Penn High School Principal Sean Galiher and Director of Counseling John Westra announced that 10 Penn students have been named National Merit Scholarship Commended Scholars.

Ammaar Basher, Ella Boardley, Michael Cha, Micah Focht, Noah Reynolds, Ioannis Samoilis, Carly Scopel, Jacqueline Sekan, Zachary Simon and Alvin Wang earned the elite academic distinction. The top three percent of students who took the PSAT nationwide earned Commended Scholars status.

“This accomplishment reflects the collective efforts of each student, their teachers and family,” Galiher said. “Our teachers take great pride in challenging our students and preparing them through rigorous and relevant coursework." 

The National Merit® Scholarship Program is an academic competition for recognition and scholarships that began in 1955. 

Of the 1.6 million entrants in the 63rd annual competition, some 50,000 with the highest PSAT/NMSQT® Selection Index scores (calculated by doubling the sum of the Reading, Writing and Language, and Math Test scores) qualify for recognition in the National Merit® Scholarship Program.

Penn High School AP History Instructors Dominic Ball and Patrick Barrier conducted a “Rocktoberfest” learning activity that centered on the significant social, political, cultural and historical moments of the 1980’s. Students produced videos of 1980’s newscasts, performed popular songs from the period, and gave speeches on key political or social issues during the event, which was held on Wednesday, Oct. 24, and Thursday, Oct. 25.

A Photo Gallery is posted below.

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! Enter at Door C.

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.

“Boo Bash” is a student-led project—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,” Drama Club Sponsor Crystal 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.“

The Penn High School Volleyball Team won the Regional Championship with a 3-1 victory against Michigan City on Saturday, Oct. 20, 2018.

A Photo Gallery is posted below.

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.

Penn High School’s Spell Bowl Team placed first at the East Noble Invitational with a score of 74.

Oumayma Al-Shamary, Matthew Zhang, Deena Baki, and Erika Kalamaros were perfect spellers, and Celine Wang was a near-perfect speller. 

The Indiana Department of Education announced on October 12 the 2018 Gold Star Schools. 

The Gold Star designation signifies the school counselor-led steering team has met specific criteria identified for the development of a comprehensive school counseling model.

Schmucker Middle School was a first time recipient and Penn High School’s Gold Start status was renewed. Grissom Middle School was also named a Gold Star school in previous years.

Created in 2004, the Gold Star designation has been awarded to over 300 Indiana elementary, middle, and high schools. To receive the award, schools undergo a rigorous process to raise student achievement and improve overall student success. This is accomplished by creating local school-community advisory groups tasked with reviewing student data, setting specific student goals, and committing to maximizing the time and skills of the school counselor. A total of 34 schools received the designation in 2018, of which nine renewed their Gold Star status.

The official award presentation will take place in November at the Indiana School Counselor Association fall conference.

Click to view a complete list of recognized schools. 

The Penn Volleyball team earned the 2018 Sectional Championship on Saturday, Oct. 13.

The Kingsmen defeated Plymouth, LaPorte and South Bend Adams on the way to claiming the title.

Penn plays Munster in the LaPorte Regional at 1 p.m. ET on Saturday, Oct. 20.

A Photo Gallery is posted below.

The Penn Boys Soccer Team lost to No. 1-ranked Chesterton, 3-2, in overtime on Saturday, Oct. 13.

A Photo Gallery is posted below.

Before the Kingsmen hosted cross-town rivals the Mishawaka Cavemen for a very rainy Backyard Brawl, Penn High School hosted the Penn-Harris-Madison community for the opening of the new Kingsmen Athletic Center and Plaza (Friday, Oct. 12).

For an hour-and-a-half before kickoff, members of the public had the opportunity to get in from the cold and rain and tour the new building which holds locker room space for Penn High School student-athletes and visiting teams. The new 13,264 square foot facility includes three new locker rooms to be rotated during the Fall and Spring sports seasons: Football (varsity, JV and Freshmen), Track & Field (boys & girls) and Girls Lacrosse. There are a total of 255 oversized lockers large enough to house equipment. There are also private shower and rest room stalls. Click for a brochure with more details about the new facility. All three locker room areas have adjacent coaching staff office space for supervision. The two home larger locker rooms include integrated team meeting and film areas with video projection. With the addition of a training room at TCU Freed Field, Penn athletic trainers will have on-site access to equipment and medical treatment supplies during sporting activities. The new building also provides private facilities for sports officials. Click to see the full photo gallery below.

The home and visiting locker rooms were not in use for the Oct. 12 home game, but will be on Oct. 26 when Penn hosts Warsaw in the Class 6-A Sectional 2 opener.

On Thursday, Oct. 11, Kingsmen senior football players Caden Paquette, Bryce Stone, Rockne Hurley, Drew Schneider, and Brock Boynton got a sneak peek at the new facilities as part of a media tour with P-H-M Superintendent Dr. Jerry Thacker, Chief Operating Officer Aaron Lenski and Penn Athletic Director Jeff Hart. Click to see the full photo gallery below.

On Friday afternoon, Penn Freshmen football players and coaches were also given a tour of the new facility. Check out their reaction in the video below.

P-H-M and Penn administrators along with P-H-M School Board of Trustees Members were on hand to welcome the public. Taking part in the evening’s events were Board of School Trustees Members Jim Garrett, Secretary Angie Gates, Jaye Galloway, Vice President Larry Beehler, Jamie Woods, Mr. Lenski, Dr. Thacker, President Chris Riley, Coach Hart, and Penn Principal Sean Galiher (Board member Gary Fox was unable to attend).

The Kingsmen Athletic Center & Plaza also enhances the visitor experience adding features on the south end of TCU Freed Field where none previously existed. Public restrooms (30 stalls for women, 20 for men) and three family restrooms were opened for Friday’s game. Patrons were also able to enjoy the new south end zone concession stand and family plaza picnic area. 

The new concession stand has been named the Zolman’s Tire Concessions. P-H-M community business partner Zolman’s Tire has donated $25,000 (over 12 years) to the P-H-M Education Foundation for the naming rights. Zolman’s made the same commitment in 2016 to name the north end zone concession stand. The mission of the Education Foundation is to develop alternative sources of income to support education initiatives in P-H-M by strengthening partnerships between the community and the District. PHMEF supports education through awarding innovative teaching grants, scholarships to students, staff development and other corporation-wide initiatives. Per PHMEF’s naming rights campaign, 80 percent of the donation goes into the Foundation’s endowment. The remaining 20 percent will directly fund professional development initiatives for P-H-M teachers. The Zolman’s Tire Concessions stand will be dedicated in the coming weeks with Zolman’s owner Nate Zolman.

The Kingsmen Athletic Center and Plaza has been a year in the making. In November 2017, the P-H-M Board of School Trustees approved the construction of a new athletics facilities building to be built in the south end zone of Penn High School’s TCU Freed Field. The bid was awarded in February 2018 to Fanning Howey. Ground broke on March 1 with the project completing October 2018. The project was part of Penn-Harris-Madison’s overall $7.5 million 2018 Capital Improvement Projects districtwide for 15 school buildings. The cost of overall TCU Freed Field stadium improvements (such as safety and security upgrades, replacement of asphalt, fencing, drainage, etc.) was $3.7 million, with the cost of the Kingsmen Athletic Center being $2.9 million. The stadium project was financed using General Obligation Bonds. When using bonds to finance projects the goal is to borrow funds within our financial capacity which in turn keeps property taxes level.

Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation has a vision of excellence serving more than 11,100 students in 11 elementary schools, three middle schools and Penn High School. The School Corporation received an “A” rating from the Indiana Department of Education consecutively since 2011. For grade 10, P-H-M ranks in the Top 5% (out of 291 Indiana public school corporations that have a high school). In grades 3-8, P-H-M is in the Top 6% of public school districts (out of 294 Indiana public school corporations that have grades 3-8). 

*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.