Space exploration has been inspiring the young and old for decades while contributing vital technological advancements to our society.

We continue to be proud that our school is named after true space pioneer Lieutenant Colonel Virgil Ivan "Gus" Grissom, the first person in history to go to space not once, but twice.

Penn High School resource teacher Amy Zimmer was recently at Spring Mill State Park in Mitchell, Indiana, and attended the Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom Memorial's 50th Anniversary Celebration on July 21, 2021. 

Read more about the event here.

Lowell Grissom, Gus’s brother, shared special memories while giving a speech at the celebration. Lowell also shared artifacts that have never been on display before.

Amy had a chance to speak with Lowell and shared with him a picture of our very own school. Amy said “It brought a smile to his face and heartfelt joy to him.” Lowell went on to share that his brother Norman went to the dedication of GMS in 1968.

When it was time for Director of DNR and Interpretive Naturalist to speak, they mentioned GMS and stated that a photo of our school would be included in the time capsule, which will be buried in the near future!

The time capsule will be dug up and opened in 50 years or July 21, 2071. Along with the photo, handwritten postcards by Amy and other attendees were placed in the time capsule.

Caitlin Reeder, Noah Zimmer & Amy Zimmer With Handwritten Postcards for the Time Capsule

Amy had the tremendous opportunity to have a photo taken with Lowell Grissom in front of what he believes would be his brother's favorite artifact of the memorial – his "Molly Brown," or the Gemini III 

Amy Zimmer, Lowell Grissom, Noah Zimmer & Caitlin Reeder in front of the Gemini III

Also attending with Amy was Caitlin Reeder and Noah Zimmer.

Caitlin is a Penn High School graduate, GMS student (2004-2007), and P-H-M teacher (2019-present). As the P.A.S.S. teacher at Pennway, Caitlin services GMS students and collaborates with GMS staff. She remembers writing a report about Gus Grissom and visiting the DVT. 

Noah Zimmer is a 2018 graduate and senior at Indiana University Bloomington majoring in Physics, Astronomy & Astrophysics and minoring in Mathematics. Noah aspires to work in the field of astronomy and astrophysics. He loves space so it was a real treat!

Lowell Grissom is also a Indiana University Bloomington graduate so it was an incredible opportunity for Noah and Lowell Grissom to share a laugh about him and Noah picking the "good school!"

Special thanks to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources for recording Lowell Grissom’s speech, you can watch that below:

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

Registration for the Penn Boys Basketball League for students in Grades 2-8 will be held on Wednesday, Sept. 1, from 5:45-8 p.m..

When: Wednesday, Sept. 1, 5:45-8 p.m.

Where: Penn High School/ Enter through Door D 

Price: $75 Grades 2-6 /  $60 Grades 7 & 8^th

Discount: $10 Discount for Summer Basketball Camp Attendees

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

Penn-Harris-Madison continues to monitor the spread of COVID-19. With more than 13,000 students and employees, we all play an important role in minimizing the risk and impact on each other and our operations. The health and safety of students and staff is our top priority. As a result, P-H-M Schools will implement various measures to keep everyone as safe as possible. 

Please click here to read an overview of the district’s plan for a safe and healthy learning environment for Summer 2021 In-Person Instruction.

Throughout Summer 2021, P-H-M will continue to track COVID cases of students and staff that are made known to district and school personnel. Click here to view the P-H-M Positive COVID Dashboard.

To read documents related to P-H-M’s Return to Learn Plan for the 2020-2021 school year, please click here.

The information below was sent to P-H-M families on Friday, March 26, 2021.

Dear P-H-M Families,

In the District’s ongoing efforts to provide opportunities for P-H-M staff to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, we worked with Meijer to provide a vaccination clinic on March 8 for the two-dose Pfizer vaccine.

1,170 people were vaccinated, including staff from P-H-M and neighboring school districts, as well as some community members. This included over 700 P-H-M staff, representing about half of our entire workforce.

Meijer is returning next Monday, March 29, to administer the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine to staff and community members who were vaccinated at our clinic three weeks ago. 

As part of our weekly meeting with the St. Joseph County Department of Health, it was shared with us that we should expect 15-30% of P-H-M employees to experience mild to adverse effects after receiving the second shot.

We know that other area school districts had to call eLearning days after their staff members experienced some side effects following the second dose of the Moderna vaccine. If 15-30% of P-H-M staff members called in sick for Tuesday, March 30, we would not be able to transport, feed or teach our students.  

Based on this information, we are calling an eLearning Day for grades K-12th grade for next Tuesday, March 30. This day will be an eLearning day (just like what is called due to weather), NOT a virtual learning day. Teachers will not be teaching live on Tuesday. Head Start, PreK (Early Learning Academy and PennPALS), and Young Adult programs are all canceled for March 30. However, eLearning lessons will be provided for Early Learning Academy, PennPALS, and Young Adult programs.

The regular eLearning Day responsibilities of teachers will be in place next Tuesday. If a teacher is not sick, he/she will be online and responsive to student questions and to offer additional support and clarification as needed throughout the school day. If a teacher is taking a sick day on Tuesday, they will notify students and families through email and other normal modes of class communication and will not be available online that day. The classroom teachers will give specifics and assignment due dates of the eLearning lessons.

We know that this is a disruption and an inconvenience for our families at a time when we are trying to return all students to 100% in-person learning. Having nearly half of our workforce fully vaccinated through our Meijer clinic coupled with the state opening up vaccine eligibility to people 16 and older will ultimately help school districts return to near normal, pre-pandemic operations of educating students. We hope that parents, guardians, and families will also personally consider getting vaccinated to help our greater community, state and country. Thank you for being valued partners.

Sincerely,

Dr. Jerry Thacker

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!

In early February, St. Joseph Health System Sports Medicine, Beacon Medical Group Sports Medicine and The South Bend Clinic notified Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation and other St. Joseph County high schools that they would not be able to continue the practice of their physicians providing school based "on-site" pre-participation physical examinations for student-athletes.

The local health systems state in the letter that this is in compliance with recommendations from the Pre-participation Physical Evaluation (PPE) 5th Edition published and endorsed in 2019 by six organizations: American Academy of Family Physicians, American Academy of Pediatrics, American College of Sports Medicine, American Medical Society for Sports Medicine, American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine, American Osteopathic Academy of Sports Medicine.

The letter states “The Physicians of the South Bend Clinic, Sports Medicine Physicians of Beacon Medical Group and St. Joseph Regional Medical Center believe that it is in the best interest of student athletes to establish a "Medical Home" and consequently seek an annual History and Physical Examination that can also satisfy IHSAA Sports Physicals requirements.” Click to read the 2019 PPE Pre-participation Physical Evaluation 5th Edition as supplied to P-H-M from the local health systems.

Parents will now need to make appointments with their student-athlete’s pediatrician/primary care physician to get a physical and to fill out the IHSAA Pre-participation Physical Evaluation (PPE) form. If an student-athlete does not have an established primary care physician, their parents will need to establish one. Click to download a copy of the IHSAA PPE form.

The IHSAA allows pre-participation exams to be signed after April 1 for the subsequent academic year. A PPE form filled out & signed after April 1, 2021 satisfies IHSAA exam requirements through June 2022.

As stated in the letter to P-H-M “If parents schedule a routine their student-athlete’s annual "well child" visit between January 1 and April 1 (some offices will schedule these exams to coincide with the patient’s birthday), then the examiner may consider completing and signing the IHSAA form after April 1—attesting that the exam was completed recently and athlete's health status remains the same. Thus, authorizing the April 1 signature and medical authorization to participate in sports for the upcoming academic year.

Grissom Instrument Selection Night

March 8 & 9 2021

4:30 – 7:30 p.m.

Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation is nationally recognized as one of the “Best Communities for Music Education” offering choir, band and orchestra at Grissom and the other two P-H-M middle schools Discovery and Schmucker.

Every P-H-M 5th grader who will be attending a P-H-M middle school as an incoming 6th grader in the Fall 2021 has the opportunity to join an instrumental music class, which includes either band or orchestra. “Instrument Selection Night” is when students and families get to make their choice!

In order to join 6th grade band or orchestra, students must select an instrument that they will learn, practice and perform for the school year.  Click this link to sign-up for your appointment at your designated school and date. 

At “Instrument Selection Night,” a music professional will be available to give students advice about which instrument may be best suited for them. They will be allowed to “try out” instruments from various instrument groups.

Tryouts:

Next year’s Freshmen (current 8th ​graders)

March 22, 23 and 24, 2021

4:00 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.

Enter through Door D

If interested, E-mail Varsity Coach Rita Szweda before March 18 for the tryout information at: rszweda@phm.k12.in.us.

The letter below was emailed to parents and staff on Thursday, Feb. 4, 2021.

Dear Parents,

It has always been our goal to have all of our students with us for in-person learning following COVID-19 safety protocols. Under the guidance of the Indiana Department of Health (IDOH) and the St. Joseph County Department of Health (SJCDoH), our secondary schools have either been in hybrid or virtual mode since the start of the school year because of the population size of those buildings. Since September, our elementary schools have been successfully educating students in-person. We’ve also been able to provide a virtual option for any family who was more comfortable with their student(s) learning at home. Through all of these scenarios, we’ve put the well-being and safety of our students and staff first while balancing the guidelines and protocols of federal, state, and local health agencies.

The efforts and precautions we’ve all made to help lower the community spread of COVID-19 have finally paid off! Yesterday (Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2021) the IDOH released their weekly updated County metrics; and St. Joseph County’s weekly 2-metric score has improved to Yellow (click here to visit the IDOH website & view the county metrics map). SJCDoH also sent out a news release yesterday (click here to read it in full) reinforcing the IDOH’s message that “a county must maintain a lower weekly 2-metric score for two consecutive weeks before moving down to a lower Advisory Level.” St. Joseph County’s Advisory Level does remain Orange. 

I am happy to notify our secondary parents that with the approval and permission of SJCDoH and in collaboration with the P-H-M Teachers Association, on Monday, February 8th, I will be recommending to the Board of School Trustees for their approval plans for the phase-in process of transitioning secondary students (grades 6-12 whose parents chose hybrid instruction for the 2nd semester) back into the classroom for in-person instruction working up to 5 days per week. Please note that the transition begins with Mondays as a virtual day for all students and four days of in school instruction. Please click here for a detailed breakdown of the Secondary Return to Learn Transition Plan.

We have developed this plan after many discussions with our Teachers Association and local health authorities. This plan is supported by both parties because of the factors listed below:
 

• Not all secondary students will be brought back all at once; grades will be transitioned back in on a weekly basis. Please click here for a detailed breakdown of the Secondary Return to Learn Transition Plan.
• This is an option only for those middle and high school students whose parents declared them hybrid for the 2nd semester, until SJCDoH increases the allowable capacity in our school buildings.
• P-H-M Administration will meet weekly with SJCDoH for data monitoring of local metrics. Data will continue to guide all decision making. We hope to eventually have all students back in school for face-to-face instruction.
• St. Joseph County, like the rest of the State, is experiencing a decrease in COVID-19 cases. However, we must maintain our risk mitigation strategies to avoid an increase in numbers.
• The federal and state governments are ramping up vaccination efforts and availability. While the IDOH still has not included teachers as part of essential workers or critical infrastructure, the State’s vaccine eligibility based on age groups is moving quickly. SJCDoH continues to support teacher vaccination. 
• SJCDoH encourages social distancing of 6 ft. or more whenever possible, but recognizes and accepts that the Governor’s guidelines for schools are the following:
  • If necessary, a minimum social distancing standard of 3 ft., if everyone is masked and facing the same direction (click to read Executive Order 21-02 (renewed 1/28/21).
• P-H-M continues to track the number of student and staff COVID cases reported to us. The cases are reflected on P-H-M’s COVID Dashboard. A link to the Dashboard is on the homepage of P-H-M’s district website for staff and families to easily find; it is updated daily except for weekends, holidays, and recess breaks. 

We do realize that there are probably students and families who chose virtual learning for a variety of reasons and who may prefer to be back in school with their teachers and classmates. Again, it is our utmost desire as educators to have 100% of our students back 100%. The determination for the possibility for 6-12 In-person students to go 5 days a week and 6-12 Virtual students to return to in-person learning will be based on the metrics, evaluation of internal data, and approval for capacity by the SJCHoD. This will remain to be under review and consideration for any changes to occur no sooner than after Spring Break.

As stated above  and in the Secondary Return to Learn Phase-in Plan, we will be meeting weekly with SJCDoH leaders to monitor and evaluate the community and P-H-M COVID-19 case data. When we can safely return those virtual students who want to return to the classrooms, we will do so as soon as it is permissible by SJCDoH. 

Please direct specific questions about your student and school to your building principal. Secondary principals will have follow-up communications with building specific details of the transition plan.

The Board of School Trustees and I want all our families and employees to know that their safety is at the very forefront of our decision making. We will continue to make decisions in consultation with the St. Joseph County Department of Health.

Please stay safe and healthy.

Sincerely,
Dr. Jerry Thacker
Superintendent of Schools