The Gala took place Saturday, April 23, 2016 at the Palais Royale Ballroom and PHMEF Executive Director Mari Linn Wise reports, “It was a smashing success!”

Friends of the school district gathered to celebrate the P-H-M Education Foundation’s two decades of accomplishments—having a great time and raising even more funds while they were at it!

The evening’s Roaring 20’s theme came through with plenty of glitz and glam. There were “flappers” in headbands and feather boas, and “dappers” in hats and spats. Chairperson Christine Rutherford and her staff of volunteers saw to the many details that made the evening memorable, including black and gold art deco touches, vintage costumes, designer cupcakes, and jazz music provided by Penn High students. 

View the full photo gallery here.

The highlight of the evening was the on-stage entertainment provided by teams of principals and assistant principals. Wise says, “PHMEF asked our principals and assistant principals to step outside their comfort zone to raise funds for our students by performing. P-H-M is so fortunate to have such caring administrators who want to raise funds for our students. Our winning Team Five closed out the night with a standing-ovation performance. Congratulations to all of the teams!”

Many parents, friends, staff members and community members who did not attend the Gala still supported it by casting $10 votes for their favorite teams of principals and assistant principals. On top of that giving, came a vote matching offer from Gary Fox for Crowe Horwath. He pledged to match each $10 vote, up to 100 votes for each team!

Here’s the final tally, including Mr. Fox’s generous support:

• Team 1 – 122 votes (Penn High)
• Team 2 – 217 votes (Horizon, Northpoint, P Vista)
• Team 3 – 437 votes (Elsie, W Disney, Meadow’s, Bittersweet, Madison)
• Team 4 – 223 votes (DMS, GMS, SMS)
• Team 5 – 451 votes (Mary Frank, Elm Road, Moran)
• Team 6 – 198 votes (Wildcard: Mr. Kauffman!)
• Total votes – 1,648

$16,480 was raised for P-H-M students and programs through votes alone!

Thousands of dollars in additional funds were raised through a silent auction conducted through online bidding, as well as live bidding to support the Summer Visual Arts Academy, and live bidding to underwrite PHMEF direct classroom grants. 

"I am overwhelmed by the support and generosity of the P-H-M community,” Wise states. “Our 20th Anniversary Gala was the first sit-down dinner in the Foundation’s history and it proved to be such a success. It was a night of fun and entertainment while raising much needed funds for our students.”

She continues, “Many thanks to the gala chair, Christine Rutherford, to the principals and assistant principals who showcased their talents, and to our families for their continued support.” 

The Foundation Board expresses special thanks to these five underwriters:  Gurley Leep Subaru, University of Notre Dame, Crowe Horwath, Jim and Julie Schwartz, and Gates Automotive Group.

Click here to view the Foundation’s timeline, charting 20 amazing years of contributions and growth. 

All P-H-M schools will be in session on Friday, April 29—including Northpoint, of course!  

This day of instruction will make up for the day that schools were closed due to bad weather, Thursday, Feb. 25. 

Parents, thanks for your cooperation.

Students, see you then! 

Parents, show your support for P-H-M’s elementary school leadership AND help raise money for Northpoint Elementary School!

At the P-H-M Education Foundation’s 20th Anniversary Gala on April 23, P-H-M principals will perform Vaudeville-style acts, competing against other P-H-M school teams. 

All the acts will be unique and definitely entertaining, but only one team—the one with the most votes—will win the PHaMmy award!

Here’s how you can help raise money for our school:

• Votes cost $10 each and you can cast multiple votes between now and the evening of the Gala.
• 50% of what each team raises will go directly back to that team’s schools!
• The first 100 votes for each team will be matched dollar for dollar by Gary Fox of Crowe Horwath. (Mr. Fox is P-H-M Board of School Trustees President and an Education Foundation Board Member.)

DO MRS. WIRTH AND HER TALENTED TEAMMATES DESERVE YOUR VOTE?

You bet they do! Just watch the video.

►START VOTING TODAY & give TEAM TWO a head start! Follow these easy steps:

1. Click "Browse, Bid and Buy – View Items"
2. ​Click "Register” to create a Gesture account 
3. Vote for TEAM TWO  (Auction Item #102)

Check here daily to see how the votes are coming in, and which team’s in the lead!

►WATCH LIVE STREAM OF THE GALA PERFORMANCES (Sat., April 23, 7:30 p.m.) on the Penn News Network—then vote again! Votes will be tallied and a winner announced at the end of the evening.

►PARTICIPATE IN THE SILENT AUCTION at the same “Browse, Bid and Buy” page where you cast your votes. Check out the many attractive items being offered, then stay on top of the bidding to get what you want and benefit the Foundation.  

The P-H-M Education Foundation has many reasons to celebrate its 20 years of service to the P-H-M community.  Since 1996, the Foundation has distributed more than $520,000 to our schools and classrooms via innovative teaching grants. The Foundation also uses proceeds to underwrite district activities with widespread impact such as “Running is Elementary” and the “Summer Visual Arts Academy.”  Its mission: To support excellence in education.

A vote for TEAM TWO is a vote for excellence in education!

P-H-M’s 30^th annual Elementary Spell Bowl took place Wednesday, March 23, 2016. Nearly 200 third, fourth, and fifth grade students took the stage at Penn High’s Center for Performing Arts, all prepared to do their best in regulated competition.

Northpoint Elementary spellers accomplished a sweep, finishing first at all three grade levels—including a perfect score of 30 at fourth grade!

In third grade competition, the Bittersweet, Madison, Mary Frank and Prairie Vista teams each scored 23 points, resulting in a four-way tie for second place.

The fourth grade spellers did very well, with the Bittersweet, Prairie Vista and Walt Disney teams each scoring 26 points and also finding themselves in a tie for second place.

On the heels of Northpoint’s winning fifth grade team was the Horizon team who took second place with 26 points and the Prairie Vista team whose 25 points brought them third place honors.

Each of the 11 elementary schools fielded three six-person teams (plus one alternate) representing grades 3, 4, and 5. Led by a teacher-coach, the teams spend weeks preparing for Spell Bowl. They may study word lists, learn about derivations (e.g., Latin roots) and rules (e.g., capitalization, pluralization), all the while gaining confidence in their ability to think clearly and spell correctly under pressure.

During the competition, each student must listen to a word, then write it on paper within a 15-second time limit. Their written entries are reviewed by a panel of judges and their score posted in front of the audience. Each correct spelling is worth one point.

Penn High School’s Center for Performing Arts was the setting, and it was full of students, family, friends, and faculty. The audience was hushed as spellers worked, but cheers broke out whenever results were announced.

Mrs. Anne-Marie Reininga, K-5 High Ability Coordinator for the district, manages the P-H-M Spell Bowl and works to assure that it is a positive and enriching experience for students. Academic competition can give students confidence, increase their motivation to sharpen their skills and abilities, and expand their opportunities to receive recognition.

Congratulations to all who participated in the 30^th annual P-H-M Spell Bowl!

Four ambitious students represented themselves and Northpoint Elementary School at the Northern Indiana Regional Science and Engineering Fair (NIRSEF) held at the University of Notre Dame on Saturday, Feb. 27, 2016. 

Science fair projects are an amalgamation of reading, writing, mathematics, statistics, logic, critical thinking, computer science, graphic arts, scientific methodology, and even public speaking—all accomplished by self-directed students in pursuit of the discovery of new knowledge.  It’s an exciting process but it requires a lot of work, much of it done outside the school day. 

Judging by their entries, the future of science looks bright—and it appears our STEM programs are attracting more female students! 

Congratulations to these students on their awards!

• ANIKA AMIN, Grade 4: Are Icicles Clean? 

• EVELYN SHROUT, Grade 4: What Makes the Best Paper?

• ARDA KURAMA, Grade 5: Are There Patterns in Bridge Deflections?

• COLE KLINEDINST, Grade 5: Effects of Temperature on Strength of a Magnet 

  • ​Cole’s project has been selected to advance to the state competition, and will be exhibited and judged at the Hoosier Science and Engineering Fair on April 2. GOOD LUCK, COLE!

Overall, twenty-two Penn-Harris-Madison students, representing eight of the district’s 15 schools, participated at NIRSEF, earning 33 awards overall. 

Due to the weather, our parent night for incoming sixth graders to Discovery has been rescheduled. Mrs. Harper will meet with parents on March 9^th at 7:00 p.m. at Northpoint. Fifth grade students are welcome to attend.

IT’S NOT TOO LATE TO REGISTER FOR THE YOUNG AUTHOR’S CONFERENCE! The registration deadline has been extended until Friday, Feb. 26.

Calling all young authors and their parents!

P-H-M’s annual Young Author’s Conference will take place Saturday, March 12—and you won’t want to miss it.

The morning program will be full of engaging activities, fun entertainment and creative challenges—along with opportunities to learn and share.

We are pleased to host guest author Laura Purdie Salas. Salas will be on hand to share her published work and her love of writing, and to encourage students to produce their own poems and stories.

Meet Mrs. Salas now in this brief video, and preview two of her popular books in these videos: A Leaf Can Be and BookSpeak!

WHAT ELSE CAN YOU EXPECT?

Get ideas!  Parents will hear from Kathy Higgs-Coulthard, the director of Michiana’s Writing Center and also an instructor at St. Mary’s College. Higgs-Coulthard supports writers and writing events in the community, and will share tips with parents on how to do the same in their own families.

Get inspired!  Students will share their own written work with other students in small groups, getting feedback and giving encouragement and gaining confidence in their ability to create.

Get the giggles!  The Roz Puppets will be sure to make you laugh. Big puppets with big personalities, their performances delight “children of all ages.”

ADVANCE REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED!

• WHO: Students from Kindergarten through 5th grade, and one parent from each family

• DATE: Saturday, March 12, 2016

• TIME: 8:45 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.

• LOCATION: Schmucker Middle School, 56045 Bittersweet Road.

• DIRECTIONS: Enter at the traffic signal, park in front, use main entrance.

• COST: $5 per student, payable upon registration

Watch for conference information that your student will bring home from school, then send back the registration envelope with your payment promptly. If you need another copy of the registration form, contact the school.

THE REGISTRATION DEADLINE HAS BEEN EXTENDED UNTIL FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 26.

QUESTIONS?  Please contact Ms. Lisa Duerksen at lduerksen@phm.k12.in.us

Students who will be in 6th grade next year use the "Instrument Selection Night" as an opportunity to handle and test a variety of band and orchestra instruments.  Professional music teachers are on hand to help “pair” each student with an instrument on which they will find great success in their middle school music experience! 

As students are making choices about music classes in 6th grade, it is critical that they be able to try a variety of instruments in order to make an informed decision about what class and which instrument they prefer.

Instrument Selection Nights will be held at each middle school, beginning at the end of February and running through the month of March.  Parents of 5^th grade students need to consider available dates, then choose one night and schedule their visit in advance—which is easily done online. 

►Click here to LEARN MORE and to SCHEDULE your appointment!

A team representing Northpoint Elementary School achieved Highest Honors in the January 2016 WordMasters Challenge™—a national vocabulary competition involving nearly 150,000 students annually. The fourth grade team scored an impressive 192 points out of a possible 200 in the first of three meets this year, placing second in the nation!  

Competing in the difficult Blue Division of the WordMasters Challenge™, fourth graders Cameron Herman, Felix Zhang, Andy Chen and Judy Davis each earned a perfect score of 20 on the challenge. Nationally, only 50 fourth graders achieved this result.

Other students from Northpoint Elementary School who achieved outstanding results in the meet include third grader Sydney Knipp and fourth graders Evelyn Shrout, Jayden Wang, Chris Chapple, and Lydia Frischknecht. The students are coached by Mrs. Jenny Doms.

The WordMasters Challenge™ is an exercise in critical thinking that first encourages students to become familiar with a set of interesting new words (considerably harder than grade level), and then challenges them to use those words to complete analogies expressing various kinds of logical relationships. 

As for preparation, the students study definitions, synonyms, and antonyms.  They use the words when writing personal narratives, persuasive essays, and expository essays.  Many different analogy questions are posed in the classroom so the students become familiar to all the different angles of analogies.  They also make up possible analogy questions using the words, and all the children in the class have an opportunity to solve those problems.

Teacher-coach Mrs. Jenny Doms says, “I am so proud of these children!”  She adds, “Every day I try to model my love of learning in hopes that the children will take after me to make their love of learning stronger.  The children know that this is a higher level challenge, so I encourage them to push themselves to be the best they can be. 

“Our theme for the year is ‘Breaking Boundaries’ and we talk daily about the many ways to be the 'X' factor. . .the child who thinks outside the box and is able to break those boundaries.  I put this competition into that arena by tasking the children to do more than they imagine possible.  In the end, it is the students working with the words that leads them to understand so fully.  It is a very challenging competition.”

The next meet will be held on February 18th, followed by a third later in the spring.  We wish these Northpoint “word masters” the best of luck!