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.

It’s important that our youngest Bobcats learn the importance of thankfulness. 

Jenni McCarthy’s Kindergarten class created “Thankful Hats”. They wrote and drew pictures of three things that they are thankful for.

Now they can proudly show others what means the most to them! 

To download high resolution jpg files from the photo gallery below, just simply click the “DOWNLOAD” button on the bottom right-hand corner of the photo while viewing it in the Photo Gallery function. We are happy to provide this service to you, free of charge!

Congrats to our 5th grade Bobcat Spell Bowl team being named IASP State Champions!

The team competed last night (Monday, Nov. 18) at a Spell Bowl sponsored by Purdue University.

Last night with a score of 54 out of 56, the team knew they had won their region, but woke up this morning to learn that they also won their division for the State Championship!

These are great results considering this is the first year that a Bittersweet has participated.

Congrats to the students as well as teacher coaches Leslie Metcalf and Michelle Leniski.

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 ?subject=Girls%20Wrestling%20Club" data-cke-saved-href="mailto:?subject=Girls%20Wrestling%20Club"> 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