South Bend Regional Chamber announced Wednesday, April 10, 2024 their 2024 “Forty under 40” class and for the 12th time in 17 years, P-H-M teachers or staff members have made the list! This year’s honorees are Betsy Alwine, Dyslexia Specialist for all Penn-Harris-Madison schools, and Andrew Nemeth, Director of Choirs at Penn High School.

Michiana Forty under 40 is a distinguished initiative that highlights the achievements of 40 outstanding young adults who, despite being under the age of 40, have demonstrated exceptional leadership, excellence in their respective careers, and a commitment to community service. The program aims to recognize and celebrate the contributions of these individuals who not only excel in their professional endeavors but also make significant efforts to give back to and positively impact their communities.

Andrew Nemeth is the Director of Choirs for Penn High School, a position he’s held since 2015.

   

Penn Choirs have been consistently been award Gold ratings in Choral performance and music literacy. Penn’s Choirs were state finalists at ISSMA last year, for the first time in more than 20 years. This year Penn had 13 students, nine soloists and the Robertson Barbershop Ensemble with four students, competed in ISSMA; students won five Gold; four Gold with Distinction; and one Silver.

Mr. Nemeth works as Chorus Master regularly for the South Bend Youth Symphony Orchestra and sings as Tenor section leader with South Bend Chamber Singers, as well as serving on their Board. He’s also Penn’s Vocal Music Director of the school spring musical for past 12 years.

Mr. Nemeth sees value in various student performance experiences. He’s taken Penn choirs on several performance trips to places like Ireland, Hawaii, New York, Disney World, just to name a few. Mr. Nemeth in the importance of giving back to the community. He regularly takes his Pen choir groups to perform at nursing homes/assisted living facilities. Personally, he’s very involved with his church, Holy Family Catholic Church in South Bend volunteering and serving as Music Director.

Students feel welcome in Mr. Nemeth’s choir room, and he is continually striving for “the next level” of choir performance. Mr. Nemeth is a lifelong learner, and he is open to changing the paradigm for choral performance at Penn after he learns about what the top high school choirs in the state and nation are doing. One of his best attributes is his gift of collaboration that often translates into once in a lifetime opportunities for his choir students.

He has collaborated with the University of Notre Dame, world-renowned symphony conductors, and teaches his students the importance of knowing the composers of their pieces. He has created opportunities for his students to meet the composers of the music they are performing. He also enjoys collaborating with other P-H-M music programs. To raise awareness of the Fine Arts options at Penn High School, he the choirs on performance tours to P-H-M’s 11 elementary schools and three middle schools. These concerts get younger students interested in taking Fine Arts classes like choir when they get to Penn High school.

Betsy Alwine has shown incredible dedication and enthusiasm for Penn-Harris-Madison students and teachers since the moment she began teaching in P-H-M as a Reading Specialist at Walt Disney Elementary School during the 2021-2022 school year. Prior to that time, Betsy taught within in Elkhart County for more than a decade. Mrs. Alwine served as a reading specialist at P-H-M’s Walt Disney Elementary School for one year, before being for a leadership role as P-H-M’s Dyslexia Specialist for all 15 schools. 

In this role, Mrs. Alwine coordinates early screening and assessment for students who show academic risk, develops and oversees programming for students who are not yet proficient in reading, and assists in leading professional development for hundreds of P-H-M teachers in the area of research-based reading instruction. Betsy’s involvement as a LETRS (Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling) facilitator has recently taken heightened importance, as Betsy successfully co-wrote competitive grant, which resulted in the Indiana Department of Education awarding P-H-M more than $450,000 to train and certify teachers in the LETRS program! With these funds, all of P-H-M’s K – 3^rd grade teachers along with special education teachers, ENL teachers, and reading specialists will be trained in LETRS! With this important professional development platform in place, P-H-M is aggressively pursuing the Indiana Department of Education goal of 95% of all third grade students passing the IREAD-3 assessment.

Beyond her role in supporting excellent instruction in foundational reading skills across our eleven elementary schools, Mrs. Alwine plays a pivotal role in leading our Teacher Leadership Teams initiative.

This fall brought another opportunity, which highlighted Mrs. Alwine’s talents, as she served in the role of Acting Principal at Elm Road Elementary for 12 weeks. During this time, Betsy led teachers through comprehensive assessment cycles that resulted in gains in student achievement.  She also took the opportunity to enhance student voice, by creating a 5th grade “student coalition”. The student group met with Mrs. Alwine to share their input for improvements the school could make to enhance the students’ overall experience. Betsy has continually used every opportunity to improve others around her, and to impact our P-H-M students.

2024 marks the recognition of the program’s 18th class! The program is brought to you by the South Bend Regional Chamber, Young Professionals Network South Bend, in collaboration with program sponsors Community Foundation of Elkhart County, First State Bank and the Mendoza College of Business at Notre Dame, along with chambers of commerce in the Michiana region.

Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation was named among the 2024’s Best Communities for Music Education (​BCME) in the country by the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) Foundation for the 11^th year in a row! P-H-M is among only 17 Indiana school districts, out of about 300, that made the list.

Now in its 25th year, the 2024 Best Communities for Music Education program has recognized 583 school districts and 135 schools across the country for the outstanding efforts by teachers, administrators, parents, students, and community leaders and their support for music education as part of a well-rounded education for all children. This recognition celebrates and recognizes K-12 music teachers in school districts who found creative ways for the “show to carry on” despite schools moving online or to in-person settings where masks were required not only for student musicians and instruments.

In P-H-M elementary schools, music class is part of the regular curriculum following state standards. Students are instructed in both vocal and instrument classes. Beginning in 6th grade, P-H-M students at our three middle schools (Discovery, Schmucker and Grissom) have the opportunity to choose choir, orchestra or band as their music elective. Students at Discovery also have the option of choosing Piano Lab. Schools from elementary all the way up to Penn High School also perform musicals.

Penn High School offers the Fine Arts & Communication Academy as part of its unique academy structure. The seven academy design provides Penn students with relevant and meaningful coursework taught in smaller, supportive environments where each student is known well by his teacher and peers. Nearly a third of Penn’s total 3,500 students are enrolled in the Fine Arts Academy with the majority being involved with music programs, either Choir, Orchestra, Band or another music program.

To qualify for the Best Communities designation, P-H-M answered detailed questions about funding, graduation requirements, music class participation, instruction time, facilities, support for the music program, and community music-making programs. Responses were verified with school officials and reviewed by The Music Research Institute at the University of Kansas. Research into music education continues to demonstrate educational/cognitive and social skill benefits for children who make music.

In a series of landmark studies by scientists and researchers at Northwestern University a link was found between students in community music programs and life-long academic success, including higher high school graduation rates and college attendance. In another study from the University, it was discovered that the benefits of early exposure to music education improves how the brain processes and assimilates sounds, a trait that lasts well into adulthood. Beyond the Northwestern research, other studies have indicated that music education lays the foundation for individual excellence in group settings, creative problem solving and flexibility in work situations, as well learning how to give and receive constructive criticism to excel.

A group of six Penn students, members of the 8-member Team 12014/The FireWires will be competing in  the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) in Houston April 17-20. FireWires is a community based team through GEARS.

Click here to read an article that ran in the South Bend Tribune on March 31, 2024.

The FireWires Team is the Indiana State FTC champions and has qualified for the World Championship. At the time of this posting, the team was ranked 11th in the world! Penn Junior Nate Baker won the Dean’s List Award.

FireWires was also very instrumental in the passage of House Bill 1382 that passed the General Assembly on April 24, 2023. The bill provides grant funding that school-based eligible teams can apply for. Eligible schools include public, charter and state-accredited nonpublic schools. 

During this year’s General Assembly, the passage of House Bill 1233 amended the definition of “eligible school” to include community-based robotics competition teams like FireWires. HB 1233 takes effect July 1, 2024.

Team 12014/The FireWires is coached by P-H-M Corporate Web Designer Rich Lester.

 

We’re happy to introduce PHM bus driver Tim Tretheway, as the Culver’s Bus Driver of the Month for March 2024!

Tim drives for Prairie Vista Elementary School and Penn High School.

Transportation consistently receives compliments about Tim from coaches, teachers, and other leaders regarding trip efficiency and his willingness to help!

The surprise took place at Prairie Vista on March 27, 2024 as he waited for her students to board for afternoon pick-up. Some of his elementary student riders were in on the surprise.

Transportation Administrators (Director Brandon Tugmon, Asst. Directors Amy Aschenbrenner and Robin Tharp) joined Osceola Culver’s restaurant co-owners Mark Nowak and Keith Remington, Prairie Vista Principal Dr. Keely Twibell, and P-H-M Education Foundation Executive Director Jennifer Turnblom to surprise/congratulate Tim.

Thank you Culver’s and and the P-H-M Education Foundation for being valued partners to make this award possible!  If you would like to nominate your student’s bus driver, click here to fill out the nomination form.