None.

Dr. Celepcikay informs the board that the Governance Committee members are bringing a candidate to the nominate for the Harmony Public Schools Board of Directors.  The committee members met with candidate Kimberly House who has worked for the city of Houston in different capacities for the last thirty years and currently works for public safety and homeland security.  As a committee we believe Ms. House would be a strong member to add to our board.

Mr. Berkan Kaya, HPS Director of Partnership and Career Success, presents 2022 Fall College Enrollment data for the class of 2022 compared to the prior three years.  Mr. Kaya compares enrollment data for the classes of 2022, 2021, and 2020 as well as HPS subgroups for all three years in each district.  Harmony has shown growth in all years and has a goal to reach 80% degree completion by 2025.  Mr. Kaya informs the board that we are working closely with our higher education departments and are building relationships and support systems with these institutes to support our alumni which will in term increase our college enrollment, college retention and hopefully our college completion.  This past Thursday we signed a memorandum of understanding with UTRGV-The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley in Brownsville and our plan is to sign more in the future to support our alumni with three on the way UNT, UT-Arlington, and UH-Downtown with hopefully University of Houston on the way.  With these universities being added this will make twelve partnerships by the end of this year.

Ms. Mavluda Oripova reviews the class of 2023 college acceptances with the board.  In regards to the class of 2023 we had 1,896 students who applied to over 13,000 colleges with an average of 7 colleges per student.  Ms. Oripova reviews the number of Harmony students accepted into major universities as well as the average GPA and SAT scores that were achieved for acceptance into those universities.  Harmony had 126 students who were accepted into the top 15 Universities nationwide.  We had three students accepted into Harvard, three into Stanford, and three into Yale which has only a five percent acceptance rate.  Harmony also has acceptances into the top 50 liberal arts colleges including Amherst, Wellesley and Carleton.  Ms. Oripova reviews Questbridge with the board which is a pipeline that enables our students to get into some of the top-notch colleges.  This program filters and selects minority and economically disadvantaged students and allows students to compete with other top-ranking students.  If students are accepted and matched, they are given a four year full ride scholarship to that university.  We had 100 applicants to the Questbridge program and had 38 finalists with 13 matches.  Ms. Oripova reviews the matches and universities with the board members.  We are currently working directly with our college counselors to build competitive applications for our students for this program to increase our numbers in the future.  Last year we had 28 finalists for Questbridge with 8 matches and have increased this past year.

Board member Laura Gonzalez mentions she was a Questbridge recipient and attend Rice University and commends the work Harmony is doing to assure students are well informed regarding college enrollment.

Ms. Vanessa Hooper, HPS Director of Child Nutrition presents Approval of Food Service Management Contract.  She informs the board that she is here to receive approval for CEO Mr. Ay to sign a food service management contract with selected vendors to serve breakfast and lunch to our students for the next school year.  Ms. Hooper reviews the Request for Proposal (RFP) process with the board and committee proposal selections for each district for Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) and HPS Board Approval.   

Ms. Minh Baca, HPS Chief Compliance Officer presents Review and approve the request for waiver of 19 TAC §100.1033(b)(9)(A)(ii), and board resolution to file a charter amendment to apply for a new campus opening under the Harmony Public Schools - West Texas Charter (CDN: 071-806).  She informs the board the application window to submit expansion amendments to TEA has passed so we need to submit this waiver to TEA to waive this timeline requirement. Using this waiver, we will submit an expansion amendment request to TEA to open an additional campus under Harmony Public Schools - West Texas district in the Midland, Texas area for the 2024-25 school year. 

Mr. Ay informs the board that this resolution and campus opening was not part of the 2025 business plan but due to request from business community and philanthropic community in the Midland area and the demands we are seeing and increase in students/parents wanting quality education, we are intending to open a campus in the Midland area.  Mr. Ay informs the board that he will provide additional data and information in the future.

Dr. Celepcikay announces that the board members will be going into closed session as permitted by Texas Open Meetings Act Chapters 551.071, 551.074, 551.082.

Closed Session begins 9:38AM.

Dr. Celepcikay starts regular session at 9:55AM.  Dr. Celepcikay states in closed session the item was discussed and no action was taken.

Dr. Celepcikay announces that the board members will be going into closed session as permitted by Texas Open Meetings Act Chapters 551.071, 551.074, 551.082.

Closed Session begins 9:38AM.

Dr. Celepcikay starts regular session at 9:55AM.  Dr. Celepcikay states in closed session the item was discussed and no action was taken.

Mr. Ay mentions there will be a picnic for HPS Central Office staff and that board members are welcome to attend.