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.

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.”

Dear Parents/Guardians:

The 2018-2019 school year is off to a great start. I’d like to thank all our parents and staff who have made this possible. Our enrollment (471) is up 30 students over last year (441). This year we have three sections of kindergarten and four sections of first and second grades. All other grades have three sections.

ISTEP: We hope to have school wide ISTEP results from the 2018-2019 school year soon. Individual student reports will be mailed to parents. We continue to get mixed messages from the DOE on a release date.

Exact Path Replaced: This has been replaced by AirWays. This will give us an opportunity monitor student progress as they master state standards at their grade level. Teachers are challenging students by setting individual learning goals.

Transportation (Buses): If your child is experiencing problems on the bus contact your child’s driver and discuss the problem with him/her. Most all problems can be resolved by working with your child’s bus driver. If you need further assistance concerning safety or drop off/pick up locations the transportation office (258-9565) can assist you.

Attendance: Regular school attendance is crucial to your child’s learning and achievement. Indiana schools are expected to maintain a 96% attendance rate in order to meet state and federal mandates. After four unexcused absences parents may be referred to Child Protective Services for truancy. Please read carefully the section on attendance in your child’s planner, pgs. 19-20. Please be sure to verify your child’s absence (pg 20). Absences are unexcused if not verified. Thank you.

Lunch/Recess Times: Lunch/Recess times are: Grades K/1: 10:45-11:40 a.m., Grades 2/3: 11:40-12:30 p.m. and Grades 4/5: 12:30-1:20 p.m. Lunch/Recess periods are a combined fifty minutes (Kindergarten is fifty-five) in length. If you plan to visit for lunch please contact your child’s teacher in advance to get the correct time for the lunch period. We enjoy visitors. Thank you.

Crossing Guard: Students who walk or ride their bikes to school will find Mr. Wolf on duty from 8:15 a.m. to 8:40 a.m. in the morning and from 3:05 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. in the afternoon. All students are encouraged to cross Beech Road when Mr. Wolf is on duty.

AM Drop Off: Our back door, south end of the building, locks at 8:40 a.m. Students are tardy after 8:40 a.m. and will need to report to the front entrance to enter school. Please be respectful of others behind you in line when dropping off your child. Many of our parents have other morning stops too. Be safe!

New Staff Members: Teachers are: Laura Mason-K, Kate MacFarlane-1st, Karin Logan-2nd, Kristi Vandygriff-Sp.Ed., Laura Scott-Music, Alexandra McKenzie-SpH and Rylee Jacobson-ENL. Support Staff are: Imelda Robles-Henry, Brian Kennel, Ben Lawecki, Joanne Schloss, Kerin Fulton and Erica Barkley

I would again like to thank everyone for a smooth start to a new school year. Moran Elementary School is dedicated to serving its students and families. Please do not hesitate to call or stop by if we can be of service.

Sincerely,

Frank Anglin, Ed.S.

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.

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.  

The first day back for the school of the 2018-19 school year for Penn-Harris-Madison schools was Wednesday, August 22. Superintendent Dr. Jerry Thacker and Penn Principal Sean Galiher were up early to do live interviews on local South Bend TV stations.

Dr. Thacker then began his annual 15 schools in 3 days tour. Longtime Board Member Larry Beehler accompanied Dr. Thacker on the first two days. Take a look at their visits …

Today was New Teacher Orientation for Penn-Harris-Madison. 

Moran is welcoming 2 new teachers.

Click to get more details on P-H-M’s Penn's New Teacher Class of 2018.

The 2018-19 District Activities Calendar will be mailed around August 9 and 10 to all P-H-M families. 

It lists key school and district events throughout the year. 

To get a jump start on your planning and to know all your schools’ important Back-to-School dates, click here to download a pdf copy.

Want a quick one pager of the 2018-19 School Year or want to import P-H-M’s Google Calendar to yours? Click here for more calendar and scheduling resources.

If you are a hard worker, a team player, and want to get better at basketball, Penn Girls Basketball coach invites you to join the Penn Community Junior & Senior Girls Basketball family and be a part of a winning tradition.

This community-sponsored AAU league is developed for the Penn-Harris-Madison Communities and has been given permission to be named the Penn Community Girls Basketball League. 

The “Junior” League is open to girls in grades 3-6 . The “Senior” League is open to grades 7 & 8.

Sign-ups are Sunday, August 26 th in the Penn Arena from 12:00 – 2:00 p.m. Registering on time is essential to the organization of the league. A late fee of $10.00 will be assessed for signing up after August 26. No sign-ups will be accepted after Friday, August 31. No refunds will be given after league begins.

All practices and games will be held in school facilities within the Penn-Harris-Madison district. All games will be played on Sundays.

Game Times are:

• 3rd & 4th grade league: 12:00 – 2:00 p.m.
• 5th & 6th grade league: 2:00 – 4:00 p.m.
• 7th & 8th grade league: 4:00 – 5:00 p.m. & 5:00 – 6:00 p.m.
   

The league will begin on September 9 th for ALL age groups. The “Junior” League will end on November 11 for grades 3- 6 and no tournament will take place.

The “Senior” League will end on November 18 th with an all day shootout.

Click to download information and sign-up forms for the “Junior” League (grades 3-6).

Click here to download information and sign-up forms for the “Senior” League (grades 7 & 8).

Campers will have the opportunity to learn from Kingsmen and University of Notre Dame alum Austin Torres at the upcoming Kingsmen Basektball Day Camp!  

After a great career at Notre Dame, Austin is giving back to Penn High School and Penn-Harris-Madison Schools by passing on his knowledge to younger players. Austin will be will be a lead instructor at the Kingsmen Day Camp June 11th -15th.

The camp is for boys currently in grades 4-8th grade. Registrations are still being accepted up until the first day of camp.  Click here to register online or to download and print a pdf flier.

Click to check out the full list of other Kingsmen Athletic Camps being offered this summer.

The Food Service Department of the Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation is participating in the Summer Food Service Program for Summer 2018.

FREE MEALS will be available to children 18 years of age and under, or persons more than 18 who are determined by a state or local public education agency to be mentally or physically disabled and who participate in a public or non-profit private school program established for the mentally or physically disabled. 

The program will operate Monday through Friday. All sites will be closed on Wednesday, July 4, 2018.

Please click here for more information and a complete list of sites and dates.