None.

Dr. Celepcikay informs the public that normally this Election occurs in September but due to postponing the CEO evaluation this item was also postponed to October.  Dr. Celepcikay and Mr. Ay consulted with legal counsel Merri regarding procedures and to remind these elections are every 2 years the way we proceed will be asking for nominations for each position. 

Dr. Celepcikay informs the board they will be starting with the Board President nomination and asks if there are any nominations.  Mr. Stewart nominates Dr. Oner Celepcikay as board president and there are no other nominations for the board chair.  Upon voting 6 board members vote yes and Mr. Keskin abstains.  Dr. Oner Celepcikay is voted to be Board President.

Dr. Celepcikay informs the board they will be voting on the Vice Chair position which consists of 2 positions.  Dr. Celepcikay nominates Mr. Homer Stewart as Vice Chair position and there are no other nominations for Vice Chair position.  Upon voting all board members vote yes.  Mr. Homer Stewart is voted to be Vice Chair.

Dr. Celepcikay informs the board they will be voting on the Second Vice Chair position.  Ms. Ellen MacDonald informs the board the she would like to step down from this position and not be a candidate for this position.  Dr. Koc nominates Ms. Daisy Morales as the Second Vice Chair position and there are no other nominations for Second Vice Chair.  Upon voting all board members vote yes.  Ms. Daisy Morales is voted to be Second Vice Chair.

Dr. Celepcikay informs the board they will be voting for the Secretary position.  Mr. Cengizhan Keskin informs the board that due to his schedule he would like to step down and nominates Dr. Hakduran Koc for the position and there are no other nominations for the Secretary position.  Upon voting all board members vote yes.  Mr. Hakduran Koc is voted to be Secretary.

Dr. Celepcikay informs the board the last position they will be voting for is the Treasurer.  Mr. Cengizhan Keskin nominates Dr. Osman Kanlioglu for the Treasurer position.  Upon voting all board members vote yes.  Dr. Osman Kanlioglu is voted to be Treasurer.

Dr. Celepcikay thanks all board members for their service.


 

Dr. Bayhan presents the 2017-2018 Final Budget Amendments.  Dr. Bayhan states that this year we had an 11-million-dollar surplus and that normally our goal is a two percent surplus but this ended up being a three percent surplus.  We are currently working with a new budget company and our goal is to have all budget amendments completed by June 30th of this year.  In order to do so based on the recommendations of our auditors we will set a cutoff date for campuses to complete their PO's prior to May 1st.  Central Office had a six percent surplus so our contribution was 3 million.  In Austin there was a challenge but they received an extra donation so they are in good shape.  They were unable to reach the 2 percent surplus goal but as a total they had a surplus of 24K.  Our goal for next year is to make sure they have a surplus for their 420 Fund.  San Antonio also was under their 420 surplus goal but regarding all funds they had a surplus of 26K.  The total surplus as an organization was 11.2 million dollars and total surplus from 420 funds was 7.9 million.

Dr. Celepcikay asks when he mentions surplus do you mean the current surplus or with the current situation the expected amount.  Mr. Ay states for instance DFW has an 18 percent surplus and this is for the entire system.  Mr. Ay states that it is not beyond 3 percent surplus.  Dr. Bayhan states regarding DFW their revenue is 100 million and they have a little over 2 million surplus so they have a 2 percent surplus.

Dr. Celepcikay asks if every district has a goal of 2 percent surplus and Dr. Bayhan states that is correct.

Dr. Bayhan states that El Paso had a 1.5 percent surplus but had 150 days cash in hand is one of the healthiest districts in our system.  Houston West had a surplus of 10 percent and was normally around 5 percent but received 1.5 million dollars from TEA due to Harvey.  San Antonio was below their goal but when you look at the final results for the system we had a 3 percent which was above our goal.

Mr. Keskin asks if these are the realized actual numbers for 2017-2018.  Dr. Bayhan states that based on our finance department these are the numbers but we are still discussing with our auditors.  Dr. Bayhan states the only adjustments we come across is from TEA as they give adjustments from Harvey and facility allotment.  Dr. Bayhan states that next year we will not make these adjustments and will finalize everything by June 30th.

Mr. Keskin asks regarding DFW it shows 2.1 million dollars in the 420 funds but when you look at all funds it shows 2.09 surplus.  Does this mean they are negative in the federal funds?  Dr. Bayhan then refers to the next slide and shows fund by fund the difference and shows a decrease in activity fund.

Dr. Kanlioglu asks how often he looks at the numbers such as do we have the FY 2019 year first quarter.  Dr. Bayhan states absolutely as next month we will have an item for the audit report and will be bringing the first quarter financial and investment report.  This normally occurs 4 times a year for budget amendments, etc.

Dr. Koc asks specifically what each district is regarding percentage regarding their budget and Dr. Bayhan informs him of all percentages for each district.

Dr. Bayhan ends the presentation by going over the surplus analysis and fund overview to show where the surplus percentages came from in order to reach the 3.2 percent surplus.

Dr. Kanlioglu asks if we have cluster by cluster percentages to show their revenue.  Dr. Bayhan informs him that the number can be seen in the previous slides to show number by number where the percentages come from.  Dr. Kanlioglu asks if there are any clusters above 10 percent surplus and Dr. Bayhan states that only Houston West is close to 10 percent surplus.  Dr. Kanlioglu asks couldn't those funds be used for educational purposes and Dr. Bayhan states absolutely and that our goal is 2 percent for our S and P ration in order to sell bonds.  Dr. Bayhan states that a surplus does not mean you always have the money in excess to pay the bills.  There are outside factors such as Harvey etc but the important number is 420 funds.  Mr. Ay states that normally the books are closed by June 30th but TEA got us these numbers by August so District did not have the time to spend the surplus.








 

Dr. Bayhan states that the Finance Committee came together on October 12, 2018 at 1:30 PM and all committee members were present.  There were 2 review items and 5 action items.  The committee reviewed the final budget amendments as discussed before.  The committee also reviewed HSI El Paso Split Project and HSI Waco Classroom Conversion Project.  The committee approved to enter into agreement with Cooperative Purchasing program for Region 19- Allied States Cooperative.  The committee approved the following: qualifying vendors for Real Estate Broker services, the construction bid award for Harmony School of Discovery-Houston Expansion Project, and HSI Waco-Gym Buildout Project.  Based on the recommendation from Dr. Kose the committee rejected the construction award for Harmony School of Technology Houston interior gym renovation project.

Dr. Koc asks if the gym project that was rejected was the same project that was brought last year to the board.  Dr. Bayhan states that it was HPS Houston North District Sport Field Project that was rejected and that this is not a new item.  Mr. Ay states the gym was approved in the past but this was a soccer field that was being rejected.

Dr. Ozer informs the board that the Academic Committee Meeting was held on October 12, 2018 at 12:00 PM.  The agenda items discussed were in regards to special education updates.  Mr. Kara the Director of Special Education gave a summary to the board regarding the updates and are based upon the recent legislative updates.  There were updates in the policies and due to OCR regulations there were amendments to the student parent handbook and one for the high school program guide.  The first update was regarding policy number 2.1.12 Promotion and Retention and if a student fails the STAAR the committee must now meet to discuss if the student will be promoted without taking the test or if there is an acceleration plan.  The other policy update was policy 2.3.6 Procedural Safeguards, Consent and Prior Written Notice and with this one the statute of limitations may be tolled if the parent is an active-duty service member of the armed forces.  Another policy 2.3.10 Dyslexia and this policy now requires school districts to do screenings for kindergarten and first grade students at the end of their school year, this is a requirement from state for Dyslexia and related disorders.  Implementation has already begun but now there is an updated policy on paper.  Another policy update is 2.3.13-Foster Parents a foster parent, court appointed advocate, a child’s guardian ad litem, or an individual appointed by the school may be the surrogate parent for a student with a disability. A foster parent must complete a training program within 90 days from when foster parent began acting as the decision maker.  Another policy update 2.3.27-Transfer of Parental Rights at Age of Majority included the following updates: Schools are required to send notices in writing to students regarding the transfer of rights “Not later than one year prior to 18th birthday.” The notice also needs to include how the process will be implemented.  Another policy update was 2.3.27-Transition Services and Graduation if the student is younger than 18 years of age, “inclusion and appropriate involvement of the student’s parents and other persons invited by the parents or school” in the student’s transition. In previous version it only stated that the parents were included, for example.  Finally, the last policy update is regarding 2.3.30-Video Surveillance of Certain Special Education Settings and recent legislation made the policy more reasonable to meet the video surveillance requirements.  Dr. Ozer informs the board that last year we had three requests in Harmony and met all three of those requests.  The next item was the amendment to the 2018-2019 Student/Parent Handbook.  In this usually verbal request were not accepted by SPED parents only written but with this new addition now verbal requests from SPED parents must be taken into consideration.  The other request came from the policy updates that are now in the student handbook.  The last item was the amendments to the high school program guide and included the students qualifying for dual credit and there is more access for SPED students and students with 504 must be given accommodations from institution based upon their policies and procedures.

Dr. Kanlioglu asks when these updates will be effective and Dr. Ozer states they will be effective immediately.  Dr. Kanlioglu then asks how will this be communicated with students and parents.  Dr. Ozer states that with student handbook and policy updates we will send them to the parents and publish them on our website.

Dr. Celepcikay states that yesterday there was a board workshop about accountability and ratings and how you can go and check and the presenter asked if there was anyone from Harmony in the room and I raised my hand.  The presenter then asked if it would be alright to show the accountability ratings and she showed and it showed A's and it was good PR for us.  Dr. Celepcikay thanks all the staff members again for all efforts.


 

Dr. Demerci informs the board that this policy is regarding technology resources or OCR complaint we received last year regarding our website accessibility.  After receiving this complaint, we signed a resolution agreement on April 21, 2018 and one of the provisions was to adopt a policy regarding website accessibility and submit them as an adopted HPS policy within a timeframe.  This policy has been prepared by our attorneys.  This can be summarized in four bullets which is: HPS is committed to full compliance with OCR regarding website accessibility, HPS webmaster will implement a plan to assure all components uploaded to the website will be fully accessible, HPS webmaster will provide training to personnel who have access to upload items to the website, and finally if public has any complaints regarding accessibility of any content they can contact HPS webmaster to correct and we will have 30 days to correct it.

Ms. Morales asks if this is saying there is one central place for the website to be updated and monitored for all.  Dr. Demerci states that we have a webmaster here at Central Office named Mr. Jean-Richard and website managers at each campus and we train them at the beginning of the year for posts.  However, 70% is controlled here at Central Office.  

Dr. Kanlioglu asked if all pages must be in compliance or specific pages.  Dr. Demerci states all pages must be in compliance.

Ms. Morales asks if there is a focus group to figure out what they want out of our website.  Dr. Demirci states that it is not at this time but we constantly get feedback from our principals and our Chief and web managers will come up with recommendations from our parents.  Ms. Morales states that it is important to get the feedback from parents.  Dr. Demerci states that we changed our websites 2 years ago and now it is time to boost the website capabilities by getting feedback from our stakeholders.  Ms. Morales states it would be important to get an outside person to view and give feedback regarding our website and Dr. Demerci states that during our last meeting Mr. Ay also requested this.  Mr. Ay states our goal is to get feedback from our community and if necessary we can redesign and revamp.  

Dr. Koc mentions that there was an emphasis during the TCSA trainings regarding the websites and involving the parents and teachers and Ms. Morales agrees and believes it should be easier for parents to navigate to not have to bother teachers or contact front offices for the website.

Dr. Demerci states that he agrees and would like to make the website more user friendly.  

Dr. Celepcikay requests to possibly go over single sign on next time and Dr. Demerci informs the board that this is managed by IT but is a great tool that is being used.

Mr. Stewart asks what the timeline is regarding some of these items discussed.  Mr. Ay states that single sign on started last year and aim was to finish within 12 months.  Currently we are in month 4 and should be done by end of this year.  

Mr. Stewart asks if the focus group is something we considered and Mr. Ay states the initial plan was to send out a survey and then hire from outside but we can do this.  Mr. Stewart asks if it would be important to action an item to check for the items implemented.  Mr. Ay states we wanted to make sure from our team that what we have is serving our needs which the new website was completed 2 years ago and we can either decide to tweak it or change the entire platform.  Thus we would like to conduct a need assessment at this time and then come up with a committee to make a decision as we would end up spending over 100K to redesign the website and we really need to make sure there is value there.

Dr. Celepcikay mentions how great of a tool single sign on is and Mr. Ay mentions if the board would like we can bring "single sign on" as an agenda item for next board meeting.  

 

Dr. Celepcikay presents the meeting minutes for the Governance Committee meeting held on October 12, 2018.  There were 3 agenda items for the meeting.  The first agenda item was to go over the Governance Committee Items for the 2018-2019 Academic Year which included develop an orientation and on-boarding plan for new board members; create an on-boarding package; coordinate the efforts of succession plan for board officers & discussion of term limits, develop and revise a board member handbook outlining the responsibilities of the Board and Board members; Create a board member package which will include board member handbook, board policies, training requirements, and other relevant information; update our current By-Laws working with legal counsel; plan and coordinate Annual Board Retreat; and plan and coordinate annual trainings for board members.  The other item included Board Member Training Planning.  The recommendation was to use the online trainings as well as Texas Charter School Conference training hours if the board members attended.  Dr. Celepcikay informs the board members to send their training hours to Mr. Lambert and cc him and Mr. Ay on the email as well.    The last item covered was an update on bylaws with the board legal counsel Merri Schneider-Vogel.  Her and I met to identify potential items and the next step will be to share these with Mr. Ay so he can then present them to the executive team at HPS.  After this it will be discussed again with the Governance Committee and if any proposals will discuss with Merri again and then to the board for final approval.

Ms. Morales states in regards to her governance committee for another board she is part of that she asked feedback from all the board members regarding what need to updated and changed and compiled this and asked if this was something Merri would require or not but made it easier for discussions.  Mr. Keskin states that he was going to request the same so that he could have more time to see it ahead of time to review and possibly discuss further.  Dr. Koc agrees and says he can prepare a draft to share with the board members ahead of time for their feedback.  Dr. Celepcikay states that we can have a series of meetings before approval.  

Dr. Celepcikay states that we want to make sure there is transparency and states we can share these By-Laws earlier from Merri to review and can always table the item for another meeting.

Dr. Kanlioglu asks if there is a tool on Board on Track in regards to a working document.  Mr. Ay states we can look into but not sure if there is on Board on Track.  Dr. Kanlioglu asks where does compliance fall into committees regarding trainings, etc.  Merri states that it is based on subject matter regarding what committee the item will handle.  Dr. Celepcikay states that regarding compliance it would fall under governance committee but if there is ever a question we can always take it to Merri.  

 

Ms. MacDonald states that during the conference there were several Harmony Staff Members who did presentations and this is important for us to be visible to other schools and the charter school community.  Ms. MacDonald recommends that the board write a letter of appreciation to each HPS staff member who presented during the TCSA conference regarding their effort and time spent.  

Dr. Celepcikay requests Mr. Ay to create a letter to send on behalf of the board.  

Mr. Stewart mentions that he attended a luncheon regarding the innovation lab and it was exciting regarding the students and their passion during their presentations.  He also commends Harmony staff being present at TCSA and thanks all board members for their service and passion.

Dr. Celepcikay thanks Mr. Stewart as he brought HCC to the innovation lab as he was present as well.