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Substitute teacher pay raises announced at Harmony Public Schools

After giving across-the-board pay raises to full-time teachers and campus staff earlier this school year, Harmony Public Schools will now be giving pay raises to all levels of substitute teachers.
The daily rate increase goes into effect February 14. The increase was approved unanimously by the Harmony Public Schools Board of Directors on January 29. Under the rate increase, substitute teachers will earn an extra $20-30 per day on top of the already-competitive Harmony rate.
For a teacher only working a few days per week, the increase will mean a few hundred dollars each month on top of the compensation they already earn. For certified teachers and long-term substitutes, the rate increase could mean up to $600 per month in increased pay (see chart above for rates for each position).
“Each day, substitute teachers are making a major impact on our schools by keeping our students on-track and learning when their regular teachers are unable to attend school,” Harmony CEO Fatih Ay said. “These professionals are important members of our school community, and we want to show our thanks.”
Harmony currently has substitute teaching opportunities at all of its campuses statewide.
Earlier this school year, Harmony also announced $4,000-$7,500 in additional annual compensation for teachers and other school staff.
The increase was the third occasion in the past two school years in which Harmony announced a major improvement to employee compensation and benefits.
In January 2021, Harmony announced a sweeping upgrade of its employer-paid benefits that provided free vision and dental plans to all full-time employees, introduced matching retirement plan contributions for 403(b) and (457(b) participants, and increased life insurance payouts from $20,000 to $100,000.
In Summer 2019, Harmony also announced statewide base pay increases for employees ranging from $3,500-$5,000, as well as additional stipends for teachers working in hard-to-staff subjects.
Harmony Public Schools is a Texas-born, Texas-wide public charter school system with campuses serving PreK-Grade 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 Public Schools is currently accepting applications for the 2022-2023 school year for both students and team members.
About Harmony Public Schools
Harmony Public Schools are 58 high performing PreK-12 college preparatory charter schools throughout Texas. Harmony blends the highest standards and expectations, with a rigorous math- and science-centered curriculum and dedicated and engaged teachers and families to cultivate excellence and prepare students to succeed in college, careers and life. At Harmony Public Schools, we believe every child can succeed, and we are committed to helping them realize their full potential. To learn more about Harmony Public Schools and our 58 campuses across Texas, please visit: www.harmonytx.org, and follow us on Twitter at @HarmonyEdu and ‘Like’ us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/HarmonyTexas.
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Regular Schedule for Friday, January 21st.

Dear Parent/Guardian,

Harmony Public Schools San Antonio schools will begin as regularly scheduled on Friday, January 21, 2022. We look forward to seeing you all in class tomorrow!

Our South Texas District staff will continue to monitor the weather conditions and will keep you updated if any changes occur.

Thank you,
Harmony Public Schools San Antonio Administration

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Inclement Weather Update

Dear Parents,

Due to the predicted winter storm advisory, Harmony Public Schools South Texas
District, classes will be canceled THURSDAY, JANUARY 20th.

The safety of all our scholars is of utmost importance, therefore, in an effort to minimize
threats due to inclement weather, we have made this determination. Please stay tuned for updates.

Respectfully,
Christian K. Parra
Principal

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Federal Report Card

Dear Parent,

Harmony School of Excellence is sharing this information about the district and your child’s campus with you as part of its obligations under the federal Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015 (ESSA).

Federal Report Cards for the state, the district, and each of the district’s campuses are now available on the district’s website at this link: https://www.harmonytx.org/about or are also available on the Texas Education Agency’s website at: https://tea.texas.gov/Finance_and_Grants/Grants/Federal_Report_Card/.

Information on these report cards includes:

Part (i): General Description of the Texas State Accountability System
On April 6, 2021, the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) waived the accountability, school identification, and related reporting requirements for the 2020-2021 school year. The waiver includes the report card provisions in section 1111(h)(1)(C)(i)(I)-(IV) and (VI) (Accountability system description, other than the list of comprehensive, targeted, and additional targeted support and improvement schools).

Campuses Identified for Support under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) for the 2021-22 school year:

Part (ii): Student Achievement by Proficiency Level
This section provides information on student achievement on the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) performance for mathematics, reading/ELA, and science by grade level and proficiency level for the 2020-21 school year. These results include all students tested, regardless of whether they were in the accountability subset.

Part (iii)(I): Academic Growth
USDE waived reporting requirements in Section 1111(h)(1)(C)(iii)(I) (Other Academic indicator results for schools that are not high schools).

Part (iii)(II): Graduation Rate
This section provides information on high school graduation rates for the class of 2020.

Part (iv): English Language Proficiency
This section provides information on the number and percentage of English learners achieving English language proficiency based on the 2021 Texas English Language Proficiency Assessment System (TELPAS) data.

Part (v): School Quality or Student Success (SQSS)
This section provides information on school quality or student success, which is college, career and military readiness (CCMR) for high schools and average performance rate of the three STAAR performance levels of all students, regardless of whether they were in the accountability subset, for elementary and secondary schools without a graduation rate.

Part (vi): Goal Meeting Status
USDE waived reporting requirements in Section 1111(h)(1)(C)(vi) (Progress toward meeting long-terms goals and measurements of interim progress).

Part (vii): STAAR Participation
This section provides the percentage of students assessed and not assessed on STAAR for mathematics, reading/ELA, and science.

Part (viii): Civil Rights Data
Part (viii)(I): The section provides information from the 2017-18 Civil Right Data Collection (CRDC) surveys, submitted by school districts to the Office for Civil Rights, on measures of school quality, climate, and safety, including counts of in-school suspensions, out-of-school suspensions, expulsions, school related arrests, referrals to law enforcement, chronic absenteeism (including both excused and unexcused absences), incidences of violence, including bullying and harassment.

Part (viii)(II): This section provides information from the 2017-18 Civil Right Data Collection (CRDC) surveys, submitted by school districts to the Office for Civil Rights, on the number of students enrolled in preschool programs and accelerated coursework to earn postsecondary credit while still in high school.

Part (ix): Teacher Quality Data
This section provides information on the professional qualifications of teachers, including information disaggregated by high- and low-poverty schools on the number and percentage of (I) inexperienced teacher, principals, and other school leaders; (II) teachers teaching with emergency or provisional credentials; and (III) teachers who are not teaching in the subject or field for which the teacher is certified or licensed.

Part (x): Per-pupil Expenditure
This section provides information on the per-pupil expenditures of federal, state, and local funds, including actual personnel expenditures and actual non-personnel expenditures, disaggregated by source of funds, for each school district and campus for the preceding fiscal year. To be updated by June 30th, 2022.

Part (xi): STAAR Alternate 2 Participation
This section provides information on the number and percentage of students with the most-significant cognitive disabilities who take STAAR Alternate 2, by grade and subject for the 2020-21 school year.

Part (xii): Statewide National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)
This section provides results on the state academic assessments in reading and mathematics in grades 4 and 8 of the 2019 National Assessment of Educational Progress, compared to the national average of such results.

Part (xiii): Cohort Rate of Graduates Enrolled in Postsecondary Education
This section provides information on the cohort rate at which students who graduated from high school in the 2018-19 school year enrolled in the 2019-20 academic year in (I) programs of public postsecondary education in Texas; (II)programs of private postsecondary education in Texas; and (III) programs of postsecondary education outside Texas.

Part (xiv): Additional Information – Chronic Absenteeism
This section provides information on the Chronic Absenteeism per EDFacts definition: percent of unduplicated number of K – 12 students enrolled in a school for at least 10 days and absent for 10% or more days during the 2019-20 school year.

If you have difficulty accessing the information from the website, hard copies of the reports are available at the district or campus office. If you have questions about the information, please contact Mrs. Carol Jarzombek at 210.645.7166.

Sincerely,
Christian K. Parra

Campus Report Card Parent Letter

PFE Policy 2021-2022

PFE Policy Spanish

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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 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 2021 are not eligible to test in Spring 2022. 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, 2022. 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 Coach/teacher.
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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 2 y superiores que fueron evaluados en el otoño de 2020 no son elegibles para la prueba en la primavera de 2021. 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 2022.
Para obtener más información sobre el proceso de selección e identificación, los padres pueden comunicarse con el entrenador / maestro de GT de la escuela.
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