The ladder as it stands: the building wave, the additions, and the closings that did not happen here

1982–2026 · the restructuring record of this ground

Penn-Harris-Madison's history on this ground is a building history, not a closing history: the restructuring item on this section's checklist — the plan, the rebuilt ladder, the closing waves school by school — reads differently in a place that was farmland within living memory than it does in the old cities of this program. The ladder as it stands today is five buildings deep and every rung dates from the growth era or survives from just before it: Mary Frank, renovated whole in 1982 with a gymnasium and eighteen classrooms; Prairie Vista, opened 1989; Horizon, opened 1995; Discovery, opened 1996; Northpoint, opened 1998 and enlarged in 2001; and continuing capital work at the oldest building, with finishes, ceilings, and exterior improvements bid at Mary Frank in the 2020s. The feeder pattern the district prints on its own school pages is the ladder in use: Mary Frank, Horizon, and Northpoint feed Discovery Middle School; Prairie Vista feeds Schmucker Middle School in Penn Township; all of it feeds Penn High School.

The closings, stated exactly: inside the CDP, the PHM era has closed one school — the 1928 Harris School, retired on the 1963 survey's recommendation at a date the record reached does not fix (its entry above carries the gap). No PHM elementary or middle school built since has closed, been converted, or been consolidated away on this ground; there is no closing wave to list, and the absence is printed rather than the fact passed over, because the checklist requires the waves school by school and the honest answer for this ground is that growth, not decline, set the terms. The two closing waves that did touch Granger's children happened across the line and are boundary entries below: Tarkington Traditional School's closure in 2021, which moved the Clay-side elementary assignment to Darden, and Clay High School's closure following the 2023-24 school year, which moved the Clay-side high school assignment to John Adams. The institutional item the checklist carries for the old districts — a consent decree or desegregation settlement — was tested for this corporation and not found: no decree, settlement, or court-supervised desegregation course for Penn-Harris-Madison appears in the record, and the negative is printed at that strength; the South Bend corporation's desegregation history is a full chapter of South Bend's build, not this section's.

Sources:

1. The five PHM school entries above and their sources (the 1982 renovation; the openings of 1989, 1995, 1996, 1998; the 2001 Northpoint addition; the feeder lines as printed on the district's own school pages), cross-referenced.
2. Ball State Teachers College, cooperative study, November 25, 1963 (the Harris School's "Retire from service" verdict), read first-hand.
3. The Story of Granger section leg of this build (the South Bend corporation's Clay Township assignment: Darden Elementary; Tarkington's 2021 closure; Clay High School's closure in 2024 and the Adams assignment after it), cross-referenced.