The school board: Penn-Harris-Madison, seat by seat

BOARD AS OF NOVEMBER 11, 2026

Most of Granger is governed, for schools, by a board its Harris Township voters help elect but do not control: the Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation, headquartered at the Educational Services Center, 55900 Bittersweet Road, Mishawaka, is governed by a Board of School Trustees of seven members serving four-year staggered terms. The corporation dates its service from 1963; the exact instrument and date of its formation were not pulled at first-hand strength and stand as the Story of Granger section's named gap, with the state education department's corporation records and the board's own minutes as settlers. The board's seats are apportioned by township of residence — three members elected from Penn Township, two from Harris Township, one from Madison Township, and one at large — while every voter in the three townships votes on every seat, so Harris Township's two seats are filled by the whole district's electorate. The board meets regularly at 6 p.m. at the Educational Services Center. Its superintendent line is settled in the Story of Granger section and is not re-dug here: Dr. Jerry Thacker, 2006–2025, succeeded by Dr. Heather Short, appointed May 27, 2025, by a 7–0 vote, effective July 1, 2025, and confirmed in office in the district's releases through the autumn of 2026. The board as it stands, seat by seat, verified against the corporation's own roster on November 11, 2026: President — Chris Riley, Harris Township, Seat 6; Vice-President — Ryan McCullough, Penn Township, Seat 2; Secretary — Dana Sullivan, At-Large, Seat 7; and members Jen Smoker (Penn Township, Seat 1), Katie Bell (Penn Township, Seat 3), Gary Fox (Harris Township, Seat 4), and Larry Beehler (Madison Township, Seat 5). The seat histories the record carries run as follows. Seat 1 (Penn): Jaye Galloway resigned November 5, 2021; James Turnwald was appointed December 1, 2021, to serve through 2022; Matt Chaffee was elected in November 2022 and resigned effective October 8, 2025; Jen Smoker was appointed at the board's special meeting in November 2025 and elected in her own right in November 2026, her term expiring in 2030. Seat 2 (Penn): Jamie Woods resigned November 5, 2021, on his appointment to the St. Joseph County Superior Court; Ryan McCullough was appointed December 1, 2021, through 2024 and elected that November. Seat 3 (Penn) is held by Katie (Inabnit) Bell, elected from Penn Township in the 2024 cycle. Seat 4 (Harris) is held by Gary Fox, on the board since 2001 — its president from 2015 to January 2018 — and re-elected in November 2024; Fox is one of the two trustees Granger's own township elects to this board. Seat 5 (Madison) is held by Larry Beehler, the board's longest-serving member: the corporation's terms page prints his term as begun in 1996, while the corporation's own release of January 2018 counted him as entering his thirty-second year of service, and the Indiana School Boards Association, naming him its 2026 Outstanding Board Service Award recipient, credits him with forty years — the three figures print whole and unreconciled, with the corporation's minutes as the settling record; the board room itself was renamed the Larry and Judy Beehler School Board Room in 2026. Seat 6 (Harris), the second of Granger's two seats: Larry Romero held it until his resignation on February 8, 2016, on a change of residency; Angie Gates of Granger was appointed March 3, 2016, to serve through December 2018; the seat is now held by Chris Riley, who has sat on the board since 2011 — earlier as its at-large member and secretary — and as its president since January 2018. Seat 7 (At-Large) is held by Dana Sullivan, the board's secretary. Four seats stood for election on November 3, 2026 — Seats 1, 5, 6, and 7 — in the first cycle in which Indiana's new law made school board races partisan in effect; the Penn-Harris-Madison ballot consisted entirely of incumbents (Riley, Sullivan, and Smoker as Republicans; Beehler with no party affiliation listed), and all four were returned, their terms expiring in 2030. The designated place's other school government is stated at frame size, as the Story of Granger section states it: the Clay Township portion of the CDP is South Bend Community School Corporation ground, answering to that corporation's elected board in South Bend — the western quarter of Granger sends its children to a different district than the eastern three-quarters, and the line between them is the township line of 1840.

Sources:

1. Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation, phmschools.org, read November 11, 2026: the Board of School Trustees page (the seven members and officers as photographed and captioned, November 2026; meetings at 6 p.m., Educational Services Center, 55900 Bittersweet Road, Mishawaka; the Governance Compact of June 2000); the Board Members & Terms page (the apportionment — three Penn, two Harris, one Madison, one at large; Riley, Harris Township, Seat 6; Beehler, Seat 5, Madison, term expiring 2030; Smoker, Seat 1, Penn, term expiring 2030); the district leadership contacts (Superintendent Dr. Heather Short).
2. PHM releases: November–December 2021 (the Galloway and Woods resignations of November 5, 2021; the Turnwald and McCullough appointments of December 1, 2021; Indiana Code 20-23-4-30's appointment rule); February–March 2016 (Romero's resignation of February 8, 2016; the Gates appointment of March 3, 2016, through December 31, 2018); January 2017 and January 2018 (Fox, Seat 4–Harris, president since 2015; Riley, Seat 7–At-Large, secretary, succeeding Fox as president in January 2018; Beehler's thirty-second year); October–November 2025 (Chaffee's resignation effective October 8, 2025, and the special-meeting appointment process); October 2026 (the Beehler award and the board-room renaming).
3. Indiana School Boards Association, October 2026 (Beehler's 2026 Indiana Outstanding Board Service Award; forty years of service; Riley's sixteen years alongside him).
4. South Bend Tribune, July 30, 2026 (the 2026 school-board ballot: four Penn-Harris-Madison seats, all incumbents — Harris Township Seat 6, Riley (R); At-Large Seat 7, Sullivan (R); Penn Township Seat 1, Smoker (R); Madison Township Seat 5, Beehler, no party listed; the partisan-law change).
5. Coalition for Common Sense PHM voting information, 2024 (McCullough and Bell resident in Penn Township, Fox in Harris; all district voters voting on all seats). The superintendent succession: PHM releases as carried in the Story of Granger section.