Penn-Harris-Madison announces return of hybrid learning for secondary students

The Penn-Harris-Madison school district announced Thursday that secondary students will return to hybrid learning on January 19.

Secondary students have been in virtual learning only since November based on a recommendation from the St. Joseph County Health Department because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Superintendent Dr. Jerry Thacker says they are confident middle and high school students can return to the hybrid learning due to the following:

The most common contributors to community spread are social gatherings in which COVID safety protocols are not observed.

In recent local news reports, SJCDH states local hospitals are in a better position now than they were before Thanksgiving and that the post Thanksgiving surge was relatively modest. SJCDH is relatively hopeful that the post Christmas/New Year’s holiday surge will also be modest.

P-H-M tracks the number of student and staff COVID cases and actively conducts contact tracing on all cases reported to us. We proactively ask students and staff identified as close contacts to quarantine. The cases reported to us are reflected o P-H-M’s COVID Dashboard; a link to the Dashboard is on the homepage of P-H-M’s district website. The Dashboard is updated daily except for weekends, holidays, and district breaks.

Most secondary parents support their students returning to the Hybrid model for their students’ academic and social emotional well being.

All P-H-M parents, at all grade levels, have the option to keep their students 100% virtual.

Secondary principals will be asking parents to return a survey declaring whether their student will remain virtual or return on hybrid. Please be on the lookout for the email from your building principal.

For more information on COVID-19 & P-H-M’s safety mitigation protocols, please visit this page on the district's website.