Student Materials Retrieval

• Students will be allowed a limited opportunity to pick up items left at school.  To retrieve an item, this form must be filled out.  
• Our "pick-up station" will be located at Door C from 9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. on 6/2 (Tuesday) and 6/3 (Wednesday).  
• All visitors are asked to remain in vehicles.  Upon arrival, provide the student name to staff on duty.  That staff member will retrieve and deliver your item(s).

Student Material Drop-off

• Penn High School must collect materials from all students (textbooks, library books, etc.).  
• Our "drop-off station" will be located between Door L and Door M from 9:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. on 6/2 (Tuesday) and 6/3 (Wednesday).
• To avoid traffic congestion, we ask that on 6/2, only students with last names beginning with A – Lay drop off items.
• On 6/3, we would like only students with last names beginning with Le – Z to drop off items.  
• Upon arrival, vehicles should pull forward as far as possible and park.  Several pallets will be sitting on the sidewalk. 
• One individual from each vehicle should stack the returned items on a pallet.  We encourage all visitors to wear PPE and to adhere to proper safety guidance. 

Please see the letter below that Principal Sean Galiher shared with Penn Seniors and their families this afternoon:

Dear Class of 2020 students and families,

Our staff had an amazing time delivering signs to our graduating seniors last Friday.  It was truly an enjoyable experience and it was great to see the smiling faces of our seniors and their families.  Thank you for gathering and joining in the fun!

I want to remind everyone that our virtual Commencement video will premiere on Friday, May 29 at 7:00 p.m.  We’ve been working hard to include as many of the customs as we can of a traditional in-person ceremony. We will have pre-recorded comments from myself and P-H-M Superintendent Dr. Jerry Thacker; our comments will include recognition of some major student awards winners and scholarships. Student musical performances and valedictorian speeches will be featured. The name of every eligible graduating senior will also be read and featured on screen during the Commencement video.

This is where you can watch the live premiere of the video on Friday, May 29 at 7:00 p.m.:

• P-H-M Facebook, @phmschools, https://www.facebook.com/phmschools/
• P-H-M YouTube, @PennHarrisMadison, https://www.youtube.com/user/PennHarrisMadison

*Please note these are the Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation social media accounts, not Penn High School’s.

While you do not have to have a YouTube or Facebook account to watch the Commencement video on these social media channels, if you want to interact by posting live comments or sharing pictures of your graduate during the live broadcast, you will have to have accounts and you should set those up prior to May 29.

An archival video of the Commencement will be posted later here on Penn’s website, Penn Facebook page and P-H-M’s YouTube channel for continued access after the program airs. 

An electronic version of the Commencement booklet program that lists all eligible graduates with notations of their academic honors will be emailed to students and families prior to the broadcast so that you can follow along.

Many of our graduates were able to visit Penn last week to pick up their cap, gown, cord, and medals so that students can wear their regalia at home on May 29th while they are watching the virtual event. You will be able to post pictures of your graduate in the live comments during the broadcast. Any senior who was not able to visit Penn last week can call 574-258-9500 to schedule a time to pick up these items.

Last Friday, May 15 we received notice from Notre Dame that they will not be hosting external events during the summer months. This means we will not be holding an in-person graduation at Notre Dame this summer. Notre Dame is prioritizing their efforts on how to best open the campus to their students, several of which will come from Penn!  We value our partnership with Notre Dame and understand and support their decision.  

We are now looking at ways to hold an in-person ceremony over the summer here at Penn High School. We are receiving guidance from the St. Joseph County Health Department to ensure health safety guidelines are followed.

We want to work with you to find the best way to honor our students’ achievements while maintaining the highest health and safety precautions. Please help us plan what the in-person commencement will look like by completing this survey by Tuesday, May 26. 

Details about picking up diplomas will also be shared soon. 

Remember to continue to take care of yourself and others! 

Stay happy, healthy and well,

Sean Galiher, Principal

We would like to celebrate our seniors in a unique way and need additional information to assist us. We need parents to click this link and fill out the form at the top of Principal Galiher’s May 7 eNewsletter to senior parents. Please provide this information by Thursday, May 7 at 12:00 p.m.

Senior students and parents please only complete the form once for each student.  Even if you have never moved, we still want to ensure we have accurate information so please still complete the form. 

Caps, gowns and academic regalia pickup will begin Tuesday, May 12. We’re asking students to pickup their materials based on their last name. Please follow this schedule:

• Tues., May 12, 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. (A-C)
• Tues., May 12, 12:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. (D-J)
• Wed., May 13, 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. (K-Q)
• Wed., May 13, 12:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. (R-Z)
• Thurs., May 14: 10:00 a.m. – 12:00, Make-up day

Cars must enter the Penn campus at the stoplight on Bittersweet Road. You will need to stop and give your last name to the staff member on duty. Continue to drive all the way south and then past doors A, B, and C. Turn right toward door D and report your last name again to the staff on duty. You must remain in your vehicle at all times. A staff member will place your order inside your vehicle or trunk. Orders must be paid in full prior to pick-up.

If you are not able to pick-up on the assigned day, you can pickup your items on Thursday, May 14 from 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. If that still does not work, please arrange for another person to pick up the items and send a note with them for verification.

Call Jostens at (260) 758-9673 with questions or payments.

Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition

Summer Reading/Writing 2020-2021

Instructor: Mr. Coffee, mcoffee@phm.k12.in.us 

Students registered for the Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition course (0329) should receive their Summer Reading task as a shared document via email from Mr. Coffee at the end of the 2019-2020 school year.

Students enrolled in AP English Lit are typically Seniors; although, it is not required that a student be a Senior to participate in AP English Lit. Students who believe they are improperly registered and should have received a Summer assignment should partake in the task and contact their counselors immediately in August 2020. 

N.B. The AP English Lit Course Description published by College Board (Effective Fall 2014) indicates that students enrolling in this course “should read widely and reflect on their reading through extensive discussion, writing and rewriting . . . [and] should assume considerable responsibility for the amount of reading and writing they do.” Additionally, this course seeks to engage “students in the careful reading and critical analysis of imaginative literature. Through the close reading of selected texts, students deepen their understanding of the ways writers use language to provide both meaning and pleasure for their readers. As they read, students consider a work’s structure, style, and themes as well as such smaller-scale elements as the use of figurative language, imagery, symbolism, and tone.” – Any reading students do this summer should be done with this in mind. 

The AP English Literature Course and Exam Description published by College Board (Effective Fall 2019) establishes that: Over the course of their literature studies in secondary school, and by the end of their AP English Literature and Composition class, students should have studied a variety of texts by diverse authors from a variety of time periods ranging from the English Renaissance to the present. However, students may not be prepared to read and analyze the most challenging literature from the very beginning of the course because students have not yet developed proficiency in the content and skills necessary to engage such literary works. The texts that students read should accommodate their current reading skill proficiency but also appropriately challenge them to further develop their reading skills. (117)

It is important to remember as students read this summer and through the coming year: “[T]he universal value of literary art [often] probes difficult and harsh life experiences,” and as a result, “fair representation of issues and peoples may occasionally include controversial material. Since AP students have chosen a program that directly involves them in college-level work, the AP English Literature and Composition Exam depends on a level of maturity consistent with the age of 12th-grade students who have engaged in thoughtful analysis of literary texts. . . AP students should have the maturity, the skill and the will to seek the larger meaning through thoughtful research. Such thoughtfulness is both fair and owed to the art and to the author.” 

Because of the uncertainty of access to libraries, and possible changes to access of bookstores and delivery systems over the summer, students will only be asked to read a single novel or play of their own choosing this year. This piece of imaginative literature, however, should be something that the student has never read before, and it should reflect a piece of literature that the student could reasonably assume would appear on the syllabus of an undergraduate literature course in fiction. 

If students are not sure about what to read, they may email Mr. Coffee, but this is very much a choice assignment this summer, provided it meets the aforementioned guidelines.

Ideally, this will be a text that students can annotate as they read. If they can, then they should. 

Students will be asked about this text in the fall, and they will have tasks to perform with it as we proceed through the first quarter. 

Please share this handout with parents/guardians so that they know our purposes.  If students have any questions at any time, please do not hesitate to contact me at mcoffee@phm.k12.in.us. 

In AP English Literature, it is important that a student be able to develop an argument about their reading. In this case, an argument is a statement the student can make about the text that then requires evidence from the text in order to be able to support the claim. 

Most of the time, the student needs to be thinking thematically about their texts. 

Remember–when reflecting on the impact of a thematic idea on an interpretation of the work as a whole, to merely state that without that moment or action or character (just for example), the text wouldn’t be the same, one’s reader’s response would then be, “well, duh.” 

The interpretation of the work as a whole is its theme. It is the overarching message about life and/or humanity in general, as stated or implied through the piece of literature. It is not a single word. For instance, Lord of the Flies’ theme is not savagery. Rather, Jack’s hunters’ cruelty in Lord of the Flies reveals that without parents and policemen and neighbors to keep a watchful eye, no matter how civilized we may think ourselves to be, we are not insulated from losing ourselves to temptations.

Again, if students have any questions, they should contact Mr. Coffee at the email provided above. 

Please ignore!!

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Amy Zimmer, Penn High School Exceptional Education Teacher, learned in a surprise pop-in video call on Friday, May 1 that she had been named P-H-M’s 2020 Secondary Teacher of the Year. Penn-Harris-Madison Superintendent Dr. Jerry Thacker surprised Amy by joining a Google video Hangout meeting she was having with a colleague. Click to watch the video below …
 

Amy teaches Applied Biology/Life Skills Science at Penn High School working with Exceptional Education students. Amy jointed P-H-M in 2015 from School City of Mishawaka where she worked as an Exceptional teacher 23 years in a variety of roles from preschool and elementary to middle school. Amy was even named School City of Mishawaka Teacher of the Year in 1998 when she was an Ex Ed teacher at then Beiger Junior High School.

Amy’s devotion to her students is well recognized and admired by her fellow teachers, “She has provided hundreds of Exceptional Education students with the best learning experience not only concerning academics, also but their wellbeing,” said Colleen Gish Penn High School teacher who nominated Amy for the award. “Amy works tirelessly as a teacher, case manager, CPS liaison, special need's advocate, and team-player (substituting for her colleagues).”

Teaching Applied Biology/Life Skills Science at Penn, Amy looks for opportunities to expose her students to “maximize each student’s potential, whatever that potential may be.” This school year, she piloted a program with her students and local non-profit Cultivate Food Rescue. Once a month, a team of Penn Exceptional Education students volunteered at Cultivate learning how to process and package food in a commercial kitchen facility while following health and safety protocol. This unique learning experience as Amy describes it “allows students to develop citizenship and leadership skills as well as many important life skills. To date, my Exceptional Education students have packaged 1,696 balanced meals for underprivileged kindergarten and first grade students participating in Cultivate’s Backpack Program.” Through this program, students are learning so much more than how to do a job, Amy says her students “have gained a sense of pride in their work, possessed a feeling of satisfaction knowing they are helping children.” Little did Amy and her students know that the 300 meals they helped package on their last visit to Cultivate on March 9th would go to help students and families affected by the COVID-19 school shutdowns and the Shelter in Place order. 

There’s no doubt about the passion Amy has for her students, stating “It takes a village and at Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation, we prioritize the collaboration of students, parents and teachers. … I incorporate the Triangle of Success model when developing differentiated instruction for my science lessons. … By utilizing all of the resources and supports available, I guide and connect students to opportunities, services, experiences, personnel, and programs.”

Amy along with P-H-M’s Elementary Teacher of the Year, Jessie Kinney, will be considered for the honor of the Indiana Teacher of the Year. Both P-H-M Teachers of the Year will receive a $500 classroom grant from P-H-M’s Education Foundation.

A group of Penn students pulled off a pretty amazing fundraising feat during this pandemic shutdown raising $25,008.12 for Riley Children’s Hospital!!!

The student group called, Penn’s Dance Marathon FTK (For The Kids), raises money for Riley Children’s Hospital year round. Fundraising started in the fall with a few events at Bittersweet Elementary School.  This allowed Bittersweet to become a “Kids Sharing & Caring School” through Riley. 

At Penn, the senior male students collected donations as part of the “Powder Puff King” contest in a weeklong competition.  The student who collects the most money wins the coveted crown!  The crowning ceremony takes place right before the championship Powder Puff game held in September.  This year students raised $1,400! 

Dance Marathon FTK also worked with Kingsmen Court for the “Turkey Legs” contest during November. Penn staff members volunteer to wear shorts for a week and collect money. This year students raised approximately $4,000 and Mr. Dominic Ball was crowned the Turkey Legs winner!

Students also collected canned goods at a couple of basketball games, hosted a few restaurant givebacks, along with two Board and Brush nights.  For the last big fundraiser, students sold South Bend Chocolates.  

Online fundraising began in October and continued through Friday, April 17. Students worked to meet their fundraising goal, even during the school shutdown due to COVID-19, by reaching out to friends and relatives. Prior to the crisis, students sought funds from businesses and a variety of competitions and games.  

Penn’s Dance Marathon FTK is not just about fundraising, but also about connecting with Riley families within the P-H-M family; one example of this was the Halloween party for Riley families that the FTK Executive Board hosted.

This is the third year of the Dance Marathon FTK. Last year students raised $36,929.21, an increase of nearly 30 percent from the inaugural year of $25,090.16. This year’s fundraising amount of $25,008.12 was reached even without the group’s end of year Dance Marathon. This year the Dance Marathon was scheduled for April 18.

Penn Teacher Michele Ball is the sponsor of FTK; Amy Rice and Kate O'Brien were co-sponsors.

Wednesday, April 1, 2020

Dear P-H-M Families and Staff,

Today (Wednesday, April 1) we received confirmation from the Saint Joseph County Department of Health that a member of the Penn High School community tested positive for the COVID-19 virus. The person was present at Penn through March 12th. The county health department shared that the person was not symptomatic nor had school contact in a time frame that posed any risk to the school community. For privacy reasons, we cannot disclose the identity of the person.  

The County Health Department continues to encourage individuals who believe they may have been exposed to the virus to self-isolate. Please click here for CDC recommendations and guidelines on self-isolation. While in self-isolation, people should look for the following symptoms: shortness of breath, cough, and fever. If you experience any of these symptoms, please contact your medical provider for evaluation and further guidance.

Governor Holcomb’s Shelter in Place Executive Order is through Tuesday, April 7th. Everyone in Indiana is being asked to stay at home unless it is absolutely necessary and to self-isolate and limit exposure risks through non-essential contact. Anyone showing any symptoms of COVID-19 should contact their healthcare provider. 

We all should be doing our part to slow the progression of this disease. Hopefully, with all of us sheltering in place at home, the curve will be flattened sooner rather than later. The goal is to lessen the impact on the healthcare system so that the most sick can receive appropriate care. Let’s all do our part now for the greater good.

Stay home, healthy, and well,
Dr. Jerry Thacker
Superintendent of Schools

Elisabeth Casetti, a Senior at Penn High School, has been named an Indiana Academic Regional All-Star by the Indiana Association of School Principals.

Penn High School Principal Sean Galiher announced the honor for Casetti, who was selected by the IASP on the basis of standardized test scores, extra-curricular activities, leadership and community service.

Casetti, the daughter of Alfredo and Jennifer Casetti, will be attending Purdue University next year to study Engineering. She hopes to specialize in Industrial Engineering or Theater Engineering, with a goal of working at Disney.

A student in Penn’s STEM Academy, Casetti has participated in TEAMS (Tests of Engineering, Aptitude, Mathematics, and Science), NHS, Key Club, IML (Indiana Math League) and Kingsmen Court. Her leadership positions include Executive Freshman Mentor and Tennis Captain.