impact awards
From September 15 to October 12, P-H-M Superintendent Dr. Jerry Thacker, Asst. Superintendent of Instruction Dr. Heather Short, Director of Professional Development Dr. Lavon Dean-Null were on a mission to seek out, sneak up on and surprise a group of P-H-M teachers to thank them for their hard work and dedication that led to their student’s academic success.
September 15:
Mary Frank’s co-teaching team of Lexie Banks and Erin Horvath (5th grade): highest Math growth scores for 5th grade in P-H-M. Banks’s Class went from 3% proficiency at the beginning of 2022 school year (Clear Sight), to 97% proficiency on the Spring 2023 ILEARN. Horvath’s class went from 5% to 90% proficiency. Banks’ class had a gain of 94% and Horvath’s 85%! The average 5th Math grade gain across P-H-M 5th grade was 50%.
September 29:
Penn’s Dr. Lee Morris (9th grade Early College Biology): the highest percentage of growth year over year with passing percentage growth; in 2022, it was 61%, and 83.4% in 2023. Her students’ growth was 28% higher than the overall Penn High School ILEARN Biology proficiency rate.
October 2:
Elsie Rogers’ Kara Flanagan (1st grade)
Kara had the highest growth of all P-H-M Title I first grade teachers! 90% of her students had average or higher growth for their overall Dibels composite growth; and 58% of her students were in the “above average” or “well above average” categories!
Grissom’s Josh Kelver (8th grade ELA): the highest growth class section in 8th grade ELA across P-H-M (15% higher than the second highest class)! His class went from 8% proficiency at the beginning of year, to 75% proficiency on ILEARN. That’s the highest average growth across all 8th grade P-H-M ELA teachers!
Walt Disney’s Matt Serge (3rd grade): the highest growth in ELA of all Title I 3rd grade teachers in P-H-M! His class went from 9% (Clear Sight) to 55% proficiency on ILEARN; that’s 21% higher than average Title I proficiency growth!
October 6:
Moran’s Melisa Bennett (2nd grade)
92% of students of her Moran second graders’ overall Dibels composite growth was average or higher. 36% of students were in the “above average” or “well above average” categories.
October 12:
Penn's Brian Griman (College Algebra, Pre-Calculus & Trigonometry, & Calculus): largest increase of student growth in passing, from PSAT to SAT. The growth in the number of students proficient from PSAT to SAT was 11%.
Schmucker’s Tony Krupa (8th grade Math): students had 85% growth in proficiency from Clear Sight 1 to ILEARN. Krupa also had two of the top three highest growth 8th grade math classes.
Round 1 of the Impact Awards is now complete. Round 2 of the Impact Awards will be handed out mid winter.
Thank you to the Education Foundation for covering the cost of these beautiful awards.
recognizing a kingsmen legend
There’s no doubt that Coach Al Rhodes left a lasting impact on Penn High School both as a teacher and a Hall of Fame boys basketball coach.
Coach Rhodes retired at the end of the last school year, with a 28-2 record. Rhodes who played for the Kingsmen 1966-1970 coached for Penn for 15 seasons. He was the winningest coach in Kingsmen Boys Basketball history with a record of 239-128. Penn reached the Final Four for the third and fourth times in the school’s 65-year history. Rhodes posted an overall record of 693-320 in 42 seasons, including an overall state tournament record of 101-41. The Kingsmen won 18 Sectional Championships, nine Regional Championships, four Semi-state Championships and one State Championship.
That is why as part of the P-H-M Education Foundation naming rights campaign, Dr. and Donna Thacker have generously donated $10,000 to the Education Foundation to have the basketball court in Penn High School’s Main Arena named after Hall of Fame and Penn’s legendary coach, Al Rhodes, renaming the court Al Rhodes Kingsmen Court.
“It’s only fitting that the hardwood where Kingsmen student-athletes racked up so many wins under Coach Rhodes’ leadership would be named after him. This is an excellent way to commemorate and celebrate Penn Basketball’s winningest coach ever!” ~ Dr. Thacker
The unveiling of the new court signage is scheduled to take place at the Penn-Clay game on December 1, 2023. The new court name will be displayed above the scoreboard.
Per PHMEF’s naming rights fundraising initiative, 80 percent of the donation will go into the Foundation’s endowment, which will in turn provide alternative and additional funding for various co-curricular and extracurricular programs. The remaining 20 percent directly funds professional development initiatives for P-H-M teachers.
#hoco23
Thanks to the countless hours of hard work put in by the Penn Athletics & Administrative staff, parent volunteers, and P-H-M Education Foundation Board members.
This year, the Kingsmen Marching Band, 13 Penn student clubs and teams, the three middle schools, and all 11 elementary schools participated.
The Fun Zone was hopping with ...
Thanks to Sodexo for sponsoring the fireworks and presenting sponsor Drive & Shine, and all the generous Homecoming sponsors and donors!
And all of that was just Friday night! On Saturday, the Foundation hosted a beautiful Homecoming Dance outside at everwise Freed Field. Fortunately the weather cooperated; the students had a great time.
#hoco23 fundraising results
The Foundation grossed approximately $107,000 with all the Homecoming festivities. That's a net profit of @ $75,000!!! Money was raised from parade float voting, food truck proceeds, teacher dunk tanks, Homecoming dance tickets, and the Silent Auction! That’s a lot of money going back to fund teacher and classroom grants!
fall grant cycle open now!
Speaking of grants … do you want one? If so, the clock is ticking. The PHMEF Fall Grant cycle is open now, but closes 4:00 p.m., Halloween day, Tuesday, October 31!
The P-H-M Education Foundation provides funding to teachers and staff who have creative ideas for new school or classroom initiatives, but don’t have the money.
So hurry up and apply now for an EZ Grant for requests $250 and under. It’s a quick and easy Google form.
Need more than $250? Click here to fill out the traditional grant application
25th anniversary
On October 11, Meadow's Edge celebrated its Silver 25th Anniversary with a fanfare of live music, face painting, commemorative T-shirts, bounce houses, balloon animals, food trucks, and a ribbon cutting!
Dr. Thacker and other P-H-M administrators joined Principal Gary Gardner and Assistant to the Principal Emily Breeden to help kick things off with the ribbon cutting for our school’s new expansion which opened for use this school year.
Former Hawks--students, families and staff--returned to enjoy the fun and reminisce.
sign of the times
Penn and Bittersweet teachers have partnered up again reaping the benefits for both elementary and high school students.
Penn American Sign Language teacher Delicia Huckleberry thought it would be a good experience, on many levels, for her ASL 3 students to work with and teach elementary students.
It also helps raise awareness for the hearing impaired.
On October 16th, Huckleberry’s students worked with all three first grade classrooms at Bittersweet teaching them the alphabet as well as basic words including colors.
Huckleberry’s students also partnered with Elkhart High School ASL students on September 15th to sign the National Anthem at the beginning of the Elkhart-Penn football game.
national merit semi-finalists
A big CONGRATULATIONS not only goes out to Penn’s nine National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists, but also to the teachers who helped educate them along the way.
- Owen Black - Schmucker
- Jacob Ciliberti - Grissom, Meadow’s Edge
- Lillian Gregory - Schmucker, Prairie Vista
- Lily Meyer - Schmucker, Prairie Vista
- Olivia Nijim - Discovery, North Point
- Noah Schafer - Discovery, North Point
- Conor Schmitt - Discovery, North Point
- Jayden Wang - Discovery, North Point
- Felix Zhang - Discovery, North Point
These talented seniors are semifinalists out of more than 1.3 million juniors from 21,000 high schools nationwide, representing less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors!
From over 16,000 Semifinalists, more than 15,000 students are expected to advance to the Finalist level. They will be notified in February giving them the opportunity to continue to compete for National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $28 million.
Know of someone who wants to join P-H-M either as a bus driver, teacher, or substitute teacher?
ESS will be holding two hiring events on November 20 and Thursday, December 14, 9:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m., Schmucker Middle School (Door B). ESS hires substitute teachers, substitute EAs and TAs, as well as sub office aides. Click for more info from ESS.
We will have two upcoming Teacher Job Fairs on December 19, 2023 and March 13, 2024, 2:00 – 5:00 p.m., Schmucker. Click for more details.
Did you know that current P-H-M bus drivers can earn a $500 referral bonus for referring new drivers to P-H-M! Click here for more information.
We’re always hiring for a variety of Classified Positions.
happy early halloween!
#phmexcellence
We share examples of #PHMExcellence with the community in a number of different ways: P-H-M social media channels, newsletters, videos, and sometimes even on the local news!
Share your #PHMExcellence stories with us.