Penn High School

Penn High School
Location
56100 Bittersweet Road

Mishawaka
,
St. Joseph County
,
Indiana
46545

United States

41°40′44″N 86°06′32″W / 41.678802°N 86.108834°W / 41.678802; -86.108834
Information
TypePublic High School
MottoRigor. Relevance. Relationships.
Established1958
School district
Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation
CEEB code152347
NCES School ID
180603001060
Principal
Rachael Fry
Teaching staff
181.50 (FTE)
Grades9–12
Enrollment3,847 (2023-2024)
Student to teacher ratio
21.20
ColorsBlack and gold    
Athletics conference
Northern Indiana Athletic Conference
Team nameKingsmen
NewspaperPenn News Network
WebsiteOfficial Website

Penn High School is a public high school located in Mishawaka, Indiana, United States, near South Bend. It is the only high school in the Penn-Harris-Madison (PHM) School Corporation.

The district includes all of Osceola and portions of Granger, Mishawaka, and South Bend.

History

Prior to the construction of Penn, students in the Penn and Harris Townships attended Mishawaka High School or Jimtown High School. In 1955, Mishawaka High School announced that it would no longer accept students from Penn Township due to overpopulation starting in 1959. Thus, Penn Township Trustee Vernon Freed created a community team to plan for a new high school. Ground was broken for the new high school on November 1, 1957. Penn High School was opened on September 1, 1958, after a year of construction and a cost of $3.6 million for freshmen, sophomores, and juniors. The first graduating class in 1960 had 200 seniors.

The 1962 merger of Penn and Harris Townships expanded the school system. The following year, Madison Township was also incorporated, creating today's Penn-Harris-Madison School district

Penn High School continued to expand in the following years. By 1963, more than 1,600 students attended schools in the district. In the mid-1980s, renovations began to enlarge the school's facilities and were completed in 1991.

Academics

Penn High School students are divided into several academies. Freshmen are sorted into 6 freshman academies known as houses. Each house consists of roughly 160 students taught by the same core teachers. Prior to junior year, students choose to be a part of one of four academies: Fine arts, STEM, Management and Business, and Health and Human Services

Penn High School offers up to 23 Advanced Placement classes along with several Advanced College Project classes through a partnership with Indiana colleges. GPA is calculated on a 4.0 scale with college courses assigned a weighted grade that is on a 5.0 scale. Based on AP exam participation and passing rate, Penn students have a College Readiness Index of 30.0/100.0.

For the class of 2015, Penn achieved a graduation rate of over 97%. 90% of students passed the state's English graduation exam and 90% passed Indiana's math graduation exam. 66% of Penn students scored a three or higher on an Advanced Placement exam. Penn High School students averaged an SAT score of 1564 in 2010, compared to the Indiana state average of 1496.

Penn High School was recognized as a 4-Star School by the Indiana Department of Education for the 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2015 school years. To achieve this rating the school had to receive an "A" on the state's A-F accountability system, have an excellent ISTEP+ pass rate, carry on overall high graduation rate, and show that they were successful in closing achievement gaps.

Demographics

The demographic breakdown of the 3,376 students enrolled for the 2014–2015 school year was:

In addition, 17.3% of the students were eligible for free or reduced price lunch.

Extracurricular activities

Athletics

Penn is part of the Northern Indiana Athletic Conference. They compete under the name "Kingsmen" and the school colors are black and gold. The following IHSAA sanctioned sports are offered:

  • Baseball (boys)
    • State champions - 1994, 1998, 2001, 2015, 2022, 2023
  • Basketball (boys & girls)
    • Girls basketball state champions - 2016
  • Cross country (boys & girls)
  • Football (boys)
    • State champions - 1983, 1995, 1996, 1997, 2000
  • Golf (boys & girls)
    • Girls state champions - 1994, 2002, 2004, 2005
  • Soccer (boys & girls)
    • Boys state champions - 1999
    • Girls state champions - 2016, 2017
  • Softball (girls)
    • State champions - 1999, 2023
  • Swimming (boys & girls)
  • Tennis (boys & girls)
  • Track (boys & girls)
  • Volleyball (girls)
    • State champions - 2010, 2011
  • Wrestling (boys)
    • State champions - 2015

Academic competitions

Penn High School participates in the Indiana Academic Super Bowl, run by the Indiana Association of School Principals. The statewide competition consists of rounds of 25 multiple choice questions that students answer as a team. Teams from Penn have had several victories at the Super Bowl. They won in English in 2007, science in 2003 and 2010, and social studies in 2003, 2005, 2006, and 2008–2014. Additionally, the mock trial team advanced to the national championship in 2014 after winning the state championship.

Penn High School also participates in Indiana Academic Spell Bowl, which differs from a traditional spelling bee in that teams of nine individually spell 10 words each in written form. Penn has won or tied the State Spell Bowl Championship in 1999–2006, 2008–2010, 2012–2016 and 2019.

As of 2016, Penn has established a Technology Student Association Chapter. Penn's TSA Chapter competes in both the National and Indiana State Leadership Conferences and has had numerous victories at the Indiana TSA State Leadership Conference.

Notable alumni

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Search for Public Schools - Penn High School (180603001060)". National Center for Education Statistics. Institute of Education Sciences. Retrieved December 28, 2024.
  2. 1 2 3 "Penn High School". National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved December 28, 2024.
  3. ↑ "2020 CENSUS - SCHOOL DISTRICT REFERENCE MAP: St. Joseph County, IN" (PDF). U.S. Census Bureau. Retrieved February 25, 2022.
  4. ↑ "Penn High School Bands - History". sites.google.com. Retrieved September 29, 2026.
  5. ↑ "Penn High School Bands - History". sites.google.com. Retrieved September 29, 2026.
  6. ↑ Penn High School. History Information Sheet. May 24, 2013
  7. ↑ "The Academies". Penn Harris Madison. Retrieved September 19, 2017.
  8. ↑ "Course Menu for Penn Seniors" (PDF). Retrieved September 19, 2017.
  9. ↑ "Special Programs". Penn High School. Retrieved December 30, 2012.
  10. ↑ "Penn High School Test Scores". U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved December 30, 2012.
  11. ↑ "Penn High School Progress Report 2015-16" (PDF). Penn Harris Madison. Retrieved September 19, 2017.
  12. ↑ "Average SAT Scores". Averagesatscores.org. Retrieved December 30, 2012.
  13. ↑ "About Penn". Penn Harris Madison. Retrieved September 19, 2017.
  14. ↑ "Four Star Schools". Indiana Department of Education. Retrieved September 19, 2017.
  15. ↑ "IHSAA 2014-2015 School directory" (pdf). ihsaa.org. IHSAA. p. 97. Retrieved February 23, 2015.
  16. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "IHSAA State Championships by School". ihsaa.org. IHSAA. Archived from the original on May 13, 2016. Retrieved January 16, 2015.
  17. ↑ "2015-16 Girls Basketball State Tournament".
  18. ↑ "Page Not Found - Indiana Association of School Principals". iasp.org. Archived from the original on February 7, 2014. Retrieved February 25, 2015. {{cite web}}: Cite uses generic title (help)
  19. ↑ "Page Not Found - Indiana Association of School Principals". iasp.org. Archived from the original on February 24, 2012. Retrieved February 25, 2015. {{cite web}}: Cite uses generic title (help)
  20. ↑ "Indiana Academic Competition Results History". Archived from the original on March 6, 2014. Retrieved March 16, 2013.
  21. ↑ "2012 Indiana Academic Super Bowl State Finals Results". IASP. Archived from the original on March 7, 2013. Retrieved March 16, 2013.
  22. ↑ "Penn High School takes home its first state Mock Trial Trophy". March 4, 2014. Retrieved February 3, 2021.
  23. ↑ ACB57 Staff (October 7, 2011). "Penn High School Spell Bowl team wins again at Logansport Invitational". WBND-LD. Retrieved November 23, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  24. ↑ "Technology Students Association | Penn High School". penn.phmschools.org. Retrieved April 8, 2017.
  25. ↑ "State Conference Results". indiana-tsa. Indiana Technology Student Association. April 8, 2017. Retrieved April 8, 2017.
  26. ↑ Owen, Frank (2013). Clubland the fabulous rise and murderous fall of club culture. New York: St. Martin's Press. pp. 126–128. ISBN 9781429979177.
  27. ↑ "Markus Burton, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Point Guard". 247Sports.
  28. ↑ NEWS, GREG KEIMTHE GOSHEN (August 19, 2012). "NOTRE DAME FOOTBALL: Man in the middle". Goshen News. Retrieved May 13, 2021.
  29. ↑ "Noma Gurich". Oklahoma Civil Justice Council. Retrieved June 9, 2019.
  30. ↑ "Penn High School grad Sarah Hildebrandt wins Olympic gold medal". WNDU. August 7, 2024. Retrieved August 8, 2024.
  31. ↑ Noie, Tom (July 16, 2016). "Penn's Kavadas takes big bat to Notre Dame". South Bend Tribune. Retrieved September 12, 2024.
  32. ↑ James, Tyler (October 22, 2017). "Local safety Paul Moala commits to Notre Dame". The Herald-Times. Retrieved June 3, 2024.
  33. ↑ "Rosenthal to headline latest class of Indiana Football Hall of Fame". WNDU. Retrieved May 27, 2013.