On Wednesday, November 18, P-H-M announced that Penn High School and the district’s three middle schools (Discovery, Grissom and Schmucker) will return to 100% virtual learning beginning Monday, November 23, 2020 through the end of the first semester, Friday, January 15, 2021 (with the MLK holiday being Mon., Jan. 18, students would return to hybrid learning on Tues., Jan. 19, 2021). This change was brought about by the St. Joseph County Department of Health’s recommendations that came earlier in the afternoon of November 18.  Part of SJCDH recommendations to districts was to “Pause all extra curricular activities or conduct them remotely as feasible. In the event these activities cannot be paused or done remotely, limit spectators to parents/guardians/siblings until after winter break.”

Click to read SJCDH recommendations and click here to read Superintendent’s Dr. Jerry Thacker’s full letter to parents.

As a result, Penn High School Athletics, along with all P-H-M middle school winter athletic programs, are implementing significant change to the winter athletic programs. Please see the modifications released Friday, November 20, 2020 that will be effective immediately. These modifications will be re-evaluated by Friday, December 18 (P-H-M School Corporation’s winter break runs Dec. 21, 2020 – Jan. 1, 2021).

Penn High School will begin Virtual Learning for all students starting on Monday, Nov. 23, 2020, through Friday, Jan. 15, 2021. The decision to move to Virtual Learning is based on a recommendation by the St. Joseph County Health Dept.

The first day back to Hybrid Learning (In-Person and Virtual Learning) is Tuesday, Jan. 19.

The First Semester will end on Friday, Jan. 15. Click here for the First Semester Exam Schedule. The Second Semester will begin on Tuesday, Jan. 19.

*If P-H-M were to call a 2-hour delay, these would be the start times depending on what day of the week the delay was called:

• Monday: 10:25 a.m.
• Tuesday – Friday: 10:55 a.m.

Penn High School Virtual Learning Schedule Nov. 23-Jan. 15

Monday (White Day)

• G1: 8:25-9:00
• B1: 9:05-9:4)
• G2: 9:45-10:20
• B2: 10:25-11:00
• Lunch: 11:00-11:40
• G3: 11:40-12:15
• Advisory: 12:15-12:45
• B3: 12:50-1:25
• G4: 1:30-2:05
• B4: 2:10-2:45
• Office Hours: 2:45-3:17

Tuesday – Friday (Tuesday-Thursday Gold Days/Wednesday-Friday Black Days)

• Office Hours: 8:25-8:50
• 1st Block: 8:55-10:15 (80 minutes)
• 2nd Block: 10:25-11:45 (80 minutes)
• Lunch: 11:45-12:25 (Lunch)
• 3rd Block: 12:25-1:45 (80 minutes)
• 4th Block: 1:55-3:15 (80 minutes)

Wednesday, November 18, 2020

Dear P-H-M Secondary Families,

As reported by St. Joseph County Department of Health (SJCDH), the rates of positive COVID-19 cases in our community have been steadily on the rise for several weeks. The SJCDH is concerned that an increase of indoor family and social gatherings over the holiday period, starting with Thanksgiving running through New Year’s, will generate even more cases going through mid January. 

Therefore in a preemptive, proactive move, the Department of Health this afternoon recommended that all high  schools in St. Joseph County “pivot to virtual learning until after winter break. Depending on their circumstance, each district may choose to have middle schools go virtual as well.” Click to read the SJCDH news release. 

Because of the population size of P-H-M’s middle schools, the increase of cases also coming from this age group, and because these students are not cohorted due to course offerings and individual needs, we believe it is in our students and staff’s best interest to also have our three middle schools also revert back to 100% virtual learning, along with Penn High School.

For Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation, this means all three middle schools (Discovery, Grissom and Schmucker) along with Penn High School will move to 100% virtual instruction starting next Monday, November 23 through Friday, January 15 (the end of the first semester).

Pending SJCDH guidance, we expect secondary students to return to hybrid instruction on Tuesday, January 19 (Monday, January 18, is a recess day for Martin Luther King Jr. Day). Please click here for a reminder on the hybrid weekly schedule model introduced at the beginning of the school year.

The only exception for secondary students who will not be going 100% virtual are certain Exceptional Education and Young Adult program students. These students will continue to come to their home school daily to receive their educational services. Busing and food service will be provided. The Exceptional Education Department will be in touch directly with these parents in the coming days with more details.

Penn High School students enrolled in classes through the Elkhart Area Career Center and Penn’s Building and Trades program will continue with those programs in-person. These students’ classes that normally take place in-person at Penn will be virtual. More details will be provided by Penn Principal Sean Galiher.

The virtual day for middle schools will start at 9:35, 12:30 lunch, and dismissal at 4:00 (office hours will be held in the mornings 9:05-9:30). The Penn High School virtual day will start at 8:55, 11:45 lunch, 3:17 (office hours will be held in the mornings 8:25-8:50). Building principals will be in touch with parents this week to provide more details about the school day schedule.

Secondary students who will be in-person through Friday should plan on taking home all personal items. For those students who are unable to do so, school principals will communicate arrangements for pick-up days and times.

While schools themselves are not superspreaders, people are becoming infected at/through social activities taking place outside of school, thus bringing the virus into the school setting. According to SJCDH, the best way to divert a surge in cases and reduce the spread among this population is to put safeguards in place for two incubation periods, which is 28 days; hence the timeframe of our virtual instruction period through the end of first semester.

The rise of community cases correlates with what we are seeing within P-H-M. An increase of cases mostly at our secondary schools and the residual impact of close contacts in quarantine has had a reverberating effect on staffing. Our middle and high school cases are double that of elementary cases. Click to see P-H-M’s cumulative total of cases since July; click to see our cases over the previous 10 days. Making a move to 100% virtual at the entire secondary level will help to alleviate some of the staffing challenges we are currently experiencing. This will free up some people in critical roles, such as substitute teachers and bus drivers, who can then help out at the elementary level.

The hybrid instruction model we’ve been using at the middle and high school has incorporated live virtual teaching for students who are home on their virtual days. Now that all secondary students will be home, students will receive live teaching every day for all class periods. Teachers will continue to use the virtual technology tools and methods they have been using since August when the school year started virtual. This has been very successful and provided students not only with quality education, but also invaluable social emotional learning opportunities.

This change to mandatory 100% virtual instruction only affects secondary students (grades 6-12). PreK and elementary students/families will remain as previously established. If your elementary student is in-person, they will remain in-person. If they are 100% virtual; they will remain so. If you have a desire to change your elementary student from in-person to 100% virtual for the second semester, we are asking that you indicate that on the survey that will be sent out to parents Monday, December 7th. We ask that elementary families wait until that time so that staffing changes can be made for the second semester beginning January 19th. 

If your middle or high school student tests positive for COVID during this time of virtual learning, we still ask for parents and guardians to please report these cases to us. We send these statistics to the Indiana State Department of Health (ISDH) which they publish weekly on the ISHDH COVID School Dashboard. No identifiable, personal information is shared with the state, just the number of cases. We are also reporting this data daily on the P-H-M COVID Dashboard. 

Please continue to use these valuable tools to monitor COVID symptoms and to follow isolation and quarantine protocols:

• ISDH Symptom Screening Tool 
• COVID-19 School Attendance Quick Reference Guide
• CDC: Duration of Isolation and Precautions for COVID-19 Positive Cases
• CDC: When to Quarantine, When to start and end quarantine, Timeline Scenarios

We have more information on COVID-19 and P-H-M safety mitigation protocols on our website at https://www.phmschools.org/returntolearn.

Principals will be sharing information in the coming days on Food Service distribution of meals for secondary students. This information will be posted on P-H-M and the schools’ websites, as well as also coming from your building principal.

Per the St. Joseph County Health Department’s recommendations released today, extracurricular and co curricular activities should be paused or go virtual as feasible. “In the event these activities cannot be paused or done remotely, limit spectators to parents/guardians/siblings until after winter break.” More details will be shared by the middle and high school principals over the coming days regarding extracurricular and co curricular activities.

The P-H-M Board of School Trustees and I realize this is yet another change for our families; it is not ideal and we know that this impacts our families and students in a number of different ways. However, the health and safety of staff and students is our greatest responsibility. We follow ISDH recommendations and the guidance of local health authorities who have oversight over the school district. The best place for our students is in our schools; short of being able to do that because of the pandemic, we will continue to provide stable, quality education and SEL support to our students by every means possible.

Any family or student who is in need of social emotional support, please reach out to your school principal, assistant principal, dean or guidance counselor. All secondary staff will continue to report to their buildings during this time period and will be available during the school day to assist with problems. For after hours help, a listing of community resources, ranging from suicide prevention and mental health resources to dealing with COVID anxiety and stress, are on our website at this link:  https://www.phmschools.org/parents/social-emotional-learning. 

As we approach Thanksgiving, I hope that families are able to celebrate in a safe and responsible manner. Whatever we do now over these next few weeks will determine our course over the next few months. We want everyone to be healthy and do their part to reduce community spread so that our students can have a normal end to the school year. Please let’s join together as the strong P-H-M Triangle of Success to make this happen.

Sincerely,
Dr. Jerry Thacker
Superintendent of Schools

Penn High School Principal Sean Galiher announced that four Penn High School students have been named Rising Stars of Indiana Class of 2021 by the Indiana Association of School Principals.

Jayden Bell, Samik Ghosh, Maya Kvaratskhelia and Aidan Sweeney were named Rising Stars based on academic accomplishment and leadership skills.

JAYDEN BELL: Jayden Bell is a student in Penn’s STEM Academy. He placed first in the DECA State Championships in Financial Team Decision Making, and was also first at the DECA District Championships in Financial Team Decision Making. He was also first at the TEAMS Regionals, and is an AP Scholar. He has pursued cancer research at the Harper Cancer Research Institute, and studied Bioengineering research at Notre Dame. He is the Vice President of the Penn Medical Club, and is a member of DECA, the Science Academic Super Bowl team, and TEAMS (Tests of Engineering Aptitude, Math and Science). He plans to study Business Management & Technology.

SAMIK GHOSH: Samik Ghosh is a student in Penn’s STEM Academy. He is an AP Scholar and Qualified for the Brain Bee Nationals. He was also named an Indiana Soccer Coaches Association All-Academic Player. He has participated in Soccer, Track, and is a State Finalist Cross Country runner. He has also participated in TEAMS (Tests of Engineering Aptitude, Mathematics and Science), DECA, Penn Medical Club, Model U.N., and Neuroscience Research at the University of Notre Dame. He plans to student Law and Business Management.
 

MAYA KVARATSKHELIA: Maya Kvaratskhelia was named Concertmaster of the Indiana All-State orchestra, and was a member of the Fine Arts Academic Super Bown State Championship Team. She is also a member of the Science Academic Super Bowl Team, the German Club, Indiana Math League, the South Bend Youth Symphony Orchestra, TEAMS, Freshman Mentoring, Kingsmen Court, the Fischoff Mentoring program and the German-American Partnership Program. She plans to double-major in Physics and Violin performance.

AIDAN SWEENEY: Aidan Sweeney is a student in Penn’s STEM Academy. He won first place at the 2020 DECA Regionals and State in Financial Team Decision Making, was an Indiana University Model UN 2019 Honorable Delegate, earned first place at the TEAMS 2020 Regional, and is an AP Scholar. He participates in Varsity Lacrosse, Model U.N. (Executive Member), DECA, TEAMS, National Honor Society, Academic Super Bowl (Math and Social Studies) and is a Discovery Mathcounts Assistant Coach. He plans to study Finance or Mathematics in college.

Penn High School hosted a National Signing Day ceremony for 18 Kingsmen student-athletes on Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2020.

The student-athletes who signed their letters of intent in the signing ceremony have competed for the Kingsmen in Girls Basketball, Girls Lacrosse, Girls and Boys Soccer, Girls and Boys Swimming, Volleyball and Wrestling. Click the video link below to watch the event.

In all 18 Penn student-athletes signed letters of intent to continue their academic and athletic careers:

• Five at the NCAA Division I level
• Four at the NCAA Division II level
• Five at the NCAA Division III level
• Four at the NAIA level

Click to read the bios on all of these remarkable students.

Penn High School placed fourth in the 2020 Virtual Spell Bowl State Finals.

Penn only had seven spellers (out of 10), but still qualified for state and placed fourth.

David Wang, Ashley Oh, Lydia Peterson, Felix Zhang were perfect spellers, Tasneem Ahmed and Sobia Ahmed were near-perfect spellers, and Lila Schulte spelled 7/9 words correctly. 

Additionally, David Wang, Ashley Oh, and Felix Zhang were invited to participate in an individual competition because they earned perfect scores at the Regional competition. Wang, Oh and Zhang each placed in the Top 25. Zhang scored 119/120, followed by Wang 116/120 and Oh 115/120.

FREE SCHOOL MEALS FOR HYBRID STUDENTS: On Wednesdays and Fridays each week, students who are on a hybrid schedule can pick up three free meals before they leave for the day.
Students can stop into the IMC, Door C, or Door D to collect these meal packages.

Free Meal pick-up for virtual students will be moving to Door K on the south side of the school.

Dates and times will remain Wednesday and Friday from 4-6 p.m.

Door K is off Jefferson next to the playground on the practice football field side.

Penn High School will host a Robotics Fair – featuring an Adapt-a-thon – from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 7. The event will be outside in front of Door D, and can be accessed by entering the parking lot in front of Penn High School off of Bittersweet Rd.

The Adapt-a-thon is centered around the creation and distribution of adapted toys for children with disabilities. Families can either RSVP by emailing robotics@phm.k12.in.us, or families can just show up to the event.

The Robotics Fair will also offer non-contact games and activities for children and their families to enjoy, including Giant Tic-Tac-Toe, Catapult Cornhole, 3-Cup Monte, Pyramid Takedown, a Build-a-Bot station, and an FRC demo.

All COVID-19 protocols – masks/physical distancing – will be observed. 

Last year, Penn Robotics students created an 'Incredible Hulk' wheelchair for a local child – Zephan Cantu, so he could participate in Trick-or-Treating: https://penn.phmschools.org/main-news/penns-magic-wheelchair-revealed-cantu-family.

Click here for the Traffic-Flow Map.

Click here for the Robotics Fair/Adapt-a-Thon activities map.

A 5 a.m. alarm? In a college dorm room?

It’s one that Penn High School alum Lauren Kramer eagerly answered at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo – three time zones away from Penn Instructor Jim Langfeldt’s Black 1 Architecture Class.

Kramer, a 2020 Penn graduate, connected with Langfeldt’s Black 1 class – which started at 8:55 a.m. Eastern Time, through a Google Meet on Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2020.

“I love helping Penn High School,” Kramer said. “I wanted to meet with the students (Wednesday morning), so that I could help to guide them, and give them more ideas about architecture school.

“When I was a senior, I remember being confused and unaware of how architecture school even works, and I thought that if someone would've explained how it all worked to me I would've felt less overwhelmed.”

Kramer wanted to impart some of her passion for architecture to the students who were sitting in the same architecture lab that she sat in as a Penn student. She also shared the reality that architecture is a challenging major that is work-intensive.

“I wanted the students to first of all get excited about architecture, because it is a fantastic major and a great degree to pursue,” Kramer said. “Clearly, I am really passionate about architecture, and I hope after speaking with them they are excited about college and potentially pursuing this career. I also wanted students to understand that architecture is a challenging major. It's a lot of work, and realistically if students aren't interested in doing the work, they should consider pursuing something else. Architecture is an amazing major and career to pursue, but you have to be willing to put in the work in order to succeed.”

Penn Senior Brendan Kerr appreciated the opportunity to hear from Kramer about what to expect at the collegiate level.

“This experience has shown me what pursuing architecture after high school might really look like,” said Kerr, who is considering attending the University of Cincinnati or Ball State to study architecture.

“These types of experiences (a Google Meet with a college architecture student) make class relevant by assuring me that this is what I want to do after high school,” Kerr said. “It gives all of us in the class information that we might not have received in a regular class setting or even doing research on our own.”

Kerr said that the glimpse into the reality of an architecture major was helpful.

“One of the biggest things that I took away from Lauren's talk was that Architecture is one of the most dependent and time-consuming majors out there, and that there will be times when you're pulling all-nighters back-to-back nights to reach a deadline,” Kerr said. “But that all doesn't matter if that is what you really want to do in your life and that you are having fun doing it.”

Kramer said that she is embracing the challenge of pursuing an architecture major.

 “I love everything about architecture,” Kramer said. “Architecture is a more fluid concept than a lot of people think it is. A degree in architecture can be applied in a lot of different fields, and this openness to pursue different endeavors is something that I really value. I also love being creative and problem solving and architecture is the perfect means in order to do this.”

 Kramer said that Penn helped prepare her for an academically elite college like Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.

“I feel like classes at Penn prepared me for rigorous academic coursework that I do now,” Kramer said. “In terms of architecture, Penn High School architecture classes are what really got me interesting in the field. Without those classes, I probably would be in a different major.

“Mr. Langfeldt was always super encouraging to me to pursue my dreams, and this encouragement really impacted me to continue with architecture. I hope that in the future more students at Penn will be able to go through the architecture program, and be equally inspired to pursue their dreams.” 

Kramer’s advice to high school students is to explore all college options.

“As far as choosing a college, I wish I would've known more about the difference in programs such as the difference between a bachelors and masters in architecture,” Kramer said. “In recent months, I've realized that I love to teach and I think that I am going to eventually pursue my master’s degree so that I can become a college professor.

“In retrospect, knowing more information about these different programs would've been helpful. I also think it's super important as a high school student to explore all of your college options because a school like Cal Poly seemed like an impossible dream to me, but I researched, worked hard, and made it happen.”

According to Langfeldt, the Architecture School in college is often misinterpreted as an Engineering or Construction management degree. He said that Kramer has been focused on architecture since middle school.

“Her talents in Art as well as Design suit her perfectly for success as an Architect,” Langfeldt said. “It is very impactful to have a recent Penn Graduate reach out to my students to give them valuable insight into not only the Architecture experience in college but also how to navigate the college search.  I am very proud of Lauren Kramer.”