At the P-H-M Board of School of Trustees meeting on Monday, February 26, district administration made a presentation to the Board regarding the total solar eclipse taking place on Monday, April 8. As part of the presentation, district administration announced that for a variety of reasons Monday, April 8 will be an eLearning Day. If the district has used all of its allotted three eLearning Days (we currently have used two), the day will be a Virtual Learning Day. No P-H-M sponsored field trips or planned evening activities will take place on this date. Monday, April 8 is the first day back after Spring Break (April 1-5). 

Indiana is in the path of totality and is centrally located in the United States, thus the Indiana Department of Homeland Security is telling tourists, residents, school districts and public agencies to be prepared for three days of potential impact such as, oversized crowds, gridlock traffic, communications disruptions, and even nocturnal animal confusion. Click here to see the full presentation from last night’s Board meeting.

The Indianapolis area and south will experience 100% totality; while the St. Joseph County area will experience 96%. Click here to see a map of Indiana regions that will experience varying degrees of darkness from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources website. The South Bend area will start experiencing darkness at 1:53 p.m., lasting until 4:23 p.m., with 96% totality occurring at 3:09 p.m. and lasting just over 4 minutes. Because these times are around school dismissal times and based on the recommendations of the Indiana Department of Homeland Security and the IDOE, P-H-M will not be holding in-person instruction on April 8. 

Thanks to Old National Bank and P-H-M Education Foundation, all students in the district will receive eclipse glasses to use at home with instructions. Mrs. Mindy O’Malley, Director of P-H-M’s Arthur M. Klinger Planetarium and Digital Video Theater, and a team of teachers, are preparing grade-level eclipse information to send home with students. In the classrooms leading up to April 8, teachers will educate students about this nearly once-in-a-lifetime event; the next total solar eclipse where portions of Indiana will be in full totality will be 2099.

If parents have any questions, they should contact their students’ principals. Employees should contact their supervisor or Human Resources.

Football Cheerleading Tryouts will be Monday, March 25; Tuesday, March 26; and Wednesday, March 27 at Penn High School.

Those interested please email Coach Szweda for more information at rszweda@phm.k12.in.us.

The 2024 FIN Mishawaka FRC District Event will once again be held at Penn High School March 1st – 3rd (open to the public on Saturday, March 2 and Sunday, March 3). The event will be held in Penn's Main Arena. See below for a daily schedule:

Saturday, March 2

• 10:30 – 11:00 a.m., Opening Ceremonies
• 11:00 a.m. – 7:00 p.m., Qualifying Matches (No matches during Lunch, 1:00 – 2:00 p.m.)

Sunday, March 3

• 9:30 – 10:00 a.m., Opening Ceremonies
• 10:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m., Qualifying Matches
• 12:30 – 1:00 p.m., Alliance Selections
• 1:00 – 2:00 p.m., Lunch
• 2:00 – 5:00 p.m., Playoff Matches & Awards Ceremony

Click here for the detailed daily schedule.

For elementary aged children, there's also the Next Gen event from 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. on Saturday. The event will be upstairs–above Penn's Main Arena–in the Fitness Center. This event is open to all children, not just P-H-M students. Children have the opportunity to do hands-on STEM activities, even operate a robot! Click here for pictures from last year's event.

This year's game is CRESCENDOSM presented by Haas; click here to view a video about the game. FIRST© Robotics Competition teams will use their STEM skills and creative power to turn up the volume as they design, build, and program their robots for action-packed game play. Watch the game animation to inspire ideas.

During our 2023-2024 arts-inspired robotics season, FIRST® IN SHOWSM presented by Qualcomm, FIRST Robotics teams will celebrate the roles STEM skills play in the arts and design, and how these skills help build a world of endless possibilities for students. Click here to learn more about FIRST® IN and the District event being held at Penn High School.

In accordance to Indiana Code 20-26-5.5 going into effect January 1, 2024 School Districts must publish and make available library materials, along with establishing a procedure for families to submit a request for removal of materials.

Click here to access Alexandria, our school library catalog.

Penn-Harris-Madison’s Policy 9130 (Public Complaints and Concerns) has been in place since 2005. The updated policy was adopted and approved at the December 11, 2023 Board Meeting to be in compliance IC 20-26-5.5.

As stated in Board Policy 9130, parents are welcome to provide feedback related to curriculum materials.  The information submitted on this form will be directed to the building principal.

Click here to fill out and submit the Material Review Request form.

Seventh grade Project Lead the Way students turned an outside game into a fun inside game, for robots!

Vex Robots were coded with sensors so that when they are hit by the other team they freeze. If their own team hits the same sensor they unfreeze.

In addition to coding the sensors, the students also coded the robot’s screen to change color when hit so spectators can easily identify what robots are frozen and which are not.

Take a look at the photos below!

With 69 out of 72 words spelled correctly, Discovery Middle School finished in second place at the Indiana State Spelling competition!

Special thanks to coach Susan Berger, an Educational Assistant at Discovery.

In an effort to encourage reading and literacy, Discovery Middle School is once again doing “One Book, One School” where every student in the school reads the same book.

This year, to build excitement and continuity throughout the school, we held a scavenger hunt. Students started in their classrooms by reading this year’s book “Amari and the Night Brothers,” written by B.B. Alston. 

Students also had a work sheet with clues, after they got their first clue by reading the book, the students would then go to different stations around the school to find more clues that all related to the book.

Excitement was in the air as students went from station to station, finding the next clue to help their team finish first. 

Take a look at some photos below! 

On Friday, November 17, 2023, we hosted our Peer Leader Friendsgiving party!

The Peer Leader program partners Exceptional Education students with General Education students as a way to build friendships and understanding.

Our wonderful staff and parent volunteers brought in traditional Thanksgiving food that contributed to the feel of this being a special event.

A great time was had by all who attended, view the pictures in the photo gallery below!

Discovery’s Spell Bowl team finished 1st in the Class 1 Junior Area Competition on November 1. Discovery Spell Bowl students had the highest overall score with 6 perfect spellers and 2 near perfect spellers. The Spell Bowl State Championships will be held Saturday, November 11.

Congratulations to our Archers and the other three teams for representing P-H-M well!

• Discovery: Coach Susan Berger; Students: Lauren Arevalo, Lucie Arevalo, Abigail Kang, Hisham Khan, Samia Majeed, Abhijay Masetty, Sujay Patel, Allison Paul, Pariyansh Pelia, Haidyn Reed, Jack Richmond, Vihaan Shah, Xiaohe Wang, Aashna Wilkes, and Ella Yu
• Grissom: placed 7th out of 25 teams in the Junior Class 2 competition, with eight teams moving on

• Schmucker: placed 7th out of 39 teams, with 16 teams moving on

• Penn: finished in 2nd place with five perfect spellers

Now that's how you spell #PHMExcellence!!!