Principal Sean Galiher announced that 13 Penn High School students have earned academic honors from the College Board National Recognition Programs.

Tasneem Ahmed, Salem Fitwi, Aja Fowler, Zion Hackett, Johnnay Johnson, Sydney Kiner and Julius Smith were named College Board National African-American Recognition Program Scholars.

Grace Besse, Ethan Derby, Adia Holt, Tatiana Lambertt, Caroline Quinquio and Monica Ramirez were named College Board Hispanic Recognition Program Scholars.

These National Recognition Programs grant underrepresented students with academic honors that can be included on college and scholarship applications and connect students with universities across the country, helping them meaningfully connect to colleges and stand out during the admissions process. Colleges and scholarship programs identify students awarded National African American, Hispanic, Indigenous and/or Rural/Small Town Recognition through College Board’s Student Search Service.

Students who may be eligible have a GPA of 3.5 or higher and have excelled on the PSAT/NMSQT or PSAT 10, or earned a score of 3 or higher on two or more AP Exams; and are African American or Black, Hispanic American or Latinx, Indigenous, and/or attend school in a rural area or small town.

Penn High School will host the Carnival of Bands on Saturday, Sept. 25, 2021, at TCU Freed Field.

The 30^th annual marching band showcase will begin at 2:55 p.m., followed by competition starting at 3 p.m.

The Penn Marching Kingsmen, under the direction of Glenn Northern, are scheduled to conclude the competition with a special exhibition performance at 9:15 p.m.

Tickets are $8 (children under 4 are admitted free) and can be purchased at the gate.

Click here for the complete schedule.

Penn student-athletes got a visit from a very special person today … Penn Class of 2012 alumna and Olympic Volleyball Gold Medalist Annie Drews! Students got to meet her, ask questions, hold the Gold Medal, deliver Kingsmen spirit wear and even take selfies with Annie! Click to see the photo gallery below.

Annie, in town to visit her family and to plan her wedding, stopped by her alma mater to talk with, provide some words of wisdom and inspire current Penn student-athletes.

Fresh off her return from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics Annie met with three groups of students on Friday morning (August 27, 2021):

• Q&A with the Penn Volleyball Team
   
   
• Q&A with the Penn Student-Athlete Leadership Council. Annie talked about Servant Leadership, teamwork, being there for your team and teammates, selfless commitment to your team, the value of leadership to a team's success, and her faith.
  
   
• Q&A with Penn female student-athletes. Annie discussed the empowerment of female athletes, finding your voice, the value of sisterhood, and important takeaways from athletics.
  

On-hand for Annie’s visit with students was her former Penn Volleyball Coach. Annie is from Elkhart and started at Elkhart Central High School, but then transferred to Penn and helped the team win two 4A state championships in both 2010 and 2011. Annie graduated from Penn and went on to play for Purdue making Team USA in 2017. Annie is Indiana’s first-ever Olympic volleyball player! Annie lives and trains in Southern California and plays Pro Volleyball in Japan. Read Annie’s full athletic bio on the USA Volleyball website.

See the photo gallery below. To download high-resolution jpg files, 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!

Registration for the Penn Youth Girls Basketball League for students in Grades 3-8 will be held on Sunday, Sept. 12, from 12:00-2 p.m..

When: Sunday, Sept. 12, 12:00-2 p.m.

Where: Penn High School/ Enter through Door D 

Price: $125 

Space is limited to the first 108 athletes per age group.

Please read this flyer thoroughly! 

It’s August and that means Kingsmen sports and Marching Band practices are in high gear.

To recognize the hard work they’ve already put in and to wish them luck for their coming seasons, Superintendent Dr. Jerry Thacker stops by all of the fall sports practices to hand out popsicles!

It’s an annual tradition that students have come to expect and look forward to. He’s been doing it for over 15 years! This year, Chief Operating Officer Aaron Leniski joined Dr. Thacker in handing out the frozen treats.

Today (Friday, August 13) we caught up with Dr. Thacker and Mr. Leniski as they handed out frozen treats to Penn Band members. 

In a nice show of solidarity, the Penn Kingsmen football players came to the band practice area to wish them well.

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.

Student Parking passes will be available for eligible Juniors and Seniors from 7:30-11:30 a.m. and 12:30-3 p.m. on Monday-through-Friday, Aug. 9-13, and on Monday, Aug. 16, and Tuesday, Aug. 17. When in-person school is in session, parking passes are sold before school from 7:30-8:15 a.m. and after school from 3:17-3:30 p.m.

Students must bring the completed forms, ID, and other required items. Cash and checks (made out to Penn High School) are acceptable payments. We cannot accept credit cards at this time. Change will not be made so bring exact amounts.

Students will go to the Counseling Center office to show that required forms (posted below) have been filled out properly. After paperwork is filled out and approved, students will go to the bookstore to pay for parking pass.

Sophomores are not eligible for parking passes.

Click here for details and forms.

The Annual Penn High School Walk-Around will be held from 9 a.m.-noon on Saturday, Aug. 14.

Students and parents are welcome to come and find their classrooms, check out extra-curricular opportunities, and learn their way around the building. Enter at Doors A, B, C, D, E, L or M.

Click here for a map of Penn High School.

Check your school e-mail or Penn High School social media (Twitter: @PennPride365 and Facebook: @PennHighSchool) for updates.

Lockers will not be assigned for the 2021-2022 school year. 

If you would like to request a locker, click here and fill out the form.

The message below was shared with P-H-M Families and Staff via email July 23rd, 2021.

P-H-M Administration has received a number of questions from families regarding Critical Race Theory (CRT), and if the ideologies/tenets are included in our Social Emotional Learning, and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion student lessons and staff training.

We recognize the need for our parents/guardians to understand our curriculum. So in an effort to help clear up any misinformation, we will be holding workshops for P-H-M families to explain our programs and goals.

P-H-M Administrators and parents/guardians will be discussing curriculum and we would like for our families to feel free to share their questions and concerns. Priority will be given to current P-H-M Families. If we’re oversubscribed, we will provide other opportunities to inform other members of the P-H-M community.

The workshop times are as follows:

• Monday, August 2nd @ 1:00 P.M.
• Tuesday, August 3rd @ 8:30 A.M.
• Tuesday, August 3rd @ 7:00 P.M.

We ask that people respectfully follow these registration guidelines:

• Only register to attend one session, not multiple ones.
• Each person planning to attend a workshop should each fill out a form.
• To allow us sufficient planning time, we will close the registration form on Wednesday, July 28th at 4:30p.m.
• You will receive an email regarding session assignments by Friday, July 30th.
• Click here to register.

The workshops will be held at Penn High School, PLEASE ENTER DOOR D. Please park in the front parking lot of Penn High School.

We approximate that these sessions will last about two (2) hours. All the material shared at the three workshops will be the same (these are not sequential meetings). The format of the sessions will be as follows:

• Doors open. Parents/guardians will check in and receive name tags with their assigned group number.
• Welcome and presentations by P-H-M Administrators: Superintendent, Asst. Superintendent for Instruction, Director of Social Emotional Learning, Director of Diversity Equity & Inclusion, Principals at the elementary, middle and high school levels.
• Break-out groups
  • Break-out group protocols are as follows:
    • Be respectful
    • Take turns
    • Be concise
    • Listen

Please register for a workshop time, at the link noted above, and provide us your questions about P-H-M’s SEL & DEI curriculum that you would like to learn more about.

We look forward to sharing this valuable and important information with our P-H-M families.

Dr. Jerry Thacker

Tokyo 2020 is officially underway and we are PROUD to have not one but two graduates representing Team USA. Annie Drews (‘12) will be competing in volleyball and Sarah Hildebrandt (‘11) will be competing in freestyle wrestling. Also in Tokyo is Wrestling Head Coach Brad Harper. Brad is working with Sarah as her personal coach. Learn more about Annie and Sarah below!

Annie Drews, a 2012 graduate of Penn High School, will be playing volleyball as an opposite hitter, representing Team USA with the perfect balance of offense and defense.

Before earning her spot on the world stage, Annie won two 4A volleyball state championships at Penn High School in 2010 and 2011. Annie was also a member of the U.S. Women’s National A2 Program while studying at Purdue University.

She is also the first in program history to represent Purdue on the Olympic Volleyball Team. U.S. Women’s Volleyball is currently ranked No. 1 in the world, and I can’t wait to see how far they’ll go!

Sarah Hildebrandt, a 2011 graduate of Penn High School, will represent Team USA as a wrestler in the 50KG weight class.

While at Penn High School, Sarah became the first female to qualify for the Indiana High School Athletic Association (IHSAA) Wrestling Semi-State competition and led Penn High School to the IHSAA Team Championship. Since graduating from high school, Sarah has earned four gold medals competing in the Pan American Games, as well as a silver medal in the World Championship.

Sarah brought Penn High School Wrestling Head Coach Brad Harper with her as her personal coach. Sarah’s continues involvement in Penn Wrestling is an inspiration to the next generation of girls and has helped grow the girls wrestling program to the best in the area!

These are just two of more than 30 American Olympians who have connections to Indiana high schools, colleges, or universities.

To learn more about our Olympians with Hoosier roots, click here.