While the Indianapolis area and south will experience 100% totality for the solar eclipse occurring on Monday, April 8, 2024, the St. Joseph County area will only experience 96%.

The Michiana area will start experiencing darkness at 1:53 p.m., lasting until 4:23 p.m., with 96% totality occurring at 3:09 p.m. and lasting just over 4 minutes.

Click to watch the video below and hear from P-H-M Digital Video Theater and Planetarium Director Melinda O’Malley as she shows us what to expect in our area.

Click here to see a Indiana Department of Natural Resources map of Indiana regions that will experience varying degrees of darkness.  Click here to also get more background information on the Great American Eclipse website.

Because the partial eclipse time is occurring around elementary school dismissal times and based on the recommendations of the Indiana Department of Homeland Security and the IDOE, P-H-M will have an eLearning day on April 8. Click here for more information on that decision.

Thanks to Old National Bank and P-H-M Education Foundation, all students will have a pair of eclipse glasses to use at home when watching the eclipse with their families. The glasses will be sent home the week of March 25 before P-H-M’s Spring Break.

DVT Director Mrs. O’Malley demonstrates how the eclipse glasses should be used.

Penn High School students excelled at the DECA State Championships, qualifying 20 students for the DECA International Championships, April 27-30, in Anaheim, California.

State Champions include Ayvah Bell, Joel Bell, Matthew Deahl, Stanley Liew, Amrit Kaur, Rhea Rhakra and Cameron Poznanski.

International Conference qualifiers

• Franchise Business Plan: 1. Ayvah Bell, Joel Bell
• Independent Business Plan: 2. Elizabeth Eshowsky
• Integrated Marketing Campaign – Product: 2. Avery Ferris, Lucy Salwin
• Integrated Marketing Campaign – Service: 3. Selin Bilgicer, Danielle Ciliberti, Mia Helm
• Community Giving Project: 2. Layla Berry, Ella Smoker
• Entrepreneurship TDME: 3. Chris Chen, David Guarraci
• Hospitality Services TDME: 1. Matthew Deahl, Stanley Liew
• Business Operations Research: 1. Amrit Kaur, Rhea Rhakra, Cameron Poznanski
• Business Law Team Event: 4. Lana Ealdama, Noah Schafer
   

2024_DECA Competitive_Event_Complete results

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• FIRST Indiana Robotics Tournament
• “Books & Bots” event for P-H-M’s elementary students
• “The Music Man” musical production in the evenings
• Kingsmen Art Gallery open highlighting artwork by student winners of the Scholastic Art Awards

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Penn High School hosted the Mishawaka FIRST Indiana District Event on Saturday, March 2, and Sunday, March 3, 2024.

A Photo Gallery is posted below.

The weekend was a great success for both Penn Robotics teams, each of which being selected for playoff alliances. More than 2,500 fans attended the event in the Penn Main Arena.

Team 135 and Team 328 both performed very well, and Team 135 won the Quality Award for their robot design and performance.

Next up for Penn Robotics is a District event at Plainfield on Saturday, March 23, as Team 135 and 328 pursue state qualification.

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Football Cheerleading Tryouts will be Monday, March 25; Tuesday, March 26; and Wednesday, March 27 at Penn High School.

Those interested please email Coach Szweda for more information at rszweda@phm.k12.in.us.

A total of 56 Penn High School students were honored in the annual Scholastic Arts regional competition.

A Gallery of some of the award-winning student work is posted below.

You can come check out the artwork yourself at the Penn Art Gallery, Saturday, March 2 from 12:00 – 3:00 p.m.

The prestigious Scholastic Awards program is the nation’s longest running awards program for students.

Penn students competed for Gold Key, Silver Key and Honorable Mention Awards. Gold Key winners are automatically considered for national awards and scholarships.

2024 Penn HS Scholastic Arts Winners

2024 Penn Scholastic Writing Winners

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Today Superintendent Dr. Jerry Thacker surprised another group of teachers hand-delivering the Spring 2024 round of Impact Awards. With the help of Penn Principal Dr. Sean Galiher, Dr. Thacker caught two Penn teachers off guard when he popped into their classrooms unannounced! Click to see the photo gallery below.

This round of P-H-M Impact Awards recognizes teachers with First Semester growth. While all P-H-M teachers across the district are dedicated to helping their students achieve personal academic success, the Impact Award shines the spotlight on educators who have helped their students achieve individual academic growth on their formative assessments over time. The first-ever Impact Awards were handed out in September 2023 and recognized the teachers with the most significant overall student growth during the 2022-2023 school year.

Penn High School Economics teacher Mr. Pete Riordan teaches both AP Microeconomics and AP Macroeconomics. During the 2022-2023 school year, both courses increased slightly in enrollment while simultaneously boasting large increases in achievement. Students in AP courses take standardized exams at the end of the school year designed to measure how well they’ve mastered the content and skills of the course. The final score for each AP Exam is reported on a 5-point scale that offers a recommendation about how qualified a student is to receive college credit or placement, but each college makes its own decisions. In general, a score of three or higher results in credit or placement.

In Mr. Riordan’s Microeconomics course, students earning a three or better jumped from 58.7% in 2022 to 70.8% in 2023. Likewise, in Macroeconomics, 80% of students earned a three or higher, an increase of 20.9%, and the highest pass rate for the course in Penn High School history! Not bad for Riordan who is also the Kingsmen Football Team’s Defensive Coordinator.

From Coach Riordan’s classroom, Principal Galiher took Dr. Thacker and Penn administrators down the hall to drop-in on Mrs. Jenny Dakins who teaches Learning Strategies,  which are classes designed to support student success and academic growth. Dakins teaches multiple blocks of the class and at mid semester 68% of her students’ grades were on

track. This percentage improved to 92% by the end of the semester. Dakins’ student growth is a result of her dedication to supporting students and meeting with them individually to ensure academic success for every student. Her compassion, support and love for her students is reflected in their growth.

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At the P-H-M Board of School of Trustees meeting on Monday, February 26, district administration made a presentation to the Board regarding the total solar eclipse taking place on Monday, April 8. As part of the presentation, district administration announced that for a variety of reasons Monday, April 8 will be an eLearning Day. If the district has used all of its allotted three eLearning Days (we currently have used two), the day will be a Virtual Learning Day. No P-H-M sponsored field trips or planned evening activities will take place on this date. Monday, April 8 is the first day back after Spring Break (April 1-5). 

Indiana is in the path of totality and is centrally located in the United States, thus the Indiana Department of Homeland Security is telling tourists, residents, school districts and public agencies to be prepared for three days of potential impact such as, oversized crowds, gridlock traffic, communications disruptions, and even nocturnal animal confusion. Click here to see the full presentation from last night’s Board meeting.

The Indianapolis area and south will experience 100% totality; while the St. Joseph County area will experience 96%. Click here to see a map of Indiana regions that will experience varying degrees of darkness from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources website. The South Bend area will start experiencing darkness at 1:53 p.m., lasting until 4:23 p.m., with 96% totality occurring at 3:09 p.m. and lasting just over 4 minutes. Because these times are around school dismissal times and based on the recommendations of the Indiana Department of Homeland Security and the IDOE, P-H-M will not be holding in-person instruction on April 8. 

Thanks to Old National Bank and P-H-M Education Foundation, all students in the district will receive eclipse glasses to use at home with instructions. Mrs. Mindy O’Malley, Director of P-H-M’s Arthur M. Klinger Planetarium and Digital Video Theater, and a team of teachers, are preparing grade-level eclipse information to send home with students. In the classrooms leading up to April 8, teachers will educate students about this nearly once-in-a-lifetime event; the next total solar eclipse where portions of Indiana will be in full totality will be 2099.

If parents have any questions, they should contact their students’ principals. Employees should contact their supervisor or Human Resources.

A few times a year, the P-H-M Board of School Trustees holds their board meetings off-site at one of P-H-M’s 15 schools as a way to highlight for the Board and the community the education accomplishments and academic achievements taking place in the spotlight school. Click to see the full photo gallery below.

Monday, February 26 was Penn High School’s turn to shine!

Penn Principal Dr. Sean Galiher, Associate Principal Rachel Fry, Assistant Principals Sarah Hendricks, Jeanie Mitchell, and Josiah Parker, along with Athletic Director Jeff Hart, presented 2023-2024 first semester achievement report, which included data and information on academics, attendance, and athletics, along with recognitions of State Championship and Runners-Up teams, great teachers, mentors and coaches. Click here to see Principal Galiher’s full Board Presentation.

Intermingled in the presentations were performances by Penn Fine Arts groups like the student stars of the school musical, “The Music Man,” a quartet, the Jazz Band, and a tap dancer. Choir teacher Andrew Nemeth used the student performances to quiz Board Members on their musical knowledge with “Name that Tune.”  Click the YouTube link below to hear.

Some of the main highlights of Principal Galiher’s presentation to the Board highlighted Penn’s 98.12% graduation rate for 2023 and is on track to have the same for 2024. Looking at the freshmen class, 94.51% are “on-track” after 1st semester of the 2023-24 SY. The rest of Penn students are also doing well: 94.4% for sophomores, 94.6% for juniors, and 93.4% for seniors. The Class of 2024 is projected to have 52.4% graduate with Honors Diplomas.

In September of this school year, Penn was named a 2023 Cognia^® School of Distinction. Cognia is a global nonprofit school improvement organization grounded in research-based performance standards. They accredit 40,000 public and private schools in 90 countries; only 96 schools globally were recognized as Schools of Distinction, and Penn High School was among them, and the only high school in Indiana!

Cognia’s Mid-Atlantic Director Jennifer Horvath traveled from the Louisville, Kentucky to address the School Board and explain Cognia’s rigorous accreditation process. Ms. Horvath praised Penn High School for teacher and administration collaboration, along with the school’s climate and culture. Cognia student surveys showed that students feel safe, valued, and supported by their teachers. Click here to hear Ms. Horvath’s comments.

Associate Principal Fry presented on AP and dual credit enrollment and the Early College Academy. Currently at 1,816 students out of Penn’s @3,500 total students are taking AP courses; and 678 students of the Class of 2024 are enrolled in dual credit classes.

For the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 school years, Penn High School ranked FIRST in the state with the highest number of students earning ICC (Indiana College Core) or AGS (Associate of General Studies) certificates earned! This was just one of the reasons why the IDOE recognized Penn with Excellence in College Readiness Award along with a $250,000 grant!

Debate Team teacher and coach Mr. Jeremy Starkweather, sporting a new haircut thanks to his team’s State Championship win, presented his student winners.

Along with the Debate Team, the other State Championship team, Spell Bowl, was also recognized. Both the Girls and Boys Swim/Dive teams were also recognized fresh off IHSAA State Championships returning as State Runners-Up. For the first time in Penn’s history, both teams were State Runners-Up in the same year! Lily Christianson is the State Champion in 50-Freestyle, 100-Freestyle, and was a member of the 200-Freestyle Relay Team with Kaia Podlin, Alayna Riggins, and Molly Barnes.

The Board thanked retiring Hall of Fame Head Football Coach Cory Yeoman for his 40 years of service to Penn High School, and also recognized the Yeoman family in attendance.

Penn Strength and Conditioning Coach Matt Cates named the 2024 National Coach of the Year by the National High School Strength Coaches Association (NHSSCA) was also honored.

Many more student and staff accomplishments along with supporting data were shared with the Board. Click here to see Principal Galiher’s full Board Presentation.

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Penn Advanced Jazz Ensemble earns runner-up status at Chicago event