Our Bittersweet Bobcats won the State Elementary Spell Bowl (Red Class)!!! The competition was held on Tuesday, Nov. 18 at North Liberty Elementary School.

This is a back-to-back Championship win for the 5th grade team. Last year they tied for 1st place, but this year they won by 5 words, scoring 53 points out of 56 possible points.

The students received 1st place in their division and 1st place overall, with all students earning a perfect or near perfect award! 

Congratulations to Coach Mrs. Michelle Leniski and her Championship Team: Lucy Buckler, Charlotte Bodnar, Carter Dailey, Sally Fraser, Madison Gardner, Presley Garver, Sophia Ho, Liam Nkundumukiza, Emery Stoll, and Myles Vlaeminick.

Thank you to Assistant Coaches Laura Cichoracki and Leslie Metcalf for their assistance and to Principal Shonda Masterson for her support.

U.S. News and World Report released its “Best Schools” rankings for K-8 public schools by state and Bittersweet is among Indiana’s top 5.6%. Bittersweet is ranked #56 out of Indiana’s 1,000 elementary schools.

P-H-M’s elementary schools are at the top of the list:

• Northpoint #1 in Indiana  
• Prairie Vista #2 in Indiana  
• Horizon #19
• Mary Frank #32
• Bittersweet #56
• Moran #163
• Madison #200
• Elm Road #205
• Elsie Rogers #393
• Meadow’s Edge #239

P-H-M’s middle schools were also recognized:

• Discovery #3 in Indiana
• Schmucker #40

Today the IDOE announced the recipients of the K-12 Robotics Competition Grants and 15 Penn-Harris-Madison robotics teams from eight P-H-M schools were awarded a total grant of $53,600! 

• Penn High School (2 existing teams) – $14,000
• Grissom Middle School (2 existing teams) – $5,000
• Bittersweet Elementary School (1 new team) – $3,175
• Elm Road Elementary School (2 existing teams) – $6,137.50
• Horizon Elementary School (2 existing teams) -$6,137.50
• Meadows Edge Elementary School (1 new team) – $3,175
• Northpoint Elementary School (4 new teams) – $12,800
• Walt Disney Elementary School (1 new team) – $3,175

For all teams, existing and new teams, the grant pays for coaching stipends, team registration, competition registration, game specific materials, and supplies for building competition robots. Funds can also be used for transportation to events. 

For existing teams, most of their supplies will be updating and replacing used parts, tools, storage, and new parts needed for the new game. New teams’ supplies will be start-up kits, tools, storage, and game specific parts. 

The P-H-M proposal was selected from more than 145 grant proposals submitted for this funding opportunity, 137 school corporations and non-profit groups were ultimately chosen. The IDOE review team was impressed with P-H-M’s plan to design, construct, program, and participate in competitions with the goal of increasing Indiana student interest in STEM.

This grant removes barriers for schools and gives students opportunities to excel. It also creates a P-H-M pipeline of future Kingsmen robotics students with experience and excitement about robotics. Ultimately this opportunity gives students more STEM co-curricular experiences and broadens their horizons for future careers.

On Sunday, September 8, the Michiana community joined Penn and P-H-M in giving Olympic Gold Medalist Sarah Hildebrandt a Heroine’s Welcome!

Before Sarah’s “Welcome Home” kicked off, the local media got some one-on-one time with Sarah, her parents, and Penn Head Wrestling Coach Brad Harper during a news conference. Coach Harper was Sarah’s wrestling coach when she was at Penn; he became her personal coach and coached her at the Tokyo Olympics wear she won Bronze. Coach Harper planned this special homecoming for Sarah. Click to see the full photo gallery below.

The parade left from Penn High School and went down McKinley approximately two miles and ended at Zolman’s Tire.

Thank you to all the parade participants who volunteered their time on a Sunday afternoon: Mishawaka and Penn Twp. Fire Departments, St. Joseph County Police, the Marching Kingsmen, Penn Girls and Boys Wrestling Teams, Penn Cheerleaders, Penn Youth Wrestling Club, Rocket Football cheerleaders, and Dr. and Mrs. Thacker. Along with Sarah with her mom Nancy and dad Chris, Sarah’s extended family were also in the parade. Sarah and her parents were in a golden yellow convertible Mustang driven by St. Joseph County Sheriff Bill Redman. Thank you to Zolman’s Tire for supplying some trucks.

After the parade was over, hundreds gathered at Urban Swirl in Granger for an Olympic Celebration emceed by Mark McGill. A representative from Mishawaka Mayor Dave Wood’s office read a proclamation declaring September 8th as Sarah Hildebrandt Day! U.S. Congressman Rudy Yakym read the historical entry on Sarah’s Olympic achievement that he will be submitting to the official U.S. Congressional Record.

Sarah was able to see and catch up with the coach who gave her first break, then Discovery Middle School Wrestling Coach Raoul Donati.

Sarah threw out free T-shirts featuring her smiley face tattoo on the front and her viral X tweet on the back.

Check it all out in the photo gallery below.

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With the start of the 2024-2025 academic year, P-H-M is switching to ParentSquare, a new unified, user-friendly, communications platform designed with parents and guardians in mind. CLICK HERE TO GET ALL THE INFO YOU NEED TO GET STARTED.

ParentSquare provides a centralized location for families to receive communications from school principals, teachers, coaches, and front office staff on all their students, in all schools, in all classrooms! CLICK HERE TO GET ALL THE INFO YOU NEED TO GET STARTED. 

Parents/guardians receive alerts, updates, and posts on:

• important notifications, such as school closings and delays
• attendance
• principal & teacher newsletters
• school & classroom calendar of events
• volunteer & RSVP for events
• fill out permission slips & other forms
• … ALL IN ONE LOCATION!

Families chose their preferred mode of communication for non-urgent notifications– app, text, email, phone. Parents/guardians can also chose to have all communications automatically translated to their preferred first language.

As we approach the first day of school (Wednesday, August 21), principals and teachers will be using ParentSquare to share important “Back to School” information. Parents and guardians are asked to activate their accounts by Monday, August 12, 2024.

PLEASE NOTE: If your child is transitioning to a new building from last school year, the information will be updated later this summer. You are still able to register for ParentSquare.

To activate parent/guardian accounts, parents need to check their email for the welcome and introductory email.

The email was sent between Thursday, July 11 and Friday, July 12, 2024 with the subject line: “Penn-Harris-Madison School Corp. is now using ParentSquare.” 

The sender of the email will appear as “Penn-Harris-Madison via ParentSquare” with a donotreply @parentsquare.com email address, similar to this … donotreply+01d8d49e-b6f1-47f3-ac23-d45abf67b233@parentsquare.com

Every year the graduating seniors go back to their former elementary schools for “Senior Parades.” It’s fun not only for the students to see their former teachers, but it’s also fun for the current elementary students to see the graduates, congratulate them and wish them good luck!

Bittersweet’s Senior Parade was the last day of school Friday, May 31, 2024.

Friday, May 31, 2024 was the last day of the 2023-24 school year. Our mascot the Bobcat made a special appearance joining the teachers and bus drivers to give the students a memorable send-off!

Over the years as a student Bittersweet, Jordy Kruger earned the nickname “The Mayor of Bittersweet” because of his commanding and outgoing personality. Just like a politician he knows how to work the room! Jordy always seems to be happy and gets along with everyone; everyone loves him!

Before Jordy’s last day as a 5th grader, we thought it would be a good idea for him to “pass the torch” onto a new “Mayor of Bittersweet;” and Elliot Fratena is just the student for the job!

So on Thursday, May 30–the second to last day of school for the 2023-24 school year–Principal Shonda Masterson presented Jordy, the first “Mayor of Bittersweet” with a key to the school pass on to Elliot as the new Mayor. A few staff members and Elliot’s Dad were present for the “ceremony.”

What advice to Jordy pass on to Elliot? “If there’s any more kids in a wheelchair, never put a speed limit on them! That’s the #1 rule!”

Jordy is going into 6th grade at Schmucker and Elliot will be going into 4th grade.

Superintendent Dr. Jerry Thacker started handing out the third and final round of district Impact Awards on Wednesday, May 22. The awards were given to teachers who had the most significant individual student growth with DIBLES, ILEARN, and SAT assessments for Spring 2024.

Dr. Thacker, along with Assistant Superintendent Dr. Heather Short, Director of Professional Development and Student Learning, visited four schools to surprise five teachers letting them know that they were the latest winners.

Here at Bittersweet, Kindergarten teacher Sherri Potts was honored for having the highest DIBELS composite growth in the district! Congrats to Mrs. Potts and her students!

As this school year comes to a close we want to thank all our teachers and students for their commitment to academic excellence this school year. The hard work really paid off!

Thank you to the P-H-M Education Foundation for covering the cost of the awards for purchasing the beautiful crystal awards given to the teacher award recipients.