Registration for kindergarten students for next year, the 2020-2021 school year, will begin on Tuesday, January 21, 2020.

Children who live within the P-H-M district and who will be five-years-old on or before September 1, 2020 are eligible to register. A parent or guardian must appear in person to register their child. 

Bittersweet is one of Penn-Harris-Madison’s 11 elementary schools, each offering full-day kindergarten.

Use this interactive Google based District Map and the P-H-M Street Guide to verify which elementary school serves your neighborhood. 

Click here for more details about kindergarten registration.

The first day for students (grades 1-12) of the 2020-2021 school year is Wednesday, August 19, 2020 and the last day for students is Wednesday, June 2, 2021.

Other important dates include:

• Thursday, August 20, 2020: First Day of Kindergarten
• September 7, 2020: Recess Day – Labor Day
• October 23 & 26, 2020: Fall Recess Days
• November 3, 2020: Recess Day – General Election
• November 25-27, 2020: Thanksgiving Recess Days
• December 21-Jan. 1, 2021: Winter Break
• January 18, 2021: Recess Day – Martin Luther King Jr. Day
• February 15, 2021: Recess Day – Presidents’ Day
• April 2, 2021: Recess Day
• April 5-9, 2021: Spring Break
• May 31, 2021: Recess Day – Memorial Day

Click here for a one-page pdf copy of the 2020-2021 school year calendar.

For the 2019-2020 school year and activity calendar, please click here.

Kids Club will be offered at Northpoint Elementary School during Winter Break (Dec. 23 – Jan. 3), 6:30 a.m – 6:00 p.m.

Camp will NOT be offered Dec. 24, 25, 31 and Jan. 1.

Cost is $25 per child, per day. If you are not currently enrolled in Kids Club, you must also pay the $25 registration fee per child. Registration and payment are due and non-refundable by Wednesday, December 18, 2019. Registrations will close at midnight on December 18. Registrations will not be accepted after that date. Click here to register.

Girls and boys, grades 4-12, are welcome to attend the Penn Winter Guard Open House on Thursday, Nov. 21, 2019.

Come be a part of this incredible performing arts group!

Click here to download and print the flyer.

Did you know that the Penn Wrestling Club is open to girls too? Does your girl wrestler want to be the next Sara Hildebrandt? 

If so it’s time to sign up for the Penn Wrestling Club! The Penn Wrestling Club is open to all Pre-K through 5^th grade boys and girls.

The cost is $150 per session and the participant must have a USA Wrestling Card. Wrestling Cards cost $40 and can be purchased at ISWA.com

The session dates are as follows:

• Session 1: Mondays & Wednesdays, 6:30 – 7:30 p.m., November 25^th – January 22^nd  
• Session 2: Mondays & Wednesdays, 6:30 – 7:30 p.m., January 29^th – April 29^th

The club meets in the Penn High School Wresting room. Enter through Door “D” and proceed straight up the stairs. The wrestling room is located at the top of the stairs on your right.

Sign-up at WWW.PENNWRESTLING.ORG

If you have any questions contact Penn Head Wrestling Coach Brad Harper at bharper@phm.k12.in.us or text coach Harper at 574-485-7911.

The message below was sent to all P-H-M parents from the Superintendent’s Office the morning of Friday, Nov. 15, 2019:

Penn-Harris-Madison’s outstanding teachers are a critical component to P-H-M’s Triangle of Success providing excellent instruction to our students. In support of teachers and fair funding for public education, P-H-M has strong track record of working with State Legislators.

As momentum has grown for the “Red for Ed” action day at the State Legislature next Tuesday, Nov. 19, more Penn-Harris-Madison teachers have expressed interest to travel to Indianapolis to participate. 

We fully support their efforts. Therefore, all 15 P-H-M schools will be closed next Tuesday, Nov. 19. Administrative offices will remain open. Principals will adjust extracurricular activities as needed and will communicate any changes to their building parents and staff.

We will make up the day at the end of the school year. This will make the last day of school for P-H-M students Thursday, June 4.

Thank you for all you do as families to support our teachers.

Kids Club will be offered at Northpoint Elementary School during Winter Break (Dec. 23 – Jan. 3), 6:30 a.m – 6:00 p.m.

Camp will NOT be offered Dec. 24, 25, 31 and Jan. 1.

Cost is $25 per child, per day. If you are not currently enrolled in Kids Club, you must also pay the $25 registration fee per child. Registration and payment are due and non-refundable by Wednesday, December 18, 2019. Registrations will close at midnight on December 18. Registrations will not be accepted after that date. Click here to register.

ILEARN is Indiana’s standardized test. It is an online computer adaptive assessment designed to measure students’ proficiency of the Indiana Academic Standards in Grades 3–8. At the high school level, students enrolled in Biology and U.S. Government take ILEARN as End-of-Course-Assessments (ECA).

Last school year (2018-19) was the first time ILEARN was administered. This year it will be administered again to students in the spring.

What does it mean that the test is computer-adaptive? 

Every time a student answers a question, his or her response helps determine the next question presented. The difficulty of the test will adjust to each student’s skills, providing a better measure of what each student knows and can do.  For more information, click here to visit the IDOE website. 

Because the ILEARN test is online it has built in tools for students to use while testing:

• Built-in glossaries allow students to select unfamiliar words and read their definitions.
• Glossaries are available in English, Arabic, Burmese, Mandarin, Spanish, and Vietnamese.
• Students are provided with authentic tools, such as spell check, a dictionary, and a thesaurus for use when responding to the writing task.
• The Desmos calculator (provided for Mathematics Grades 6–8) is available for students to practice using free of charge at: desmos.com.
• Spanish translations (stacked over the English version) are available for Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies.

Online resources parents can use at home to help prepare their students

• Indiana’s Released Items Repository allows students to interact with released items and try some of the tools and features:  https://login12.cloud1.tds.airast.org/student/V367/Pages/LoginShell.aspx?c=Indiana_PT
• Indiana’s ILEARN Portal provides information and resources for understanding the assessment at: https://ilearn.portal.airast.org/
• The ILEARN for Families website answers questions about ILEARN:  https://www.doe.in.gov/assessment/ilearn-families

Student ILEARN reports

• Reports provide a scale score as an indication of overall student achievement in a grade level, as well as several subscores.
• Parents and guardians may request rescores of open-ended items through the local school. 

Questions?

Contact INassessments@doe.in.gov

Tuesday, Oct. 15
5:30 p.m.
Schmucker Middle School, 56045 N Bittersweet Rd.

Indiana law (IC 20-19-3-11) now requires that all schools provide age appropriate and research based instruction on child abuse and child sexual abuse to students in grades kindergarten through 12th. Penn-Harris-Madison has partnered with the Family Justice Center, Youth Service Bureau of St. Joseph County and the St. Joseph County Special Victims Unit to provide this instruction for our students.  

In November and early December, staff from the Family Justice Center, Youth Service Bureau St. Joseph County and St. Joseph County Special Victims Unit will present the materials to secondary students in grades 6-12. Each unit is age appropriate specific to the grade level.

The elementary (grades K-5) curriculum can be viewed at http://fightchildabuse.org/. The program’s main goal is to educate children about what to do when confronted with abusive behavior, safe and unsafe touches, going to a parent or another trusted adult if they are confronted in an unsafe situation, and that it is not their fault. An “Unsafe Touch” is defined as touching private parts of the body that are covered by a bathing suit. Stranger safety, Internet safety and other situations are also presented. 

For middle school, P-H-M will be utilizing the Teen Lures Prevention curriculum on a variety of safety issues. For additional information about the curriculum, please visit https://childluresprevention.com/grades7-12/.  

At the high school level, students will watch a video created by the St. Joseph County Special Victims Unit will be presented about ways youth can prevent, respond to and report all forms of child abuse, dating violence and sexual assault.  By talking openly with students about what constitutes healthy and respectful relationships, we prepare young people to better recognize and resist all forms of mistreatment.

To learn more about the new State mandated child abuse/sexual abuse prevention curriculum, all P-H-M parents are invited to attend an optional parent information night on Tuesday, Oct. 15, 5:30 p.m., at Schmucker Middle School, 56045 N Bittersweet Rd.

Parents have the option to have their student(s) participate in the state mandated educational program.

Parents are asked to complete the online permission slip through their student(s) school website. Please click here for Elm Road’s online permission slip. 

*Please note a permission form needs to be returned to your student’s school for each individual child enrolled in a Penn-Harris-Madison School. If you have a child in another school, please visit that school’s website and search for “Mandatory Curriculum Permission Slip” and fill out that online form.

Sign-up for the Kingsmen Junior Boys Basketball League on Tuesday, September 10^th from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m., at Penn High School, enter Door D.

All games will be played on Sundays in the Penn Fitness Center, enter Door G.

 Grades 3 & 4 Games Times: 1:00 – 3:00 p.m.

Grades 5 & 6 Games Times: 3:00 – 5:00 p.m.

*Game times subject to change due to league size

Before each game, all players will learn a Team Concept. The 15 minute Team Concept will be led by Penn Varsity Assistant Coach Julius Smith. Team coaches will consist of approved volunteer parents and members of the community. Each team coach will assist with the team concept lesson before each game. The league will start on September 22nd with the last games being played on November 3rd.

The cost of the league will be $75 for every player, along with the additional cost of the Kingsmen reversible jersey. All players must purchase a Penn Jersey. We will have info to order your sons Jersey at the time of registration.

If you have any questions or concerns please contact Assistant Boys Varsity Coach Julius Smith at jsmith5@phm.k12.in.us.