The following is a message from Harmony Public Schools CEO Fatih Ay for HPS students, families and team members.
Hello … and happy summer vacation!
We hope you are having a fun and relaxing break. Here at Harmony, we’re already hard at work preparing for another exciting and engaging school year for our students and team members. With the first day of classes just a few weeks away, we wanted to take this opportunity to provide our students, team members, and their families a little more information on what to expect in the coming school year.
Here are a few highlights, but expect more details along with our annual Back to School Playbook in the days ahead:
CAMPUS-BASED LEARNING FOR ALL: Last year, many of our families elected to learn remotely rather than sending their student to campus. Accordingly, Harmony came into the summer preparing to expand and further improve its virtual learning options for families in 2021-22. Unfortunately, state leaders in the Texas Legislature have declined to continue funding for full-time virtual learning in 2021-22 for all Texas public schools, eliminating the option for virtual learning for millions of public school students at thousands of campuses like ours across the state. We are closely monitoring all potential developments and will provide family updates as new developments may occur. In the meantime, we are eagerly looking forward to greeting all of our scholars back in person when the 2021-22 school year begins.
BACK-TO-SCHOOL TRANSITION HELP: Many of our students will be returning to campus for the first time in a long time this fall. For some of our youngest students, it will be their first time coming to campus ever. So we’ve developed a comprehensive transition plan that focuses on helping students regain possible academic losses from the past two years, Social Emotional Learning (SEL) support, increasing access to campus behavioral counselors, and a behavior intervention system that rewards good choices.
RETURN OF EXTRACURRICULARS & SPORTS: With proper safety precautions, Harmony students will be able to participate in a full range of in-person extracurricular activities this fall, including sports and other interschool competitions. We’ll also continue to offer many of the clubs and activities that students enjoyed last school year. Keep an eye on the Clubs page of your campus website for more information on activities offered at your Harmony campus.
MODIFIED CAMPUS SANITATION PROTOCOLS: Health experts have learned a lot about how COVID-19 spreads since the start of the pandemic. So with all of our learners returning to campus this fall, we have modified some of our safety procedures and eliminated others to comply with the most up-to-date guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Texas Education Agency. Chief among those changes is a reduced social distance requirement in some indoor settings, a change in mask recommendations for outdoor activities, and the opportunity for visitors and volunteers to come to campus again under certain circumstances (at principal’s discretion). Look for more complete details on these and other COVID-related guidelines in the coming days in our “Back to School Playbook.”
MASKS OPTIONAL: According to an order from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, public schools are no longer allowed to require their students or team members to wear masks. Instead, masks are optional for both students and team members. Currently, the CDC strongly recommends masks for unvaccinated individuals ages 2 and older. (Ages 12 & Up: Find a free and convenient vaccine clinic near you.) Harmony will continue to offer masks for those who request them.
As you can see, helping our students move forward from the past two years both academically and social-emotionally will be key goals of the 2021-22 school year. We appreciate your ongoing support in this critical effort and will provide you more details soon.
Thank you for being a member of our Harmony Public Schools family.
We can’t wait to see you this fall!