2024 Middle School Instrument Selection Night

Every P-H-M 5th grader who will be attending a P-H-M middle school as an incoming 6th grader in the Fall 2024 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!

Fifth graders at Moran, Bittersweet, Elsie Rogers, Walt Disney, and Prairie Vista Elementary Schools will attend Schmucker Middle School for 6th – 8th grades.

Schmucker’s Instrument Selection Nights are Monday, March 4th and Tuesday, March 5th.

Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation is nationally recognized as one of the “Best Communities for Music Education” offering choir, band and orchestra at Schmucker, Discovery and Grissom Middle Schools.

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. 

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.

Penn Orchestra Performs Elementary School Pops

“Captain Jack Sparrow” made an appearance at Penn High School today (Tuesday, January 30) performing the Pirates of the Caribbean theme song for 4th and 5th grade students. This mini concert is a great way to introduce students to instruments they might not be familiar with as they think about what possible instrument they might want to pursue in middle school. In P-H-M middle schools, students can pursue orchestra, band or choir as a Fine Arts elective.

Students got a real treat … the Orchestra’s drummers performed a song written by Senior Clayton Hopper; it was called “March of the Clumsy.” All the drummers performed it together to demo percussion.

Orchestra performing at Penn Elementary Pops Concert
Penn Orchestra Elementary School Pops Concert performance
Students watching orchestra performance
Young audience members enjoying the orchestra performance

Penn Orchestra Elementary School Pops Concert

Due to scheduling logistics, only half of P-H-M elementary schools participated and traveled to Penn for this year’s show. The other half attended last year. That way every P-H-M student will see the show in either 4th grade or 5th grade.

Elsie Rogers Receives Grants

The P-H-M Education Foundation has wrapped up the grant announcements for the 2023-2024 school year; and it’s been a big year with tons of recipients. Elsie Rogers was the recipient of two grants for a total of $1,059.90!

Jodi Cramer-Berry and Jessie Kinney applied for and received $809.95 to purchase six Beebots, a charging station, and coding mats to bring innovation and hands-on learning into the classrooms. The kits will introduces foundations of computer programming to students allowing teachers to transform traditional lessons into engaging, interactive experiences fostering critical thinking, problem-solving and teamwork amongst students.

We also applied for and received one EZ Grant:

  • $249.95 for 5th grade students writing and publishing tools

This cycle the Foundation Grants Committee awarded $42,819.63 in funding to 15 EZ grants and 20 traditional grants. 

PHMEF has moved to one grant cycle per school year, now moved to the Fall, to allow teachers and schools time to put their grant dollars to good use right away.

Executive Director Jennifer Turnblom traveled across the district to surprise various grant recipients with the good news of their funding amount. Grants awarded this year cover a wide array of innovative programs and activities from $10,000 to Grissom Middle School to purchase keyboards for the music room to fishing poles for Penn’s Fishing Club.

Click here to see the photo gallery on the District’s website of the check deliveries or click to follow PHMEF’s Facebook page.

Mrs. Flanagan Receives P-H-M Impact Award

Superintendent Dr. Jerry Thacker awarded three more P-H-M teachers with the Impact Award today (Monday, October 2). Dr. Thacker visited Walt Disney Elementary, Elsie Rogers Elementary and Grissom Middle School. Awards handed out this time around were to the following teachers:

  • Matt Serge, 3rd grade teacher at Walt Disney
  • Kara Flanagan, 1st grade teacher at Elsie Rogers
  • Josh Kelver, 8th grade ELA teacher at Grissom Middle School

The P-H-M Impact Award is presented to educators who have helped their students achieve individual academic growth on their formative assessments over time. All P-H-M teachers across the district are dedicated to helping their students achieve personal academic success. The P-H-M Impact Award is shining the spotlight on those teachers who are showing the most significant overall student growth during the 2022-2023 school year. They are prime examples of how our teachers and students achieve P-H-M Excellence!

Dr. Thacker popped in and surprised the teachers with the help of the school principals, Disney’s Dr. Higginson, Elsie’s Christy Campbell, and Grissom’s Jenn Sinclair. Dr. Thacker was also joined by P-H-M administrators Assistant Superintendent Dr. Heather Short and Director of Professional Development Dr. Lavon Dean-Null.

At Elsie, the team caught Kara Flanagan completely off-guard. Her students really got into the surprise. Mrs. Flanagan 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! Check out all the photos of today’s award presentations on Facebook.

Matt Serge was recognized for having the highest growth in ELA of all Title I 3rd grade teachers in P-H-M! Mr. Serge’s class went from 9% (Clear Sight) to 55% proficiency on ILEARN; that’s 21% higher than average Title I proficiency growth!

Josh Kelver had the highest growth class section in 8th grade ELA across P-H-M (15% higher than the second highest class)! Mr. Kelver’s 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! Because Mr. Kelver’s wife, Ashley Kelver, also works at Grissom, she was able to be included in the the surprise. 

We thank the P-H-M Education Foundation for covering the cost of the awards.

There are more P-H-M teachers to recognize in the days, weeks and months ahead!

PennPALS Open Houses, Wed., August 16

PennPALS will be holding Open Houses on Wednesday, August 16. Please attend the session that corresponds to your child’s time of attendance.

  • A.M. Classes: 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
  • P.M. Classes: 1:00 – 1:30 p.m.

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