Registration for kindergarten students for the 2019-2020 school year opened on Tuesday, January 22, 2019.

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, 2019. 

Registration for Prairie Vista Elementary will take place during the hours of 7:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. A parent or guardian must appear in person to register their child. 

Click here for more registration forms and more details on P-H-M Kindergarten Registration.

Penn-Harris-Madison also operates two preschool programs: Early Learning Academy (ELA) and Penn PALS. Neither program is offered at Prairie Vista, but you can click the links below to learn more about the programs available at our other elementary school sites.

Click here to learn more about Penn PALS and download a registration form. Registration for the 2019-20 school year opens Monday, March 11, 2019.

Click here to learn more about ELA and to download a registration form. Registration for the 2019-20 school year opens Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019.

The first day for students of the 2019-2020 school year is Wednesday, August 21, 2019 and the last day for students is Wednesday, June 3, 2020.

Other important dates include:

• September 2, 2019: Recess Day – Labor Day
• October 25 & 28, 2019: Fall Recess Days
• November 5, 2019: Recess Day – General Election
• November 27-29, 2019: Thanksgiving Recess Days
• December 23-Jan. 3, 2020: Winter Break
• January 20, 2020: Recess Day – Martin Luther King Jr. Day
• February 17, 2020: Recess Day – Presidents’ Day
• April 6-10, 2020: Spring Break
• May 5, 2020: Recess Day – Primary Election
• May 25, 2020: Recess Day – Memorial Day

Click here for a one-page pdf copy of the 2019-2020 school year calendar.

If you need copies of the 2018-2019 school year and activity calendars, please click here.

 

Staff throughout the district adopted families at P-H-M schools as a way to spread love and compassion this holiday season.

Discovery Middle School PTO in Partnership with Discovery Middle School presents “An Evening of Vocational Options and Saving for College.” 

Please join us at Discovery Middle School for presentations about the College Savings 529 Plan and by Elkhart Area Career Center. The programs at the EACC are available to Penn High School students. A complete listing of classes and programs are outline in the Penn High School Program of Studies—just use the “Ctrl F” function to search for the Elkhart Area Career Center.

Monday, February 11, 2019, 7:00 p.m. at Discovery Middle School.

Penn Robotics Team 135 is once again holding workshops for 1^st ​- 8th grade students over two days of Winter Recess (Thurs., Dec. 27 & Friday, Dec. 28).

Creative Workshop 8:00 AM – 10:00 AM

Suggested Age: 1^st ​- 3^rd graders. Price: $80.00. A camp that stretches the creative mind! Students are given a design challenge to complete over the course of two days. Students will be using K’NEX to build a solution to the stated problem. They will be on teams that will design, create, and improve upon their concept. While having fun in an exciting environment, the emphasis is always on the process of design to build, while always improving on previous ideas! On Friday students will have the opportunity to test their concepts against the other teams within the workshop. Parents are also welcome to attend the Parent Show which will take place the last 15 minutes of the workshop on the December 28th. High school robotics students will be mentors during these two days of fun!

Applied Workshop 10:30 AM – 12:30 PM

Suggested Age: 4^th – 8^th graders. Price: $80.00. This camp is geared towards students who want to expand their knowledge in designing and manufacturing! This workshop is also geared towards students who can follow instructions and are comfortable behind computer software. Over the two days, students will be designing 3D parts on the computer that can be brought to life with many CNC Machines. Students will have the opportunity to use the 3D printer, CNC Laser Cutter, the CNC Router, and many other tools/machines in the Penn Robotics Lab! High school students will be mentoring and helping students with their 3D computer designs and machining their parts.

Click here to sign-up and pay online today!

Once again the Indiana Department of Education has recognized the Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation as an “A” rated school district. P-H-M has received an “A” rating every year since 2011—making this the seventh consecutive year!

The IDOE released the 2017-18 Accountability grades on Wednesday, November 14. Along with the district’s “A” rating, P-H-M is proud to have seven schools that also received “A” letter grades:

• Elsie Rogers Elementary School
• Horizon Elementary School
• Moran Elementary School
• Northpoint Elementary School
• Prairie Vista Elementary School
• Discovery Middle School
• Penn High School

Elsie Rogers and Moran are both Title I schools.

Overall, nearly 64 percent of Indiana Schools received an A or B. For more information on and to view the 2017-18 School Accountability Grades, please click here to visit the IDOE website. 

Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation serves more than 11,100 students in 11 elementary schools, three middle schools and Penn High School. With the release of the Spring 2018 ISTEP+ results, Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation ranks in the state’s Top 5% of public school districts for grade 10 ISTEP+ results and in the Top 6% for grades 3-8. Northpoint is Indiana’s #2 public elementary school and Discovery ranks #3 out of the state’s public middle schools. Penn High School ranks in the Top 5% of all Indiana public high schools and has a 97% graduation rate, exceeding the state’s graduation rate.

P-H-M’s “Triangle of Success” connects students, teachers and parents for excellence in education.

Do you like to dance? Do you want to learn how to spin a flag? Do you like to perform?

All levels are welcome to come to the Penn Winter Guard Call-Out at Bittersweet Elementary School (next to Penn HS). The call-out will be on Tuesday, November 27^th at 6-8 p.m.

Girls and boys, grades 4-12, will be accepted. 

Come be a part of this incredible performing arts group!

Click here to download and print the flyer.

When Indiana’s election takes place Tuesday, Nov. 6, 2018, Prairie Vista will serve as a polling center, as it has in years past. Polling hours are 6:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. Prairie Vista school hours are 7:55 a.m. – 2:20 p.m.; you might want to avoid student arrival and departure times because of increased traffic congestion. 

Voters will park in the north lot near the portable classrooms. The portable classrooms will be used for voting. All doors to the school will be secured.  Polling personnel only will be permitted to use the school restrooms. ​

Other P-H-M schools that will serve as voting locations Election Day are Mary Frank Elementary School, Meadow’s Edge Elementary School, Walt Disney Elementary School, Schmucker Middle School and Penn High School. Of course registered voters may only use the polling location that serves their precinct, based on home address.  Here is a link to the precincts maps and polling location information provided by St. Joseph County. 

Penn High School’s Drama Club will present “Boo Bash”  in the Studio Theater on Thursday, Oct. 25.

“Boo Bash” features two shows, and admission is free.

The first show, “Wren and Moose”, is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 25. It is a 25-minute children’s Halloween show written by Penn High School student Kenny Collymore-Williams. After the show, there will be Halloween candy and a short meet-and-greet with the characters.

The second show, “Death and All His Nonexistent Friends”, is a 30-minute young adult Halloween show, also written by Kenny Collymore-Williams. It is scheduled to start at 7 p.m., and features a few more jumps, bumps, and scares.

According to Drama Club Sponsor Crystal Ryan, “Boo Bash” is a student-led project. It is student-written, directed, acted, and teched.

“The Drama Club developed this event as a way to have a fun, free event for the community, but more importantly, the Drama Board members wanted a low pressure, fun way to engage incoming theatre students,” Ryan said. “With such a large program, it is a great way to get our “Intro to Theatre” involved in a performance situation. 

“The other unique thing about this event it is Penn’s first stage reading!” Ryan said. “Stage readings are how most professional playwrights get their works initially read before they go on to a huge, full production. Having several aspiring playwrights in our program, I would like begin implementing this more in our program to teach students how to get their work read, produced, and out in the professional world.“

Once again Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation schools, in all grade levels tested, scored above Indiana’s averages. The variance between P-H-M’s pass rate over the state is at least 10% or higher across all grade levels and subjects.

For grade 10, 75.6% of P-H-M students passed the ELA test and 58.4% passed the Math portion. The district’s overall pass rate for grade 10 was 56.4%.

For grades 3-8, 78.0% of P-H-M students passed the ELA test and 74.8% passed the Math test. P-H-M’s overall district pass rate for grades 3-8 was 68.3%.

For grade 10, P-H-M ranks in the Top 5% out of 291 public school corporations. In grades 3-8, P-H-M is in the Top 6% of public school districts out of 294 public school corporations.

Other significant highlights from the Spring 2018 ISTEP+ results:

• Penn High School ranks 5th out of large public school districts (500+ students tested, based on both Math and ELA pass results of grade 10)
• Northpoint Elementary School is 2nd in Indiana public primary elementary schools (schools where grades 3-5 were tested)
• Discovery Middle School is 3rd in Indiana public middle schools (schools where grades 6-8 were tested)
• A total of four P-H-M elementary & one middle school—Northpoint, Prairie Vista, Horizon and Mary Frank Elementary Schools, along with Discovery Middle School—rank among the state’s Top 50 of all 1,426 public schools 

When reviewing the Corporation’s performance on the last round of ISTEP+ (grades 3-8) test results, P-H-M Superintendent Dr. Jerry Thacker commented “P-H-M teachers and administrators are incredibly committed to our vision of excellence and offer the best education in the Michiana area. I am very proud of the fact that P-H-M is one of the state’s top performing school districts. The credit goes to our outstanding teachers, students and parents.”