all schools and virtual learners can be found here.

The information below was sent to P-H-M families on Friday, March 26, 2021.

Dear P-H-M Families,

In the District’s ongoing efforts to provide opportunities for P-H-M staff to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, we worked with Meijer to provide a vaccination clinic on March 8 for the two-dose Pfizer vaccine.

1,170 people were vaccinated, including staff from P-H-M and neighboring school districts, as well as some community members. This included over 700 P-H-M staff, representing about half of our entire workforce.

Meijer is returning next Monday, March 29, to administer the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine to staff and community members who were vaccinated at our clinic three weeks ago. 

As part of our weekly meeting with the St. Joseph County Department of Health, it was shared with us that we should expect 15-30% of P-H-M employees to experience mild to adverse effects after receiving the second shot.

We know that other area school districts had to call eLearning days after their staff members experienced some side effects following the second dose of the Moderna vaccine. If 15-30% of P-H-M staff members called in sick for Tuesday, March 30, we would not be able to transport, feed or teach our students.  

Based on this information, we are calling an eLearning Day for grades K-12th grade for next Tuesday, March 30. This day will be an eLearning day (just like what is called due to weather), NOT a virtual learning day. Teachers will not be teaching live on Tuesday. Head Start, PreK (Early Learning Academy and PennPALS), and Young Adult programs are all canceled for March 30. However, eLearning lessons will be provided for Early Learning Academy, PennPALS, and Young Adult programs.

The regular eLearning Day responsibilities of teachers will be in place next Tuesday. If a teacher is not sick, he/she will be online and responsive to student questions and to offer additional support and clarification as needed throughout the school day. If a teacher is taking a sick day on Tuesday, they will notify students and families through email and other normal modes of class communication and will not be available online that day. The classroom teachers will give specifics and assignment due dates of the eLearning lessons.

We know that this is a disruption and an inconvenience for our families at a time when we are trying to return all students to 100% in-person learning. Having nearly half of our workforce fully vaccinated through our Meijer clinic coupled with the state opening up vaccine eligibility to people 16 and older will ultimately help school districts return to near normal, pre-pandemic operations of educating students. We hope that parents, guardians, and families will also personally consider getting vaccinated to help our greater community, state and country. Thank you for being valued partners.

Sincerely,

Dr. Jerry Thacker

Almost a year to the date Indiana schools shut down (P-H-M schools shut down on March 12, 2020), P-H-M teachers and staff got a literal shot in the arm and marked a major step forward in our fight against COVID-19.

On Monday, March 8, 202, Meijer Pharmacy set up a vaccination clinic inside the Main Arena at Penn High School and administered 1,170 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine. 

Every P-H-M teacher and staff member who wanted to get the vaccine was able to do so. 

The vaccines were made available under the federal allotment of vaccines through the Federal Retail Pharmacy Program. The White House announced that the federal allotment would be open to educational staff at schools so teachers and staff could receive the vaccine, especially in states where educational staff had not been included in the first responder group. P-H-M Human Resources reached out to Meijer as word spread that they were working with Indiana schools to set up on-site vaccination clinics.

We are so thankful to the team at Meijer and to EVERYBODY at P-H-M who worked so hard to make this event happen on very short notice. 

Jenni McCarthy, a kindergarten teacher at Bittersweet Elementary said “I honestly have to say that it was fantastic when I found out that we could get them right here at school. I didn’t have to go anywhere. I didn’t have to sign up on any list, I didn’t have to do anything. It just goes to show that Penn-Harris-Madison is a great place to work because they always think of their employees first and are trying to make sure that we are safe to be back in the classroom.”

In addition to the over 700 P-H-M staff members who received a vaccine, we also reached out to area schools to make doses available to others as well. P-H-M felt it was important to share any extra vaccines with educators and staff from other school districts and private schools within P-H-M’s boundaries so that no vaccines would be wasted. 

Dr. Jerry Thacker, P-H-M’s superintendent of schools said “…this just has a tremendous positive impact on the feeling the teachers, all school employees and the students have with regards to receiving a vaccine. They know they’re going to be safer, so this is the first step in that. It also gives us a barometer of what we need to be doing in the future with regard to reaching out and making sure that we can get our students back [in person].”

Watch the video to get a fuller sense of what the day was like. Meijer will return to Penn Monday, March 29th to administer the second dose. 

To download high-resolution jpg files from the photo gallery below, just simply click the “DOWNLOAD” button on the bottom right-hand corner of the photo while viewing it in the Photo Gallery function. We are happy to provide this service to you, free of charge!

In early February, St. Joseph Health System Sports Medicine, Beacon Medical Group Sports Medicine and The South Bend Clinic notified Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation and other St. Joseph County high schools that they would not be able to continue the practice of their physicians providing school based "on-site" pre-participation physical examinations for student-athletes.

The local health systems state in the letter that this is in compliance with recommendations from the Pre-participation Physical Evaluation (PPE) 5th Edition published and endorsed in 2019 by six organizations: American Academy of Family Physicians, American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Sports Medicine, American Medical Society for Sports Medicine, American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine, American Osteopathic Academy of Sports Medicine.

The letter states “The Physicians of the South Bend Clinic, Sports Medicine Physicians of Beacon Medical Group and St. Joseph Regional Medical Center believe that it is in the best interest of student athletes to establish a "Medical Home" and consequently seek an annual History and Physical Examination that can also satisfy IHSAA Sports Physicals requirements.” Click to read the 2019 PPE Pre-participation Physical Evaluation 5th Edition as supplied to P-H-M from the local health systems.

Parents will now need to make appointments with their student-athlete’s pediatrician/primary care physician to get a physical and to fill out the IHSAA Pre-participation Physical Evaluation (PPE) form. If an student-athlete does not have an established primary care physician, their parents will need to establish one. Click to download a copy of the IHSAA PPE form.

The IHSAA allows pre-participation exams to be signed after April 1 for the subsequent academic year. A PPE form filled out & signed after April 1, 2021 satisfies IHSAA exam requirements through June 2022.

As stated in the letter to P-H-M “If parents schedule a routine their student-athlete’s annual "well child" visit between January 1 and April 1 (some offices will schedule these exams to coincide with the patient’s birthday), then the examiner may consider completing and signing the IHSAA form after April 1—attesting that the exam was completed recently and athlete's health status remains the same. Thus, authorizing the April 1 signature and medical authorization to participate in sports for the upcoming academic year.