Mr. Art Klinger, the man credited with being the “father” of P-H-M’s DVT & Planetarium, was honored today when the facility he helped create 44 years ago was officially renamed in his honor. The new P-H-M Arthur M. Klinger Planetarium sign now hangs on the exterior of Bittersweet Elementary School, where the facility is housed. It was unveiled to cheers and applause on the afternoon of May 14, 2024. Click to watch the video below.

On hand for the unveiling and dedication were Klinger’s wife, son, and longtime friends. Also present was P-H-M Superintendent Dr. Jerry Thacker, Executive Director of P-H-M Education Foundation Jennifer Turnblom, members of PHMEF Executive Board, P-H-M School Board Members Jim Garrett and Ryan McCullough, P-H-M Administrators, and current Planetarium Director Melinda O’Malley. P-H-M former Superintendent Dr. Dean Speicher also attended. It was under Dr. Speicher’s leadership that Bittersweet school and the Planetarium opened in 1980. Bittersweet first grader teachers and students added to the celebration. The students made a banners to mark the occasion.

PHM School Trustee VP Ryan McCullough, former PHM Superintendent Dr. Dean Speicher, Art Klinger, current PHM Superintendent Dr. Jerry Thacker, & PHM School Trustee Jim Garrett

Click to see the full photo gallery on P-H-M’s website.

Klinger began his 45 year career with P-H-M in 1970.  He taught Earth and Space Sciences at Schmucker Middle School, a position held for 10 years before taking over the Planetarium as its first director. Klinger’s interests in astronomy, aviation, and space travel made him a natural for the position. He was a pilot receiving his private pilot’s license in 1974. He was a member of the Great Lakes Planetarium Association and the International Planetarium Society. Klinger even authored an Introductory Astronomy text book that was used in Penn High School and IUSB astronomy classes; the last revision was August 2020. 

It was Klinger’s interest in the space travel history and NASA that really transformed the Planetarium. Astronaut Col. James Irwin, Lunar Module Pilot of Apollo 15 (8th man to land on the Moon), was the honorary speaker at the Planetarium’s public dedication in February 1981. He was the first of six astronauts to visit the Planetarium over the years; a Russian cosmonaut even visited in 1994. With every visit, personalized autographed photos were donated.

The Planetarium’s Space Museum came about through a connection Klinger made with the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum because of his application for the “Teacher in Space Project” in 1984. From that connection, 47 artifacts, including 16 that have actually been on the Moon, were loaned to the museum. Klinger eventually secured autographed pictures of all flown astronauts. He even obtained the autographed photos of the scientific minds behind the “Space Race,” like Wernher von Braun and Yuri Gagarin. Klinger states that according to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, P-H-M is the only public school district that not only has artifacts from the space program, but also has items that have been on the Moon. Click here to watch a video of Klinger talking about the importance of space exploration.

Klinger served as Director of P-H-M’s DVT, Planetarium Space Museum for 35 years retiring in 2015 after working at P-H-M for 45 years.

Dr. and Mrs. Thacker donated $10,000 to the Penn-Harris-Madison Education Foundation to rename the Planetarium the Arthur M. Klinger Planetarium.

This $10,000 donation is among four donations to PHMEF that Dr. and Mrs. Thacker have made as part of the Naming Rights Campaign. All recognize the contributions P-H-M employees have made to the community:

• Chris Geesman Kingsmen Athletic Center (formerly the Kingsmen Athletic Center), $25,000 donated in December 2021 
• Al Rhodes Kingsmen Court, $10,000 donated in October 2023 
• P-H-M Arthur M. Klinger Planetarium, $10,000 donated in January 2024
• Yeoman Family Plaza, $10,000 donated in March 2024 (dedication still to come)

Per PHMEF’s Naming Rights fundraising initiative, 80 percent of the donation will go into Foundation’s endowment, which will in turn provide alternative and additional funding for various co-curricular and extracurricular programs. The remaining 20 percent directly funds professional development initiatives for
P-H-M teachers. Continuing the education and training of teachers is a major priority the School Corporation.

The mission of the Education Foundation is to develop alternative sources of income to support education initiatives in the School Corporation by strengthening partnerships between the community and the District. PHMEF supports education through awarding innovative teaching grants, staff development and other corporation-wide initiatives.

Penn was recognized by the Indiana Association of School Principals as a Triple State Finalist for students winning the Spell Bowl, having two teams (Fine Arts and Math) win the Academic Super Bowl State Championship, and a finalist team in the Quiz Bowl.

Congratulations to all our students and coaches.

This week is National Teacher Appreciation Week and Penn-Harris-Madison Superintendent Dr. Jerry Thacker is making his rounds to surprise a couple of P-H-M’s best educators with some good news.

Today, Dr. Thacker with the help of Penn High School Principal Dr. Sean Galiher and Assistant Principal Jeanie Mitchell (a former PHM Teacher of the year herself), Jeremy Starkweather was taken off guard with the news that he had won P-H-M’s 2024 Secondary Teacher of the Year honor! Local TV stations were on hand to capture it all! Mr. Starkweather’s wife, Ally who is also a teacher at Penn, was told ahead of time so she could participate in the surprise. Along with the students, a big group of fellow Penn teachers and PHM District Administrators were in the classroom to congratulate him. Click to watch the video below.

Mr. and Mrs. Starkweather are both 2013 graduates of Penn High School. Mr. Starkweather attended P-H-M’s Moran Elementary School and Grissom Middle School.

Click here to see the full photo gallery below.

Jeremy Starkweather is wrapping up his 7th year of teaching at P-H-M; but including his time as a student, student-teacher, and now a teacher, he’s been at Penn for a total of 12 years! He’s even still on the Speech & Debate Team just like he was while in school, except now he’s the coach! Mr. Starkweather is everywhere; he serves as the Assistant Coach for the Boys Cross Country Team, Coaching Consultant for the Education Foundation’s Running is Elementary, and Vice President of the Penn Building Trades Board of Directors.

Mr. Starkweather’s interests have carried over from his student days into his teaching career. Along with teaching English, Mr. Starkweather also teaches Debate, and has been serving as Penn’s Speech and Debate Coach since his first year of teaching. Prior to Mr. Starkweather at the helm, the team struggled to attract student participants; now Mr. Starkweather has made it cool to be on the Speech and Debate Team! The 2023-2024 school year both teams did extremely well. The Speech Team has 20 students advancing to the national tournament this summer; and the Debate Team not only won the State Championship, but a couple of the students even broke a record previously held by Coach Starkweather when he was a student!

For the first time in Penn history, the Debate Team won a State Championship. Additionally, out of all five state championship debate categories, three Penn students came in 1st place in two categories (one team and one individual) adding two more State Titles to the list. One of those wins was a student duo in the Policy category. Policy received a traveling trophy that has been around almost a century (in existence since 1928); and the last time the trophy was in Penn High School’s possession was when Jeremy and a teammate won it back in 2013 (his senior year)! How’s that for full circle? 

Until recently, Mr. Starkweather was known for his big bushy, blonde afro. However, thanks to Jeremy’s topnotch debate coaching skills, his team captains convinced him last summer, when the team was at the national competition, that if they won the State Championship, he would allow the students to shave his head. Jeremey Starkweather is a man of his word! He didn’t just allow his students to cut his hair, he let ALL the Speech & Debate students, Speech teacher Mrs. Danielle Black, and Superintendent Dr. Jerry Thacker get in on the action. It took over an hour to cut off 9 inches of his golden locks! Now that’s showing commitment and dedication to your students! Click here to see that video and full photo gallery.

Speech and Debate has become so popular at Penn that Mr. Starkweather enlisted the help of his top students to see if they could create the same interest at the middle school level. Not only was there interest, there’s now Debate teams at all three middle schools with over 80 students. The past few summers Jeremy has also been offering Summer Debate Camp.

What is Mr. Starkweather’s secret to creating such an interest for Speech & Debate? It could be that he has the best and rowdiest student club floats in Penn’s Homecoming parade; but it’s also because he quite simply cares about his students and they know it. There’s no “debating” it!

During the week of May 6 along with surprising the Teacher of the Year winners, Dr. Thacker will also surprise the honoree of Classified Employee of the Year. Monday, May 6 Dr. Thacker surprised 3rd grade Northpoint teacher Nichol Mondy with the news that she was the district’s Elementary Teacher of the Year. All winners will be officially recognized at P-H-M’s Employee Recognition & Retiree Dinner on Wednesday, May 22nd. Along with a plaque, the two Teachers of the Year will also receive a grant from the P-H-M Education Foundation to use in their classroom. Both TOY winners will go on to compete for Indiana’s Teacher of the Year, which will be announced in early Fall 2024 by the IDOE.

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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.

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.

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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.

At the Monday, March 25, 2024 Board Meeting, the P-H-M Board of School Trustees voted to award the contract to construct Penn High School’s new Fieldhouse.

This investment for our students will NOT raise taxes for the residents of P-H-M. The administration and board are committed to fiscal responsibility and we are in excellent financial health. P-H-M has the lowest tax rate in St. Joseph County while being dedicated to delivering the highest academic outcomes. 

Construction will begin immediately with anticipated substantial completion for the start of the 2025-26 school year. 

This project, designed by Architect Mike Schipp of Fanning Howey and engineered by P-H-M parent Troy Madlem of Magnus Engineering utilizes the most economical building methods to provide a great value for the investment in this 80,000 square-foot facility.

Watch the video animation above or click here. Here are some of the features that will be included:

• 6-lane indoor 200m track and enough space to support indoor field events like pole vault, long jump, high jump, and shot put
• dropdown activity nets that will allow for baseball, softball, and golf to practice hitting
• two traditional wood courts and two multi-purpose floored courts to support basketball, volleyball, dance, tennis, the winter guard, and so much more! School dances, community gatherings, youth sports, robotics, and the marching band will utilize this great facility.
• When completed it will have four (4) locker rooms, two (2) classrooms, an athletic training room, bleacher seating for over 800 people, storage to support housing equipment for our programming needs, an observation hallway servicing the second floor, a security office, concession stand, and event parking!

The construction will not impact the daily operations of Penn High School. Construction of the new fieldhouse will take place off of McKinley in the area between the new Culvers Restaurant and the Penn Fire Station.

This new facility will increase the amount of active learning space available before, during, and after the school day for academic programming and most importantly increase the total amount of space for all students to participate in extracurricular, co-curricular, and intramural offerings. MORE SPACE = MORE OPPORTUNITY. Research shows that increasing student opportunities and participation increases student achievement and academic success. 

The administration, in collaboration with Mr. Mike Schipp, Project Manager/Principal with Fanning Howey, recommends awarding a contract to construct the Penn High School Field House to the lowest and most responsive bidder, R. Yoder Construction Inc. of Nappanee for a base bid of $14,741,535.00 and Alternates no. 1, no. 3, no. 4., no. 6, and no. 8 for a total award of $15,926,745.00. 

Base Bid: $ 14,741,535.00

• Alt. #1: South Parking Lot $ 200,891.00
• Alt. #3: Decorative Resinous Flooring at Locker Rooms & Restrooms $ 56,000.00
• Alt. #4: Operable Wall $ 31,887.00
• Alt. #6: Interior Metal Liner Panel at Fieldhouse $ 51,744.00
• Alt. #8: Unit C – Support Addition of 4,700 SF $ 844,688.00

Total Contract Amount $ 15,926,745.00

A letter of recommendation from Fanning Howey and the bid tab sheet from the five (5) local bidders is found here.

Here are links to past public presentations:

• 7.24.23 Video Link & Presentation link: School Board Meeting
• 8.7.23 Video Link & Presentation link: School Board Meeting
• 8.21.23 Video Link & Presentation Link: School Board Meeting
• 9.6.23 Presentation Link: P-H-M Forum September 6th, 2023
• 3.25.24 Video Link & Presentation Link:  School Board Meeting

A few hours after being introduced to his team as the Kingsmen’s new Head Football Coach, Pete Riordan was introduced to the South Bend sports media in his first news conference. News outlets in attendance were WHME-TV, WSBT, WNDU, ABC 57, and the South Bend Tribune. Students from PNN (Penn News Network) and The Pennant were also present and participated. Click here to see the full news conference. Click here to see a full photo gallery below.

Here are some highlights of the news conference. Penn High School Athletic Director Jeff Hart introduced Coach Pete, who made a few short remarks before opening up the discussion with reporter questions.

Also taking reporter questions were retiring Coach Cory Yeoman and Hall of Famer Chris Geesman. 

Returning Penn players Vinny Freeman and Kellen Watson also spoke to how excited they are to have Coach Pete take over. In the clip below Freeman talks about the sense of family that Coach Pete invoked at this morning’s team meeting.

Watson is also on the Penn Track & Field Team; as a member of the 4×100 team, Watson was one of the players that broke the school record. Watson was last year’s backup quarterback!

Click here to see the full news conference.

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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’s school musical this year is “The Music Man.”

You won’t want to miss Penn’s talented student performers as they act out the play that follows fast-talking traveling salesman, Harold Hill, as he cons the people of River City, Iowa, into buying instruments and uniforms for a boys’ band that he vows to organize – this, despite the fact that he doesn’t know a trombone from a treble clef!

This year’s musical also includes the talents of a few P-H-M elementary and middle school students:

• Mary Cortes, 5th grade, Prairie Vista Elementary School
• Maxwell MacMillan, 5th grade, Mary Frank Elementary School
• Anniston Steele, 7th grade, Grissom Middle School
• Ezra Carrico, Katherine Hawkins, Benjamin Robertson and Noah Rohde, all in 8th grade, Schmucker Middle School

This isn’t the first year Penn’s musicals have included students from younger grades. In 2016, younger students also participated in “Mary Poppins.” But this is the first year in recent memory to have this many!

Visit bit.ly/PennMusicMan to purchase tickets.

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