announcement

We are moving into the time of the year when we make plans and apply for Federal Funds applications (ESSA) for next school year, and we would like to gather parent and community feedback for our applications. Please use one of the public comment links below to share your comments or feedback with us:

Estamos entrando en la época del año en que hacemos planes y solicitamos solicitudes de fondos federales (ESSA) para el próximo año escolar, y nos gustaría recopilar comentarios de los padres y la comunidad para nuestras solicitudes. Utilice uno de los enlaces de comentarios públicos a continuación para compartir sus comentarios o comentarios con nosotros:

Enrollment Lottery

You’re invited to watch Harmony Public Schools Houston South and West Districts Enrollment Lottery. It will be held Wednesday, February 22, 2023, at 1:00 P.M. On this day please use the following link and code:

Virtual Lottery Web Link: https://harmonytx.zoom.us/j/96040882772
Virtual Lottery Access Code: HS6332

 

Harmony Science and Engineering Fair Logo

Dear Students,

We hope you will consider joining us with your projects for our 9th annual Harmony Science and Engineering Fair (H-SEF).

H-SEF 2023 will be virtual in two rounds this year. Details can be found here.

It is open to the 6th -12th grade level students.

The application deadline is March 3rd, 2023.
Registration link: https://harmonytx.org/hsef

H-SEF 2023 Committee

 

Please join our District Safety Meeting for Harmony Public Schools Houston South and West Districts on Tuesday, March 7, 2023, from 1:00 P.M. to 2:00 P.M.

The Zoom link and agenda will be coming soon.

 

Please join us on March 10, 2023, from 1:00 P.M. to 3:00 P.M. for the Harmony Public Schools Houston South and West District Comprehensive Needs Assessment Meeting.

 

Harmony Public Schools is the first public charter school to win the prestigious Award of Excellence in Financial Management by the Texas Association of School Business Officials (TASBO), the organization has announced.
The award is given to Texas school districts, open-enrollment charter schools, and education services centers that demonstrate professional standards, best practices, and innovations in the area of financial management and reporting.
The criteria to qualify for the Award of Excellence in Financial Management is stringent, based on financial accounting and reporting guidelines identified by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) Financial Accountability System Resource Guide (FASRG). Applicants must submit documents across 11 key areas, which are reviewed by a TASBO accounting subcommittee.
“Making sure that each of our financial decisions is efficient, effective, and, most importantly, ethical is among our greatest operational priorities,” Harmony CEO Fatih Ay said. “In doing so, we are able to maximize our resources and provide our students with the most robust educational experience that can be offered.
“We are extraordinarily pleased to be honored with this award,” Ay said, “and are grateful to our finance team for putting our schools in a prime position to succeed.”
Harmony also was awarded its second Award of Merit for Purchasing Operations by TASBO. The Award of Merit was established in 2009 to recognize Texas school districts, open-enrollment charter schools, and education services centers that are committed to following professional standards in the acquisition of goods and services. Harmony remains the only charter school system to earn the award.
“These organizations have gone above and beyond to demonstrate transparency by meticulously documenting their districts’ policies and procedures,” said Tracy Ginsburg, TASBO Executive Director. “Not only have they showcased the ways they monitor spending, improve budgeting, implement controls, and enhance financial reporting, but they have shared their best practices with colleagues throughout Texas, helping even more educational organizations to better utilize taxpayer dollars.”
Members of the district’s finance team will be honored at an awards reception sponsored by Frontline Education in San Antonio, Texas, on February 15 during the 2023 TASBO annual conference.
Led by Chief Financial Officer Ebru Akyildiz, Harmony’s finance department includes 30 team members specializing in six separate subdepartments: purchasing, payroll, grants, budgets, accounting and capital management.
The department has implemented a number of industry-leading best practices, including working with the Texas Education Agency, TASBO and independent, external auditors to ensure transparency and accountability in all financial operations.
For the department’s efforts, Harmony also was awarded seven “A” ratings by the TEA in its annual FIRST Financial Accountability Ratings during the most recent award cycle in 2022.
Harmony also was the first double-rated charter school system in the U.S. to be highly rated (“BBB”) by Moody’s and S&P Global with (“AAA”) long-term program rating that reflects Harmony’s qualification for the Texas Permanent School Fund (PSF) Bond Guarantee Program.
“We are one of the largest Texas charter management organizations, but we don’t want to just speak about our size – we want to be able to speak about our quality and the accuracy in our processes,” Akyildiz said.
Harmony Public Schools is a Texas-born, Texas-wide public charter school system with campuses serving PreK-12 students in 23 cities across the state, including Greater Houston, DFW, San Antonio, Austin, El Paso, Waco, Lubbock, Odessa, Bryan, Beaumont, and the Rio Grande Valley. Harmony’s curriculum places a heavy focus on STEM skills, Character Education, project-based learning, and college readiness.
Harmony is now accepting applications for both students and team members for the 2023-24 school year.

In accordance with the Texas State Plan for the Education of Gifted/Talented students, Harmony Public Schools will begin taking referrals for all interested students in grades K-12 for Gifted and Talented (G/T) screening.
Anyone interested in the educational welfare of these students may nominate them for assessment. Students in grades 1 & up who were tested in Fall 2022 are not eligible to test in Spring 2023. Referral forms are available at the front office and on the school’s website (see below).
The referral forms must be returned or emailed to the front office by January 31, 2023. The Spring GT testing window is set by the campus in February or March. Campuses may elect to use NWEA MAP scores as a prescreening criterion for GT Testing.
For more information about the screening and identification process, parents may contact the school’s GT Coordinator/Teacher.

Parent GT Referral Form in English

ANUNCIO DE EDUCACIÓN PARA DOTADOS Y TALENTOSOS (GATE) 
De acuerdo con el Plan Estatal de Texas para la Educación de Estudiantes Dotados / Talentosos, Harmony Public Schools comenzará a tomar referencias para todos los estudiantes interesados en los grados K-12 para la evaluación de estudiantes dotados y talentosos.
Cualquier persona interesada en el bienestar educativo de estos estudiantes puede nominarlos para dicha evaluación. Los estudiantes en los grados 1 y superiores que fueron evaluados en el otoño de 2022 no son elegibles para la prueba en la primavera de 2023. Los formularios de referencia están disponibles en la oficina y en el sitio web de la escuela.
Los formularios de referencia deben devolverse a la oficina de la escuela antes del lunes 31 de enero del 2023. Los campus pueden optar por utilizar las puntuaciones de NWEA MAP como criterios de preselección para las pruebas de GT.
Para obtener más información sobre el proceso de selección e identificación, los padres pueden comunicarse con el entrenador / maestro de GT de la escuela.

Parent GT Referral Form in Spanish

Please join us for our District Safety Meeting on Thursday, December 1, 2022, at 10:00 A.M. Link: http://ow.ly/Eea450LR6EH

 

ATTENTION: All Houston S/W schools, including Sugar Land, Katy & Beaumont will be closed Friday, May 10, due to severe weather. Stay safe and monitor local media for the latest weather conditions in your area.

 

Harmony Public Schools campuses located in the Houston city limits will be closed Tuesday, November 29, 2022, due to a citywide boil water notice issued for the City of Houston. Please follow your local news and/or local government information sources for further safety information. 

 

Las Escuelas Públicas de Harmony ubicadas en los límites de la ciudad de Houston estarán cerradas el martes 29 de noviembre de 2022 debido a un aviso de hervir el agua en toda la ciudad emitido para la ciudad de Houston. Siga las fuentes de información de las noticias y/o del gobierno local para obtener más información sobre seguridad.

 

Dear Parents/Guardians,

Please join us for our upcoming District Annual Title I meeting.

During this meeting, we will review, evaluate, and develop a written Parent and Family Engagement Policy (PFE) for 2022-2023. 

Houston South District District Annual Title I Meeting  

Wednesday, November 16 for Houston South (11:30 pm-12:30 pm)

For more details, please see the invitation attached. If you plan to attend, please RSVP using the link.

Thank you

Queridos padres:
Están cordialmente invitados a asistir a la reunión de participación de padres y familias del Título I del distrito Houston South.
Cuándo: miércoles 16 de noviembre de 2022
Hora: 11:30 AM- 12:30 PM
La junta será virtual.
Por favor confirmen su asistencia por medio del link para que se les envíe invitación a Zoom.

La reunión será virtual.
Confirme su asistencia a través del enlace para recibir una invitación a Zoom
Meta / Propósito: Revisar, evaluar y actualizar / desarrollar la Política de Participación de los Padres y la Familia (PFE) escrita

Temas de la agenda:
I. Presentación del programa Título I
II. Revisar y evaluar la política de PFE del año pasado.
III. Juntos desarrollaremos la política y el acuerdo de PFE para este año.
IV. El plan de estudios y el rendimiento académico de la escuela V. Comentarios, preguntas y respuestas

 

We're Hiring

We're Hiring

Harmony Public Schools is recruiting talented, compassionate bilingual teachers dedicated to helping every student succeed. Harmony offers a competitive salary, excellent benefits and a commitment to excellence in the classroom.

Interested applicants may apply online.

October is in the United States. Let’s deepen our understanding of this language-based challenge and try to raise awareness in our community.

 Eight-year-old Evan is one of the brightest children in his third-grade class. He has a wonderful vocabulary and knows everything there is to know about baseball—he can even tell you who played in each of the last ten World Series games and who won. But when it comes to reading about baseball—or anything else—Evan has a lot of trouble. It takes him a long time to read each word, and even longer to read whole sentences. He often has to guess at how you say a word—and sometimes his guess is wrong. Reading out loud is especially stressful and embarrassing. His teacher recently told Evan’s parents that she thinks he might have dyslexia.

 Most people assume that part of being smart is being able to read well. About 100 years ago, though, doctors figured out that some people, even some very smart people who do really well at many other things, have trouble learning to read. This difficulty with reading is called dyslexia.

 Excerpt from: http://dyslexia.yale.edu/resources/dyslexic-kids-adults/on-being-dyslexic/

Useful Links:

What is Dyslexia? – Kelli Sandman-Hurley

https://improvingliteracy.org/brief/defining-dyslexia

https://www.understood.org/en/learning-attention-issues/child-learning-disabilities/dyslexia/videos-about-dyslexia

https://dyslexiaida.org/

https://dyslexiaida.org/fact-sheets/

http://www.dyslexia.yale.edu/resources/parents/

https://tea.texas.gov/sites/default/files/texas-dyslexia-handbook-2021.pdf

Recommended Movie:

Taare Zameen Par- Every Child is Special https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Z14uE7U0HY

Ishaan, a student who has dyslexia, cannot seem to get anything right at his boarding school. Soon, a new unconventional art teacher, Ram Shankar Nikumbh, helps him discover his hidden potential.

Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) Announcement!

In accordance with the Texas State Plan for the Education of Gifted/Talented students, Harmony Public Schools will begin taking referrals for kindergarten and newly enrolled students in grades 1-12 for gifted and talented screening. 

Anyone interested in the educational welfare of these students may refer them for assessment. Referral forms are available at the front office and on the school’s website.

 

Parent GT Referral Form in English

Parent GT Referral Form in Spanish

 

The deadline for GATE referral is September 30, 2022, and G/T assessment period will take place in October. For more information about the screening and identification process, parents may contact the school’s G/T coordinator or G/T coach/teacher.

GATE (Educación para estudiantes dotados/talentosos) Anuncio

De acuerdo con el Plan Estatal de Texas para la Educación de Estudiantes Dotados / Talentosos, las Escuelas Públicas de Harmony comenzarán a recibir referencias para kindergarten y estudiantes recién inscritos en los grados 1-12 para la evaluación de estudiantes dotados y talentosos.

Cualquier persona interesada en el bienestar educativo de estos estudiantes puede nominarlos para dicha evaluación. Los formularios de referencia están disponibles en la oficina y en el sitio web de la escuela.

 

Forma de nominación

 

La fecha límite de referencia de GATE es el 30 de septiembre de 2022 y el período de evaluación de G / T se llevará a cabo en octubre.

Para obtener más información sobre el proceso de selección e identificación, los padres pueden comunicarse con el entrenador / maestro de GT de la escuela.