Registration for kindergarten students for the 2016-2017 school year will begin at each P-H-M elementary school on Tuesday, January 19, 2016. This registration opportunity is for youngsters who live within the P-H-M district and who will be five years old on or before September 1. A parent or guardian must appear at the school in person to register their child.  

Parents, before you go to the child’s school, please visit the district’s kindergarten registration page to:

• Learn more about the registration process
• See what documentation you must provide
• View and download copies of the necessary forms

We look forward to welcoming the Class of 2029!

Penn-Harris-Madison will be performing computer network maintenance on February 12, 2016 from 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m. to upgrade our current internet services. During that time, access to P-H-M online services, including P-H-M hosted websites, Canvas, APlus and Plato will be unavailable. This network maintenance is necessary in order for P-H-M to continue to offer excellent technology online service. We appreciate your patience.

Speak Up is a national research initiative that seeks to gather widespread input on the topic of educational technology.  

Each fall the Speak Up survey is posted online so students, parents, teachers, school staff, and the general public can share their views on technology in schools. 

The Speak Up survey has three primary objectives:

• To provide a means for local schools and districts to easily and effectively listen to and act upon the ideas of their stakeholders
• To provide a conduit for the voices of education stakeholders, most notably students, to inform national and state policies and programs
• To stimulate new local discussions around the use of technology within education.

Survey results are typically released in February, and are important to those who shape educational policy, direct school finance, create curriculum, and implement technology in our schools.

Penn-Harris-Madison participates in the survey in part because we are recipients of a Digital Learning Grant that helps to fund our technology.  

Another reason we support Speak Up is because the results can be helpful in the development of our formal technology plans. Each P-H-M school develops and follows a 3-year technology plan that outlines its goals for educational technology and directs how resources may be spent to achieve those goals.

Here’s a link to learn more about the SPEAK UP survey and the agency that conducts the research, Project Tomorrow.  Get answers to Frequently Asked Questions about Speak Up here.

Or, you may want to just jump right in and take the survey!

Parents and community members CLICK HERE to TAKE THE SPEAK UP SURVEY NOW

The survey takes 15-20 minutes to complete and you will not need to create an account. The survey will be open until December 18 and the link on this webpage will remain active until then. 

P-H-M staff and students will have opportunities to take their version of the Speak Up survey at school / at work through arrangements made in the coming weeks.

Alarm clocks were set early. The weather cooperated beautifully. Children got themselves ready for school while parents snapped photos. Then the yellow buses started to roll and School Year 2015-2016 was underway!

Today was the first day of school for grades 1-12 at Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation. We welcomed back more than 10,600 students to our 15 schools. About 700 kindergartners, members of the future Class of 2028, attended orientation sessions with their parents and families getting prepared for their first day tomorrow, Thursday, Aug. 20. And close to 800 seniors, making up the Class of 2016, followed a Gold Day schedule at Penn High School.

We want to see all your “1^st Day of School” photos. We asked parents, families and high school students to snap, tag ‪and share their pictures on Facebook and Twitter using #‎PHMBACK2SCHOOL. Go to our channels or check out our picture gallery on the home page to get a glimpse.

The start of school also means new faces at the front of the classroom as well! Last week, we also welcomed more than 50 new teachers to P-H-M. Click here to see their friendly faces.

Thank you to ALL our students, parents, teachers and staff for all the great pictures. Here’s to a great year!

Girls in grades 3 through 8 are invited to be part of a community-sponsored girls basketball league run by PHS girls varsity basketball coach, Kristi Kaniewski Ulrich. 

JUNIOR LEAGUE is for girls in grades 3 through 6.  

SENIOR LEAGUE is offered for girls in grades 7 and 8. 

Sign-up takes place on Sunday, August 30 in the Penn High School Arena from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m.​ 

The league begins on Sunday, September 13. 

This is a great opportunity to learn the game, pick up skills, build fitness and make friends! 

Click here to access the informational flyers and the registration form.

Calling all parents of P-H-M students in grades 4-8th … is your child interested in robotics?

Does your child love playing with LEGOs®?

Then P-H-M’s FIRST® LEGO® League is your answer!

WHO:                   4th-8th grade P-H-M students, families, elementary and middle school teachers

WHAT:                 FIRST® LEGO® League (sponsored by Penn Robotics, Team 135)

WHEN:                 Wednesday, August 5
                              7:00 p.m.

WHERE:               Penn High School, Door J
                              56100 Bittersweet Rd Mishawaka, IN  46545

P-H-M’s FIRST® LEGO® League is sponsored by Penn Robotics, Team 135. Penn’s team was a 2015 Indiana District-Kokomo City winner of the FIRST® Robotics Competition; Penn’s team also won the Chairman’s award. FIRST® LEGO® League is a national program that introduces younger students to real-world engineering challenges by building LEGO-based robots to complete tasks on a thematic playing surface. This year’s challenge will be Trash Trek: discovering the hidden world of garbage!

In FLL, elementary and middle-school students (ages 9-14) get to:

• Design, build, test and program robots using LEGO MINDSTORMS® technology

• Design, build, test and program robots using LEGO MINDSTORMS® technology

• Apply real-world math and science concepts

• Research challenges facing today’s scientists

• Learn critical thinking, team-building and presentation skills

• Participate in tournaments and celebrations

What FLL teams accomplish is nothing short of amazing. It’s fun. It’s exciting.  And participants learn skills that will last a lifetime.

Come learn all about joining P-H-M’s FIRST® LEGO® League. Register, find out about the resources and get the season timeline.

The first day of school is Wednesday, Aug. 19 and that means along with school supplies, parents also need to make sure their children are up-to-date on their immunizations.

A record of your child’s immunizations are due to your student’s health office on or by the first day of school. All P-H-M schools are open to the public beginning Wednesday, Aug. 5 (7:00 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.). You can drop off the records at the schools between Aug. 5 and Aug. 19.

Please find the list of required immunizations by grade levels listed below …

For incoming Kindergarten students:

• 3 Hep B
• 5 DTaP (4 doses are acceptable if the fourth dose was administered on or after the 4th birthday)
• 4 Polio (the 3^rd dose must be given on or after the 4^th birthday and at least 6 months after the previous dose with only one type of vaccine used, all OPV or all IPV. Final 4^th dose must be given on or after the 4^th birthday and administered at least 6 months after the previous dose).
• 2 MMR
• 2  Varicella
• 2 Hep A

Additional immunizations needed for incoming 6^th grade students:

• 1 Tdap (Tetanus & Pertussis)
• 1^st dose of MCV4 (Meningococcal conjugate)
   

Additional immunizations needed for incoming 12^th grade students:

• 2^nd dose of MCV4 (Meningococcal conjugate)

Immunizations may be obtained from your family doctor, St. Joseph County Health Department, or other area clinics. Please call the school health office for resources.

For more information on state immunization requirements, please visit the P-H-M Healthcare Services webpage on our site.

Posted July 17, 2015 – 9:00 a.m. EDT

The 2015 Summer Visual Arts Academy is offered to all P-H-M elementary students – at no charge!

The Snite Museum of Art at the University of Notre Dame and Penn-Harris-Madison are teaming up to offer an extraordinary week-long summer learning experience for our students! This exciting 2015 Visual Arts Academy will integrate art history, art production, and writing into a week-long, intensive and enriching learning experience that will challenge children to “think outside of the box.” Students will create works of art inspired by pieces in the Snite Museum’s collection as well as learn about museum objects through tours, reading and writing. A highlight will be a field trip to the Snite Museum of Art that all students will take, one day of the week.

Elm Road Elementary School strives to maintain a learning community whereby all students are expected to perform at high levels. This vision is manifested in the school motto, "Putting Dreams into Flight." In addition, we recognize the need for providing a safe and orderly environment conducive to learning. Elm Road's "Positive Schoolwide Behavior Support Plan" was developed as a proactive, rather than reactive support system.

Click here to learn more about Elm Road's "Positive Schoolwide Behavior Support Plan."

Your child’s health is important to us. It is well known that healthy children are in a better position to take advantage of the educational opportunities presented to them than children who are physically or emotionally struggling.

Immunizations are used to protect your children against certain diseases as well as other children in the school. Under Indiana Public Law, when a child enrolls in school his/her parent/guardian is required to furnish written proof that a child is fully immunized as required by the Indiana State Department of Health. Parents must furnish immunization paperwork to the school health office before the first day of school, which is August 19, 2015.

Immunizations may be obtained from your family doctor, St. Joseph County Health Department, or other area clinics. Please call the school health office for resources.

Minimum Immunization Requirements for 2015-2016 School Year

• 5 doses of DtaP/DTP/DT or 4 doses are acceptable if the fourth dose was administered on or after the fourth birthday

• 4 doses of Polio-the 4th dose must be on or after the fourth birthday and at least 6 months after the previous dose or another dose will be required or 3 doses are acceptable if all are IPV or all are OPV and the 3rd dose was given after the 4th birthday and at least 6 months after the previous dose.

• 3 doses of Hepatitis B

• 2 doses of MMR- on or after the first birthday

• 2 doses of Varicella (chickenpox)-on or after the first birthday and separated by 3 months or written physician documentation of the month and year of disease.

• 2 doses of Hepatitis A

Questions about immunizations can be directed to the school health office.