Mary Frank Elementary School: the township era's surviving school

1958–present · 13111 Adams Road

Mary Frank is the oldest standing school inside the CDP, and it began as Harris Township's own: erected in 1958 — the township era's last building on this ground, raised five years before the reorganization folded the township unit into Penn-Harris-Madison — it opened as the upper half of the Granger attendance center beside the 1928 Harris School. The Ball State survey of 1963 describes it at five years old: forty acres, ten classrooms, grades 4–8 with some 300 children housed, the older grades departmentalized without special facilities, and the study's whole judgment in one line — "an adequate elementary school building." Where the 1928 building was sentenced, this one was kept, and the corporation grew it instead of replacing it. The school's own history records the transformation: in 1982 Mary Frank underwent a complete renovation with a new gymnasium and eighteen additional classrooms added — the rebuild that converted a ten-room township school into the modern elementary plant that stands on Adams Road today. Finishes and ceiling replacements followed in the summer of 2023, bid by the PHM board with work running June 2 to August 16 of that year, and an exterior-improvements project (selective demolition, exterior work, and a new enclosed stair) stands in the construction record beside it. Federal records carry the school's official name in its fullest form — Mary Frank Harris Elementary School, the township's name riding inside the school's — where the district's own usage is Mary Frank Elementary School.

Named gap — the name: who Mary Frank was, the record does not say. The school's own published history celebrates the building and prints no naming account; no obituary, board minute, or press item naming the person was reached. The gap stands with its settlers: the PHM board minutes and Harris Township trustee records of 1957–58, and the South Bend Tribune's coverage of the school's 1958 opening. As the school stands in November 2026: kindergarten through grade 5, 471 students (NCES, carried in the 2026-27 directories), the Mustangs in green and white under the motto "Learning for Life!"; Christie Heerschop is principal, on the district's own directory; the district's PennPALS and Early Learning Academy preschool programs are housed at the school; and its children go on to Discovery Middle School and Penn High School.

Sources:

1. Ball State Teachers College, cooperative study, November 25, 1963 (Mary Frank School, erected 1958; forty acres; ten classrooms; grades 4–8; some 300 housed; "an adequate elementary school building"), read first-hand.
2. Mary Frank Elementary School, "Our School," maryfrank.phmschools.org (opened 1958; the complete renovation of 1982 with new gymnasium and eighteen additional classrooms; grades K-5; the Mustangs; the feeder line to Discovery and Penn; PennPALS and Early Learning Academy on site), read November 2026.
3. Penn-Harris-Madison School Corporation, school directory, phmschools.org (13111 Adams Road, Granger; Christie Heerschop, principal), read November 2026.
4. NCES Common Core of Data via PublicSchoolReview, 2026-27 profile ("Mary Frank Harris Elementary School"; 471 students, grades PreK-5; 22 teachers).
5. Construction Journal / ConstructConnect bid records (finishes and ceiling replacements at Mary Frank, work June 2–August 16, 2023; Mary Frank exterior improvements, Board of School Trustees, Penn-Harris-Madison).