Harmony Public Schools
Minutes
July 13, 2023 HPS SPECIAL BOARD MEETING
Date and Time
Thursday July 13, 2023 at 5:00 PM
Location
9321 W. Sam Houston Pkwy S,
Houston, TX 77099
3rd Floor El Paso Meeting Room
Directors Present
H. Koc (remote), H. Sherwood (remote), M. Argin (remote), O. Celepcikay
Directors Absent
K. House, L. Gonzalez, O. Kanlioglu
Guests Present
Bilgehan Yasar, C. Lambert, F. Ay, J. Hoffer (remote), U. Alpaslan
I. Opening Items
A.
Call the Meeting to Order
II. Public Comments
A.
Public Comments
III. Approval of Resolution to Submit a Waiver
A.
Approval of Resolution to Submit a Waiver Application and TXVSN Notice of Intent Form to the Texas Education Agency to continue to Offer Full-Time Remote Instruction through the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 School Years.
Dr. Bilgehan Yasar, Executive Director of Virtual Education for Harmony Public Schools presents Approval of Resolution to Submit a Waiver Application and TXVSN Notice of Intent Form to the Texas Education Agency to continue to Offer Full-Time Remote Instruction through the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 School Years. Dr. Yasar reviews the presentation with the board that was shared prior to the board meeting. He informs the board that SB 15 TEC for local remote learning will expire on September 1, 2023 and a waiver process was announced for 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 that was announced by Governor Abbott to continue to offer virtual learning for 2 more years. The waiver will allow LEA's to receive full completion-based funding, waives additional professional development, previously only allowed 3rd grade and above but with this waiver can offer K-12, reviews the course process and students no longer need to have attended a Texas public school during the prior school year. In order to obtain this waiver we will need board approval and complete the TXVSN Notice of Intent form prior to waiver submission.
Dr. Celepcikay asks the total number of students we have for virtual education and the number of applications and Dr. Yasar states we currently have 220 students and we received around 1500 applications with 1000 of these applications being in our geographic boundaries. Dr. Yasar states we will be adding an additional 120 students and will have around 350 students.
Dr. Argin asks if we only accept students in the Houston South District or all of Texas and Dr. Yasar states we only accept students in the Houston South District geographic boundaries. Thus, with the cap of ten percent we can only accept around 350 students. This waiver will be good for two years.
Mrs. Sherwood asks if this additional 2 years is only for returning virtual campuses and not new campuses and Dr. Yasar states this is correct as they are not allowing new campuses at this time.
IV. Closing Items
A.
Adjourn Meeting
Dr. Celepcikay announces that the board members will be going into closed session as permitted by Texas Open Meetings Act Chapters 551.071 to consult with our attorney.
Closed Session begins 5:15PM.
Dr. Celepcikay starts regular session at 5:35PM. Dr. Celepcikay states in closed session the board had discussion with our attorney and no action was taken.
None.