None.

Mr. George Perez, Budget Director for Harmony Public Schools presents the Initial Budget for Fiscal Year 2024.  Mr. Perez reviews the presentation with the board and states the budgeted general fund revenue is approximately 436.5 million and expenditures total is approximately 427.9 million with a budgeted change in net assets of 8.6 million.  Mr. Perez reviews the presentation which is a summary of the proposed FY' 2024 420 and 240 fund budgets as of June 17, 2023, including a breakdown of each district.

Dr. Celepcikay asks if there are any federal program funding ending this upcoming fiscal year such as ESSER funds and Mr. Perez states that ESSER will continue for one more fiscal year and is scheduled to end September of the following year.  Mr. Perez states aside from ESSER most of our grants are entitlement grants and we do not expect any changes from those.  

Ms. House asks the reason grants were not in the presentation and Mr. Perez states that we will not receive these until August and then you will see them in the quarterly budget amendments that are addressed to the board.

Mr. George Perez, Budget Director for Harmony Public Schools presents Approval of FY’23 Final Budget Amendments.  Mr. Perez informs the board that this was also presented during the June 2, 2023 Finance Committee meeting and FY’23 final total budgeted revenue for all funds is approx. $554 million. Final total budgeted expenditures is approx. $540 million which gives a budgeted change in net asset of $13.8 million.   Mr. Perez reviewed the presentation with the board including all funds and 420 funds for the system as well as each district as well as the budget for Harmony Education Solutions and Gradulet.

Ms. Baca, Chief Compliance Officer for Harmony Public Schools presents Approval of Resolutions to submit non-expansion amendments to TEA to postpone: i. the opening date for the additional site of Harmony School of Excellence- Houston and the new campus Harmony Science Academy - City Place for Harmony Public Schools - Houston North Charter (CDN: 101-858). ii. the opening date for the additional site of Harmony School of Innovation- El Paso for Harmony Public Schools - West Texas Charter (CDN: 071-806).  She informs the board that due to city permitting issues, we need to submit a non-expansion amendment to TEA to postpone the opening date for the additional site under Harmony School of Excellence-Houston to the 2024-25 school year.  This site was previously approved to open in 2023-24.   For Harmony Science Academy - City Place, this new campus was previously approved to open in the 2024-25 school year and we need to postpone it to 2025-26.  For the additional site under Harmony School of Innovation - El Paso, it was previously approved to open in 2024-25 but we need to postpone it to the 2025-26 school year.

Ms. Baca, Chief Compliance Officer for Harmony Public Schools presents Approval of Resolution to authorize the Superintendent to submit low attendance waivers to the TEA for all HPS Charters due to inclement weather, or other health and safety concerns.  Ms. Baca informs the board that some HPS campuses experience low attendance due to weather, health or safety related issues so we would like to submit low attendance waivers for those schools to excuse any instructional days from ADA and FSP funding calculations.  These schools have attendance at least 10 percentage points below the last school year's overall average attendance.

Ms. Baca explains the difference between low attendance waivers and missed day waivers to the board for clarification.  Dr. Argin asks what the minimum of instructional days are and if it goes by days and Ms. Baca states we up to 2100 minutes each district that can be excused.  Ms. Baca states when submitting we will have to submit supporting evidence as well for the low attendance.

Ms. Baca, Chief Compliance Officer for Harmony Public Schools presents Approval of Resolution for Certification as required under Texas Education Code Section 12.1058.  Ms. Baca states House Bill 1707, also known as the Municipal Fairness Bill (recent amendment of Section 12.1058 of the Education Code) requires an open-enrollment charter school to certify in writing that no administrator, officer, or employee of the charter school and no member of the governing body of the charter school or its charter holder derives any personal financial benefit from a real estate transaction with the charter school.  

Dr. Argin asks how many employees HPS has and Ms. Baca states around 4000.  Dr. Argin asks if any of our employees are benefiting and how we can assure this for each employee.  Attorney Mr. Hoffer informs the board that each employee has an obligation to disclose any financial interests in a real estate transaction under our existing policy.  He informs the board that it is the individual employee's and/or officers obligation to inform us and if they do not we can assume there isn't one.  If we find out after the fact that they were lying about this then we can take action based upon this.  

Dr. Celepcikay informs the board that this item was presented in the Governance Committee Meeting on June 10, 2023 and this item has been worked on by administration and our legal counsel Mr. Hoffer.  

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

Closed Session begins 9:31AM.

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

Mr. Emre Altun, Chief Human Resource Officer presents Approval of 2023-2024 HPS Compensation Manual.  He informs the board that they have a copy of the redline version of the compensation manual as well as updated version provided prior to the board meeting for review.  Mr. Altun reviews the summary of changes with the board members for the upcoming 2023-2024 school year.  

Dr. Celepcikay asks about the new structure for moving stipends and Mr. Altun states they have added new hires from out of state can receive the moving stipend now as it used to be only current employees moving to another campus within state.

Dr. Argin asks about liability regarding compensation for new hire orientation on non-scheduled workdays and Mr. Hoffer states there is no liability just the aspect of assuring paying hose employees for the days worked.  

Mrs. Sherwood asks regarding the home visit stipends being revised if employees are paid more for in person home visits than online home visits and Mr. Altun states yes this is the case because the employee uses their own vehicle and typically spends more time with these visits as well.

Dr. Celepickay asks about the overall dollar amount for the changes to the compensation manual and Mr. Altun states most are minor updates budget wise and we are estimating around 1.1 million and most coming from added positions per campus.

Dr. Celepcikay announces that the board members will be going into closed session as permitted by Texas Open Meetings Act Chapters 551.072.

Closed Session begins 10:20AM.

Dr. Celepcikay starts regular session at  12:13PM.  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 551.074 and 551.082.

Closed Session begins 10:20AM.

Dr. Celepcikay starts regular session at  12:13PM.  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 551.074.

Closed Session begins 10:20AM.

Dr. Celepcikay starts regular session at  12:13PM.  Dr. Celepcikay states in closed session the item was discussed and no action was taken.

Dr. Celepcikay states that the all board members used the online tools to provide feedback and grades for the CEO evaluation.  We are very happy to have Mr. Ay as the CEO/Superintendent for Harmony Public Schools and are appreciative of his efforts and success generated with his team members.