There has been a major renovation to the Gaga Ball pit on our playground this week that makes it accessible to all of our friends.

“Gaga is a fast paced, high energy sport played in an octagonal pit. The more players the better! Dubbed a kinder gentler version of dodge ball, the game is played with a soft foam ball, and combines the skills of dodging, striking, running, and jumping, while trying to hit opponents with a ball below the knees. Players need to keep moving to avoid getting hit by the ball. Fun and easy, everyone gets a serious workout.” – Description courtesy of the Gaga Center

In early September, a fourth grade student named Jordy, who has some mobility challenges asked his teacher, Nikki Kornrumph, if she could lift him up and put him in the Gaga Ball pit.

For safety reasons that could not be done, but that conversation sparked an idea: what if there was a gate that would allow everyone to access the Gaga Ball pit?

Fourth grade teacher Mrs. Kornrumph made it her mission to research and find out how we would be able to install a door on the Gaga Ball pit in order for all students to be able to play.

Mrs. Kornrumph found a gate that could be installed and contacted the Bittersweet PTO to see if they would be willing to help with funding and they were happy to do so!

Not only did the PTO pay for the gate to be installed but they also oversaw the installation process. Mr. Nate worked closely with the P-H-M maintenance staff to cut a hole in the existing Gaga Ball Pit and to securely install the gate.  

Jordy had been waiting so patiently, asking everyday if it was installed yet.  Thursday, September 22, 2022 was the day! When he went out for recess, they were just finishing the installation of the door.  

Our Office Aid Cortenay Rowe was on hand when Jordy was FINALLY able to play with his friends. Take a look at the video, he was over the moon!

(picture above was taken March 2019)

Mark your 2022 calendars for P-H-M’s Young Authors’ Conference:

Saturday, March 5

8:30 – 11:00 a.m.

Schmucker Middle School

P-H-M Elementary students, grades K-5

Registration Fee: $5 per child

Online registration is at phm.revtrak.net. The deadline for registration is Friday, February 18, 2022.

The Young Authors’ Conference is for P-H-M students in grades K-5. The event, sponsored by Corporations for Education, a division of the P-H-M Education Foundation, provides an opportunity for students and their parents to meet and hear from a well-known children’s authors. Click here to view the photo gallery of the 2019 event.

This year students and their parents will meet and hear from well-known children’s author, teacher, and speaker, Gabrielle Balkan. Mrs. Balkan is best known for non-fiction books that delight readers ages 3-12 with curious and essential facts about the United States, animal record-breakers, and ground-breaking artists. Mrs. Balkan will share her experiences as a writer and illustrator during her engaging, grade-level  presentations.

Participants and parents will also enjoy an interactive, up-close animal experience from the Potawatomi Zoo staff.   As part of the morning activities, students will share their own writing piece in small, adult-led group sessions with students from other P-H-M elementary schools. While students are meeting with their peers, parents will join P-H-M Teacher and writing expert, Mary Nicolini, as she explores how writing can be a method for remembering and preserving events using real-life stories, drawings, and photographs.

Elementary student attendees will also work in small adult-led breakout sessions sharing their own writing pieces with other P-H-M students.

COST: The registration fee of $5.00 per child is used for conference expenses. There is no cost for the parent. One parent only must accompany students!  However, keep in mind that students and parents will separate for a portion of the day.  YOUNGER siblings may not accompany adults. This experience is for your young author and parent.

REGISTRATION: Online registration will be available at phm.revtrak.net. If you don’t have a P-H-M Revtrak account, you will need to create one. There is a fee for using this service. The deadline for registration will be Friday, February 18.

CONFIRMATION: Participating students will receive additional information prior to the conference through their home school at the beginning of March.

QUESTIONS: If you have any questions, please contact Lindsay Schirripa at lschirripa@phm.k12.in.us.

The Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation considers the health and safety of our school community as a top priority. The FDA has issued an extension of the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA), allowing the use of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to prevent COVID-19 in individuals 5 years of age and older. As such, in conjunction with the St. Joseph Regional Medical Center, we are offering a free COVID-19 Vaccination clinic for all students, staff, and parents/guardians.

This voluntary event is being held after school hours as a convenience for those families wishing to participate. P-H-M recognizes and respects family decisions in regards to non-IDOH immunization requirements.

Who can get the vaccine?

• The vaccine is now available for children 5 – 11 and everyone age 12 and older. For the scheduled dates, we are providing an opportunity for any P-H-M student, parent/guardian, and staff member eligible to be vaccinated with their first dose, second dose, or booster shots to those already vaccinated.
• Only the Pfizer vaccine is approved for the ages 5-11 age group at this time. Two doses of the Pfizer vaccine are needed to provide full immunization. The first one primes the immune system, helping it to recognize the virus, and the second one strengthens the immune response. If the vaccine you received requires two doses, you should receive both doses, the second dose for this age group being 3 weeks after the first dose. An individual is considered fully protected 2-weeks after the second/last dose.

When will the vaccinations be offered?

• Tuesday, January 18th, 5-7:30 p.m.

Where will the vaccinations be offered?

• The walk-up clinic will take place at Schmucker Middle School
• Please enter through Door C (see map). Please note that this is the same door as the previous clinics. 
• Address: 
  Schmucker Middle School
  56045 Bittersweet Rd. Mishawaka 46545.

Keynotes about the vaccine for ages 5 -11?

• All children in the eligible group of ages 5-11 will have to be accompanied by a parent/guardian.
• Children ages 5 through 11 years receive one-third of the adult dose of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine.  Smaller needles, designed specifically for children, are used for children ages 5 through 11 years.
• COVID-19 vaccine dosage does not vary by patient weight but by age on the day of vaccination.
• Your child will need a second shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine three weeks after their first shot.
• The experience of getting a COVID-19 vaccine will be very similar to the experience of getting routine vaccines. Use the tips to support your child before, during, and after routine vaccinations when getting a COVID-19 vaccine.

Registration Form (needed for 1st dose Only):

• Pre Registration will NOT be required. Individuals will be served in the order in which they arrive.
  If possible, please print off and complete the registration before arrival.
  LINK: Registration (English)
• Although there is NO COST to the participants, St. Joseph Health Systems asks that you please bring your insurance cards & state-issued IDs to help the registration process. If you do not have insurance, you will not be turned away. 

If the dates or times won’t work for my family, how can I sign up to get vaccinated elsewhere?

• Vaccine Information and Sign-up Links

The message below was shared with P-H-M Families and Staff via email July 23rd, 2021.

P-H-M Administration has received a number of questions from families regarding Critical Race Theory (CRT), and if the ideologies/tenets are included in our Social Emotional Learning, and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion student lessons and staff training.

We recognize the need for our parents/guardians to understand our curriculum. So in an effort to help clear up any misinformation, we will be holding workshops for P-H-M families to explain our programs and goals.

P-H-M Administrators and parents/guardians will be discussing curriculum and we would like for our families to feel free to share their questions and concerns. Priority will be given to current P-H-M Families. If we’re oversubscribed, we will provide other opportunities to inform other members of the P-H-M community.

The workshop times are as follows:

• Monday, August 2nd @ 1:00 P.M.
• Tuesday, August 3rd @ 8:30 A.M.
• Tuesday, August 3rd @ 7:00 P.M.

We ask that people respectfully follow these registration guidelines:

• Only register to attend one session, not multiple ones.
• Each person planning to attend a workshop should each fill out a form.
• To allow us sufficient planning time, we will close the registration form on Wednesday, July 28th at 4:30p.m.
• You will receive an email regarding session assignments by Friday, July 30th.
• Click here to register.

The workshops will be held at Penn High School, PLEASE ENTER DOOR C. Please park in the front parking lot of Penn High School.

We approximate that these sessions will last about two (2) hours. All the material shared at the three workshops will be the same (these are not sequential meetings). The format of the sessions will be as follows:

• Doors open. Parents/guardians will check in and receive name tags with their assigned group number.
• Welcome and presentations by P-H-M Administrators: Superintendent, Asst. Superintendent for Instruction, Director of Social Emotional Learning, Director of Diversity Equity & Inclusion, Principals at the elementary, middle and high school levels.
• Break-out groups
  • Break-out group protocols are as follows:
    • Be respectful
    • Take turns
    • Be concise
    • Listen

Please register for a workshop time, at the link noted above, and provide us your questions about P-H-M’s SEL & DEI curriculum that you would like to learn more about.

We look forward to sharing this valuable and important information with our P-H-M families.

Dr. Jerry Thacker

With the announcement that Tuesday, March 30, 2021 will be an eLearning day, the meal plan for March 30th is as follows:

Elementary:

• Every elementary student in school on Monday, March 29th will receive a meal for Tuesday, March 30th as they leave. 
• Breakfast AND lunch will be included for students who attend Bittersweet, Elm Road, Elsie Rogers, Horizon, Mary Frank, Meadow’s Edge, Walt Disney, Moran & Madison.
• Lunch only will be provided for students who attend Northpoint & Prairie Vista
• Elementary School Menu

Middle:

• When students leave school on Friday, March 26th, they will receive 2 days worth of meals. Those meals will cover Monday, March 29th and Tuesday March 30th.
• Students at Grissom and Schmucker will receive pre-packaged breakfast and lunch.
• Students at Discovery will receive pre-packaged lunches.
• Middle School Menu

High School

• When students leave school on Friday, March 26th, they will receive 2 days worth of meals. Those meals will cover Monday, March 29th and Tuesday March 30th.
• High School Menu

Meals for 100% Virtual Learners:

• Pick up meals at Door K at Penn High School
• Day & Time: Monday, March 29, 1-3 p.m.
• Students will receive a refrigerated box and a frozen bag with four (4) breakfasts and four (4) lunches since Friday, April 2nd is a recess day.

Additional Information

• Students do not need to be present for the parent or guardian to pick up meals.
• Student ID’s WILL NOT be required.

*Meals will not be provided on Recess Days.

Menus for all schools and virtual learners can be found here.

Almost a year to the date Indiana schools shut down (P-H-M schools shut down on March 12, 2020), P-H-M teachers and staff got a literal shot in the arm and marked a major step forward in our fight against COVID-19.

On Monday, March 8, 202, Meijer Pharmacy set up a vaccination clinic inside the Main Arena at Penn High School and administered 1,170 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine. 

Every P-H-M teacher and staff member who wanted to get the vaccine was able to do so. 

The vaccines were made available under the federal allotment of vaccines through the Federal Retail Pharmacy Program. The White House announced that the federal allotment would be open to educational staff at schools so teachers and staff could receive the vaccine, especially in states where educational staff had not been included in the first responder group. P-H-M Human Resources reached out to Meijer as word spread that they were working with Indiana schools to set up on-site vaccination clinics.

We are so thankful to the team at Meijer and to EVERYBODY at P-H-M who worked so hard to make this event happen on very short notice. 

Jenni McCarthy, a kindergarten teacher at Bittersweet Elementary said “I honestly have to say that it was fantastic when I found out that we could get them right here at school. I didn’t have to go anywhere. I didn’t have to sign up on any list, I didn’t have to do anything. It just goes to show that Penn-Harris-Madison is a great place to work because they always think of their employees first and are trying to make sure that we are safe to be back in the classroom.”

In addition to the over 700 P-H-M staff members who received a vaccine, we also reached out to area schools to make doses available to others as well. P-H-M felt it was important to share any extra vaccines with educators and staff from other school districts and private schools within P-H-M’s boundaries so that no vaccines would be wasted. 

Dr. Jerry Thacker, P-H-M’s superintendent of schools said “…this just has a tremendous positive impact on the feeling the teachers, all school employees and the students have with regards to receiving a vaccine. They know they’re going to be safer, so this is the first step in that. It also gives us a barometer of what we need to be doing in the future with regard to reaching out and making sure that we can get our students back [in person].”

Watch the video to get a fuller sense of what the day was like. Meijer will return to Penn Monday, March 29th to administer the second dose. 

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!

Spring Break Kids Club

April 5 – 9, 2021

6:30 a.m. – 6:00 p.m.

Northpoint Elementary School (Door E)

Cost is $35 per child, per day or $150 per child for the full week. 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 Tuesday, March 30, 2021. 

Click here for more details and online registration.