It may have rained on Saturday, October 6, but the rain did not damper the Spirit of Caring you find at Madison School. Instead of riding in the the rain students and their families paused to play together in the Madison gym . Students enjoyed jumping rope, building vehicles, stacking cups and hanging out while parents visited with other Madison Families. Mrs. April Hamel and Mrs. Kathy James manned the snack table providing apples and fresh popcorn.  The Riley Bike-a-thon has been a part of Madison School for over 28 years. Kids giving to kids who need help during an illness or while they fight a disease. It speaks to the heart of this community. Collections for Riley may be given to the school until October 15. Please send in a check made out to Riley Children's Hospital or contribute cash. 

Students who collect at least $5.00 are able to participate in an Ice Cream Pig Out on October 16. Many students collect much more than that amount as our school has been able to send as much as $6000.00 in one year and over $112,000.00 over the years to Riley Children’s Hospital. In a world that says ME all too often, it is good to know that our students take the Power of WE and help families in need. 

Once again Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation schools, in all grade levels tested, scored above Indiana’s averages. The variance between P-H-M’s pass rate over the state is at least 10% or higher across all grade levels and subjects.

For grade 10, 75.6% of P-H-M students passed the ELA test and 58.4% passed the Math portion. The district’s overall pass rate for grade 10 was 56.4%.

For grades 3-8, 78.0% of P-H-M students passed the ELA test and 74.8% passed the Math test. P-H-M’s overall district pass rate for grades 3-8 was 68.3%.

For grade 10, P-H-M ranks in the Top 5% out of 291 public school corporations. In grades 3-8, P-H-M is in the Top 6% of public school districts out of 294 public school corporations.

When reviewing the Corporation’s performance on the last round of ISTEP+ (grades 3-8) test results, P-H-M Superintendent Dr. Jerry Thacker commented “P-H-M teachers and administrators are incredibly committed to our vision of excellence and offer the best education in the Michiana area. I am very proud of the fact that P-H-M is one of the state’s top performing school districts. The credit goes to our outstanding teachers, students and parents.”

Students in Grades 3-8 and students enrolled in Biology at Penn will take ILEARN Indiana’s, new computer-adaptive standardized test, this spring (April 22 – May 17) replacing the state’s previous test, ISTEP+. To see what subjects students will be tested per their grade level, please click to visit the IDOE website. 

To help parents better understand how their children will be tested and to help them prepare their students for the test, the IDOE has put together a quick one page guide. Click here to download the pdf copy.

The ISTEP+ Grade 10 assessment will be administered during the 2018-2019 and 2019-2020 school years. Click here for more information on the transition from the ISTEP+ Grade10 assessment to the College Entrance Exam.

IREAD-3 for Grade 3 will continue as is. Click for more details.

Starting this spring, the Indiana Department of Education will also transition to a new test to assess students with significant cognitive disabilities in Grades 3-8 and 10. IAM is the new summative accountability assessment. Click here for more details on IAM.

Click to view all the testing dates on the P-H-M Corporate Calendar or reference the 2018-19 P-H-M District Activities Wall Calendar.

The show schedule for the 2018-19 school year has been set, with the first show of the season kicking off on Wednesday, Sept. 12 at 6:30. Click here for the full schedule.

Patrons are now able to reserve and purchase tickets online through the P-H-M ​RevTrak Web Store. More  details online at www.phmschools.org/dvt.  

The first day back for the school of the 2018-19 school year for Penn-Harris-Madison schools was Wednesday, August 22. Superintendent Dr. Jerry Thacker and Penn Principal Sean Galiher were up early to do live interviews on local South Bend TV stations.

Dr. Thacker then began his annual 15 schools in 3 days tour. Longtime Board Member Larry Beehler accompanied Dr. Thacker on the first two days. Take a look at their visits …

Today was New Teacher Orientation for Penn-Harris-Madison. 

Madison is welcoming 3 new teachers.

Click to get more details on P-H-M’s Penn's New Teacher Class of 2018.

The 2018-19 District Activities Calendar will be mailed around August 9 and 10 to all P-H-M families. 

It lists key school and district events throughout the year. 

To get a jump start on your planning and to know all your schools’ important Back-to-School dates, click here to download a pdf copy.

Want a quick one pager of the 2018-19 School Year or want to import P-H-M’s Google Calendar to yours? Click here for more calendar and scheduling resources.

If you are a hard worker, a team player, and want to get better at basketball, Penn Girls Basketball coach invites you to join the Penn Community Junior & Senior Girls Basketball family and be a part of a winning tradition.

This community-sponsored AAU league is developed for the Penn-Harris-Madison Communities and has been given permission to be named the Penn Community Girls Basketball League. 

The “Junior” League is open to girls in grades 3-6 . The “Senior” League is open to grades 7 & 8.

Sign-ups are Sunday, August 26 th in the Penn Arena from 12:00 – 2:00 p.m. Registering on time is essential to the organization of the league. A late fee of $10.00 will be assessed for signing up after August 26. No sign-ups will be accepted after Friday, August 31. No refunds will be given after league begins.

All practices and games will be held in school facilities within the Penn-Harris-Madison district. All games will be played on Sundays.

Game Times are:

• 3rd & 4th grade league: 12:00 – 2:00 p.m.
• 5th & 6th grade league: 2:00 – 4:00 p.m.
• 7th & 8th grade league: 4:00 – 5:00 p.m. & 5:00 – 6:00 p.m.
   

The league will begin on September 9 th for ALL age groups. The “Junior” League will end on November 11 for grades 3- 6 and no tournament will take place.

The “Senior” League will end on November 18 th with an all day shootout.

Click to download information and sign-up forms for the “Junior” League (grades 3-6).

Click here to download information and sign-up forms for the “Senior” League (grades 7 & 8).

The Madison PTO extends to all Madison Families, old and new, an invitation to the meet and greet other Madison Families at the PTO Ice Cream Social.
The Social will be held August 16 on the Madison Playground from 6-8 pm. Come any time or come all the time for a fun evening with friends.

One of the most coveted awards at Madison is the WORK LIKE A WISLER AWARD.

Classroom teachers nominate students who have exhibited WORK LIKE A WISLER traits in the classroom and during the school day.

Mrs. Wisler is loved by all and brings a positive, I CAN DO IT attitude with her to school every day.

W – Work Hard, Warm, Welcoming

I  – Integrity, Intelligence, Involved, Independence, Invincible, Interesting, Improvement

S – Sports, Sincerity, smiling, selflessness, service, support, sweet, spectacular

L – Love, Like, Laugh, Loyal, Life of the Party, Logic

E – Energetic, empathy, educated, endurance, excellence, empowered, excited, enthusiastic

R – Respect, ready, responsibility, resilient, resourcefulness

Students honored are listed below:

Kindergarten: Hadlee Mattison and Matthew Schori

Grade One: Dawson Smith and Cheyanne Wirebaugh

Grade Two: Lyla Frick and Colin Hamel

Grade Three: Bailey Dziubinski and Wyatt Berger

Grade Four: Cheyenne Ernsperger and Henry Pfeiffer

Grade Five: Silas Laidig and Kayla Kiszka