
Celebrating 100 years of Madison History
Posted on April 25, 2025Madison Elementary is celebrating a major milestone this year … a CENTURY, yes 100 years, of providing excellent public education to students, but also serving as the heart of our community.
Who better to talk about what the school has meant to Madison Township thru the decades then longtime School Board Member Larry Beehler and current Madison Principal Lindsay Schirripa.
I have absolutely loved serving as a superintendent of Pen Harris Madison School Corporation and one of the highlights of my career was teaching at Madison Elementary [Music] [Applause] School in honor of Madison's hundth year celebration. Today I have Larry Beer with me. So, you've have served 39 years on the PHM school board and I guess my question to you is what inspired you to take on that role? I was told by Harold Hokei that either he had to run or you run. Did you guys flip a coin? Nope. He
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he just pointed at me. One thing that I um noticed in this Madison Museum is something that is directly behind you. There is an article about you as a basketball player and in that article they state that you are known you were known as a sharp shooter. It stated something about you scoring 385 or 95 points. That was by the senior year we had Dennis Styiver. He was 6'4 and they always double teamed him and they didn't double team me. They left you open and that was not good. Right. Right. I made him pay.
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One of the best events I can imagine is that fish fry. We just bring out the entire community and surrounding communities coming to that and serving fish. How long has the fish fry been in existence? It started I think maybe right after I graduated. All the community comes together to support um one another but also our students here. So I know we are forever grateful for that long-standing tradition. You know, if you look at the Madison school community and culture, it's really a tight-knit community, and they love
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their kids, and they have great family relationships. They care about their neighbors. There's a lot of kids that have moved away, have are coming back. They say the rest of the world is is like, you I would say it's a special place and it's very there's a it's generational here, right? So, um, many of our families have, um, their grandparents or parents that have gone through school here and then the kids. Larry Beler is a legend. He's been a fantastic schoolboard member. He's
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highly detail oriented. He's great with history. He he gives great perspectives. What continues to motivate you still after all these years? Well, I get to work with a lot of great people. That's probably the biggest thing. Larry Beer would be one of my my favorite board members of all time and I consider him a great friendly [Music]
Don’t forget as part of the 100th Anniversary Celebration, the annual PTO Jonah Fish Fry fundraiser will be next Saturday, May 3rd, starting at 3:30.🐟🍰🥤😋
Last Modified May 7, 2026
