Penn High School’s Drama Club will present “Boo Bash”  in the Studio Theater on Thursday, Oct. 25.

“Boo Bash” features two shows, and admission is free.

The first show, “Wren and Moose”, is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 25. It is a 25-minute children’s Halloween show written by Penn High School student Kenny Collymore-Williams. After the show, there will be Halloween candy and a short meet-and-greet with the characters.

The second show, “Death and All His Nonexistent Friends”, is a 30-minute young adult Halloween show, also written by Kenny Collymore-Williams. It is scheduled to start at 7 p.m., and features a few more jumps, bumps, and scares.

According to Drama Club Sponsor Crystal Ryan, “Boo Bash” is a student-led project. It is student-written, directed, acted, and teched.

“The Drama Club developed this event as a way to have a fun, free event for the community, but more importantly, the Drama Board members wanted a low pressure, fun way to engage incoming theatre students,” Ryan said. “With such a large program, it is a great way to get our “Intro to Theatre” involved in a performance situation. 

“The other unique thing about this event it is Penn’s first stage reading!” Ryan said. “Stage readings are how most professional playwrights get their works initially read before they go on to a huge, full production. Having several aspiring playwrights in our program, I would like begin implementing this more in our program to teach students how to get their work read, produced, and out in the professional world.“

Monday, Nov. 5
5:30 p.m.
Schmucker Middle School, 56045 N Bittersweet Rd.

Indiana law (IC 20-19-3-11) now requires that all schools provide age appropriate and research based instruction on child abuse and child sexual abuse to students in grades kindergarten through 12th. Penn-Harris-Madison has partnered with the Youth Service Bureau of St. Joseph County and the St. Joseph County Special Victims Unit to provide this instruction for our students.  

In November and early December, staff from the Youth Service Bureau St. Joseph County and St. Joseph County Special Victims Unit will present the materials to secondary students in grades 6-12. Each unit is age appropriate specific to the grade level.

To learn more about the new State mandated child abuse/sexual abuse prevention curriculum, all P-H-M parents are invited to attend an optional parent information night on Monday, November 5, 5:30 p.m., at Schmucker Middle School, 56045 N Bittersweet Rd.

Parents have the option to have their student(s) participate in the state mandated educational program.

Parents are asked to return either a paper version of the permission slip or click here to submit it electronically through our school website. *Please note a permission form needs to be returned for each individual child enrolled in a Penn-Harris-Madison School.

If you wish to fill out the electronic version of the form, please click here. 

To download and print a pdf copy of the secondary (grades 6-12) permission form, please click here.

Adobe Acrobat Reader will be required to view the pdfs. If you do not have Adobe Acrobat Reader, please visit Adobe’s website, at this link www.get.adobe.com/reader/, to download your free version.

If you opt to fill out the paper form, you will need to print the form, fill it out and return it to the school.

The Poinsettia Fundraiser is a great opportunity for 7^th and 8^th grade students to earn money into their trip account.  Please read the attached information sheet. If you have any further questions you may contact Laura Nayee at laura.nayee@icloud.com or Melanie Palmer at mklpalmer@gmail.com. 

Once again Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation schools, in all grade levels tested, scored above Indiana’s averages. The variance between P-H-M’s pass rate over the state is at least 10% or higher across all grade levels and subjects.

For grade 10, 75.6% of P-H-M students passed the ELA test and 58.4% passed the Math portion. The district’s overall pass rate for grade 10 was 56.4%.

For grades 3-8, 78.0% of P-H-M students passed the ELA test and 74.8% passed the Math test. P-H-M’s overall district pass rate for grades 3-8 was 68.3%.

For grade 10, P-H-M ranks in the Top 5% out of 291 public school corporations. In grades 3-8, P-H-M is in the Top 6% of public school districts out of 294 public school corporations.

Other significant highlights from the Spring 2018 ISTEP+ results:

• Penn High School ranks 5th out of large public school districts (500+ students tested, based on both Math and ELA pass results of grade 10)
• Northpoint Elementary School is 2nd in Indiana public primary elementary schools (schools where grades 3-5 were tested)
• Discovery Middle School is 3rd in Indiana public middle schools (schools where grades 6-8 were tested)

• A total of four P-H-M elementary & one middle school—Northpoint, Prairie Vista, Horizon and Mary Frank Elementary Schools, along with Discovery Middle School—rank among the state’s Top 50 of all 1,426 public schools 

When reviewing the Corporation’s performance on the last round of ISTEP+ (grades 3-8) test results, P-H-M Superintendent Dr. Jerry Thacker commented “P-H-M teachers and administrators are incredibly committed to our vision of excellence and offer the best education in the Michiana area. I am very proud of the fact that P-H-M is one of the state’s top performing school districts. The credit goes to our outstanding teachers, students and parents.”

Students in Grades 3-8 and students enrolled in Biology at Penn will take ILEARN Indiana’s, new computer-adaptive standardized test, this spring (April 22 – May 17) replacing the state’s previous test, ISTEP+. To see what subjects students will be tested per their grade level, please click to visit the IDOE website. 

To help parents better understand how their children will be tested and to help them prepare their students for the test, the IDOE has put together a quick one page guide. Click here to download the pdf copy.

The ISTEP+ Grade 10 assessment will be administered during the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 school years. Click here for more information on the transition from the ISTEP+ Grade10 assessment to the College Entrance Exam.

IREAD-3 for Grade 3 will continue as is. Click for more details.

Starting this spring, the Indiana Department of Education will also transition to a new test to assess students with significant cognitive disabilities in Grades 3-8 and 10. IAM is the new summative accountability assessment. Click here for more details on IAM.

Click to view all the testing dates on the P-H-M Corporate Calendar or reference the 2018-19 P-H-M District Activities Wall Calendar.

School Trips for FREE! 

2025-2026 

Before you know it, your child may have the awesome opportunity to travel in middle school to Washington, DC in 8th grade, or Europe and/or Asia in 7th/8th grade. The cost of the DC trip is approximately $1,146, but the PTO runs a fundraiser that can help get your child there or on another school-sponsored trip! Using RaiseRight, the average Discovery family earns $25/month, which can almost completely cover the cost of the 8th Grade Trip to Washington, DC during the time that you have at DMS to participate in RaiseRight. In the last 12 years, DMS families have purchased over $2,815,000 worth of gift cards and earned $193,000 in FREE money! 

What is RaiseRight? 
A way to fundraise by using gift cards where you’re already shopping. It’s easy and rewarding! How Does it Work? 

Buy physical gift cards, eGift cards, and/or reloadable gift cards at full face value on the RaiseRight app or online at www.RaiseRight.com. Easily pay online through a secure ACH transaction or with a credit or debit card and earn a rebate between 2% and 20% that immediately goes toward funding your child’s DMS Trip Account (90%) and funding the PTO (10%). Use your full-price gift cards for your everyday shopping. 

Here’s a short video https://youtu.be/lPD4jn7FYvY that shows how the RaiseRight app works right on your phone! You can buy and scan e-cards at a restaurant or while in line to check out.

Where do I sign up? 

1. Fill out this form https://forms.gle/3iZJYcyJPj3GHn3z7 so we know who gets your rebates. 
2. Join our program by creating an account* on the RaiseRight app or online at RaiseRight.com. Our enrollment code is 7A84L4BB37615. The platforms work interchangeably. 
3. Link your bank account to enroll in online payments. Once you do this, you can elect to pay via secure ACH transaction (29 cents per order), via debit card (1% fee per order), or via credit card (2.6% fee per order). The PTO does not accept checks for RaiseRight payments. 

*Note: Only Parents can have RaiseRight accounts for their students. You are welcome to take orders from grandparents, family, and friends, but all orders and payments must be made through the parent’s account. All funds raised in your child’s trip account need to be used for Discovery trips. The account savings can be passed on to a sibling at DMS or gifted to a friend if not used by the end of 8th grade. 

Have a question? Contact the RaiseRight Coordinator, Elizabeth Cichowicz at ema817@aol.com 

This video will help you to become familiar with the design of our new assessment web pages and how to find key information and resources for all of Indiana’s assessments.  

Please click HERE to view the assessment video. 

The show schedule for the 2018-19 school year has been set, with the first show of the season kicking off on Wednesday, Sept. 12 at 6:30. Click here for the full schedule.

Patrons are now able to reserve and purchase tickets online through the P-H-M ​RevTrak Web Store. More  details online at www.phmschools.org/dvt.  

School pictures will be taken on September 18^th and 19^th during health/gym classes.  

On September 18^th the following students will have their picture taken:

7^th grade girls, 6^th grade girls , 7^th grade boys 

On September 19^th the following students will have their picture taken:

6^th grade boys, 8^th grade boys, 8^th grade girls 

​This year Penn Harris Madison Schools is giving parents access to their student's online activities through Securly. 

Securly is a program parents can use to view student Chromebook use and to have control over what students have access to at home with their school issued Chromebook.  Soon parents will receive an email from Securly on how to get started with the program; then parents will start receiving a weekly email from Securly that will show parents a preview of your student’s online activity while using their P-H-M issued Chromebook. For more information please click the Securly Parent Portal. 

Click here for a full Parents’ Guide to  P-H-M Technology, from Skyward to Chromebook online safety measures.