Penn High School hosted its annual Showcase event for prospective students and their families on Monday, Dec. 2, 2024.

The event featured live classrooms that featured students and faculty in all of Penn’s learning academies.

A Photo Gallery is posted below:

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The Penn High School Marching Kingsmen have been selected to participate in the 2025 Dunkin’ Doughnuts Thanksgiving Parade. The event is the longest continuously held Thanksgiving Parade in the United States.

​“It is certainly an honor to be invited to perform in the Philadelphia Thanksgiving Day Parade,” Penn Marching Band Director Glenn Northern said. “Our trip will include two days in New York City as well. It is sure to be a great experience for our students”.

This week, second-grade students from Bittersweet Elementary School joined forces with Penn High School students to kick off the holiday season with delightful gingerbread-themed activities.

On Monday and Wednesday, Bittersweet’s 2nd graders took a field trip to Penn High School, where they collaborated with Penn students in creating gingerbread houses and engaging in fun gingerbread-inspired crafts. The high school students guided their younger counterparts through rolling and cutting the dough. They also read gingerbread stories and did multiple arts and crafts with the Bittersweet students.

The multi-day celebration culminated today, Friday, November 22nd, as the baked ginger bread was brought back to Bittersweet to be assembled into houses and decorated. Families joined the fun, adding colorful candies, frosting, and festive designs to the creations.

Second grade students decorating gingerbread houses has been a tradition for approximately 30 years, this is the first time that Bittersweet collaborated with Penn High School. It provided students with a creative outlet, a chance to learn new skills, and an opportunity to bond across grade levels during the holiday season.

The smiles and joy shared throughout the week are a testament to the power of collaboration and the holiday spirit!

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Penn student club Short Hair Because We Care event, held on Saturday, Nov. 16, had it’s largest turnout yet!

In all 66 people showed up at the event and donated their hair–695 inches worth! Click to see the photo gallery below. This year’s turnout was double what was collected in 2023. There were so many people a few of the stylists from Salon Nouveau stayed over an hour-and-half to make sure everyone was able to donate. Last year 33 people donated a total of 334 inches (click to see last year’s photos). 

Anyone in the community, men, women, children, can donate their hair, but a minimum of 8 inches is required. The donated hair is sent to the Children With Hair Loss organization.

To get the word out on the event, the students promoted it to students within Penn, on social media, and even had media coverage! Click here to see.

This annual event was started in 2019-2020 by a group of students when they were in 7th grade at Grissom Middle School.

“It started as something that students could give, that wouldn’t be money or something they wouldn’t have control over being young students, but everyone can donate their hair, so that’s why we started it: to give everyone an opportunity to serve even if they don’t

have other resources,” Ella Smoker Class of 2024. Click to see the WNDU-TV’s story from November 2023.

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Second-grade students from Title 1 schools had a creative and educational adventure as part of the Young at Art program this week. This program aims to blend literacy and artistic expression for Title 1 schools. Hosted at Penn High School, the event provided a unique opportunity for young learners to connect with older peers through a series of interactive and engaging activities.

The photos in this story are from Tuesday, November 19th when Elsie Rogers visited, but over the course of the week there were many classes from different schools who came to Penn.

The day kicked off with a painting session led by Penn High School art students, where the second graders created cloud-themed artworks. This creative exercise set the stage for the next part of their journey — a storytime session with Penn English classes. The high school students read an engaging story about clouds, sparking curiosity and imagination among the younger learners.

Building on their newfound knowledge, the Elsie Rogers students reflected on what they learned from the story by expressing their thoughts through writing. This meaningful combination of art and literacy helped reinforce their learning and encouraged self-expression.

Additional activities added further excitement and hands-on experience. Students designed shoe prints and explored cloud types by identifying them on a mural crafted by the high school art students. Each station offered a chance to learn, create, and collaborate in a welcoming and stimulating environment.

Young at Art continues to exemplify the power of creativity in education, fostering connections between younger students and their high school mentors while integrating literacy and artistic skills in a memorable way.

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U.S. News and World Report released its “Best Schools” rankings for K-8 public schools by state.

Out of Indiana’s 395 Indiana public high schools Penn was ranked #25!

They also ranked the best public elementary and middle schools. For Indiana, 1,000 elementary schools were ranked.

Several P-H-M’s elementary schools are at the top of the list:

• Northpoint #1 in Indiana  
• Prairie Vista #2 in Indiana  
• Horizon #19
• Mary Frank #32
• Bittersweet #56
• Moran #163
• Madison #200
• Elm Road #205
• Elsie Rogers #393
• Meadow’s Edge #239

P-H-M’s middle schools were also recognized:

• Discovery #3 in Indiana
• Schmucker #40

This year’s “Short Hair Because We Care” will hold a hair donation event for the Children With Hair Loss organization will be held Saturday, November 16 at Penn High School’s Studio Theater.

Anyone in the community can donate their hair, but the minimum is 8 inches of hair. Hair that is colored and permed is accepted. Local professional hair stylists will be donating their time to cut volunteers hair for free. Because this is for hair donation, the service provided is just a simple cut, no style.

This event was started in 2019-2020 school year by a group of 7th grade Grissom Middle School students. 

“It started as something that students could give, that wouldn’t be money or something they wouldn’t have control over being young students, but everyone can donate their hair, so that’s why we started it: to give everyone an opportunity to serve even if they don’t have other resources,” Ella Smoker Class of 2024. Click to see the WNDU-TV’s story.

Last year, 33 people donated a total of 334 inches (click to see photos)! Donate this year and help beat last year’s totals!

If you’re interested in donating, click here to sign up using the Google form.

Email shbwcphs@gmail.com with questions, and follow the group on Instagram at @shbwc_phs. 

If you can’t make it to the event or don’t have enough hair to donate, you can still help out by donating directly to Children With Hair Loss.

Children With Hair Loss is a nonprofit organization that provides hair replacements at no cost to children or young adults facing hair loss at no cost. Whatever the cause, hair loss can have effects that go deeper than cosmetics. Providing this hair is how this organization gives back to the community. You can help us give back to your community and the children facing hair loss by donating your hair or simply spreading the word about the event to everyone!