HSI-Houston
08/17/2022
WELCOME BACK HSI-Houston!!!
Here at HSI we are all about Tiger P.R.I.D.E We do things with PURPOSE, we are RESPONSIBLE for our actions, we act with INTEGRITY, we do things with DETERMINATION and we show EMPATHY
WELCOME BACK LETTER
Dear Parents/Guardians,
We are excited to welcome you to the start of the 2022-2023 school year! We have a lot to
look forward to this year!
We have prepared this letter to inform you of Harmony’s policies and procedures as they
relate to your students’ attendance and academic success. Below are a few things to help you get ready:
● First Day: We will begin our first day at 7:45 am on Tuesday, August 16. All students
should report to campus on time each day to ensure they do not miss any learning time.
● Contact Info: Do we have the correct phone number, email, and mailing address for
you? Update your contact info at (https://skyward.iscorp.com/HarmonyTXStuSTS)
● Attendance: When your student is absent from school, parents are asked to inform
the school. This contact can be made through Skyward using the Guardian Entrance
Absence Request. This request allows the parent to submit an absence request directly
to the campus Attendance Specialist through the parent’s Skyward Family Access. Once
the request has been submitted, the Attendance Specialist will approve or deny the
request. This action must be taken by the parent for each absence.
● We’re here to help: If we can help with things like devices, meals, health, and mental
health, or anything else, check our website at (https://hsihouston.harmonytx.org/) or call
(713) 541-3030.
Welcome back!
Sincerely,
Mr. Oguzkaan Torun
Harmony School of Innovation-Houston
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Estimado padres de familia y/o tutor:
¡Estamos emocionados de darle la bienvenida al comienzo del año escolar 2022-
2023! ¡Tenemos mucho que esperar este año!
Hemos preparado esta carta para informarle sobre las políticas y los procedimientos de
Harmony en relación con la asistencia y el éxito académico de sus estudiantes. A continuación
hay algunas cosas que le ayudarán a prepararse:
● Primer Día: Comenzaremos nuestro primer día a las 7:45 am el martes 16 de agosto.
Todos los estudiantes deben presentarse a la escuela a tiempo todos los días para
asegurarse de no perder ningún tiempo de aprendizaje.
● Datos: ¿Tenemos su número de teléfono, correo electrónico y dirección postal
correctos? Actualice su información de contacto en
(https://skyward.iscorp.com/HarmonyTXStuSTS)
● Asistencia: Cuando su estudiante esté ausente de la escuela, se les pide a los padres
que informen a la escuela. La comunicación se puede realizar a través de Skyward
utilizando la solicitud de ausencia de entrada del guardián. Esta solicitud permite que los
padres presenten una solicitud de ausencia directamente al especialista de asistencia del
campus a través del Skyward Family Access de los padres. Una vez que se haya
presentado la solicitud, el Especialista de Asistencia aprobará o rechazará la solicitud.
Esta acción debe ser tomada por el padre para cada ausencia.
● Estamos aquí para ayudarle: si podemos ayudar con cosas como dispositivos,
comidas, salud y salud mental, o cualquier otra cosa, consulte nuestro sitio web en
(https://hsihouston.harmonytx.org/) o llame al (713) 541-3030.
¡Bienvenido!
Atentamente,
Mr. Oguzkaan Torun
Harmony School of Innovation-Houston
Students Clubs will be announced soon!
Dismissal Procedures
Dear Parents/Guardians,
We would like to thank you all for your cooperation and understanding of our dismissal procedures!
So we can better focus on our children's drop off/dismissal safety. We are now implementing these following office hours:
- Office will be closed from 7:00AM-8:00AM for parents/visitors. It will be open for students ONLY during that time. On Wednesdays we will close from 2:00PM-3:00PM due to early release. The rest of the week we will be closed from 3:00PM-4:00PM during dismissal.
- The school is not responsible for students (non-walkers) who leave campus during dismissal without written permission from an administrator, and disciplinary action will be taken against students who leave and return to campus
- Students are not allowed to loiter in front of neighboring businesses and/or school grounds.
- Students are not allowed to remain on campus unsupervised after designated dismissal times. The school will not have adult supervision after school hours. A student who remains on campus unsupervised after dismissal time may be subject to state criminal trespass laws, as well as district disciplinary consequences. (See HPS Loitering Policy)
- Students who walk home must have a Walker Permission Form, signed by a parent/guardian, on file in the front office, and must be less than 2 miles from our campus to be eligible.
- Students walkers who have siblings at HS Academy and/or HS Exploration must have a “Sibling Information Form” on file at the front office if they are to pick these students from the Green Zone
- As you know, our complex is located next to a very busy highway. For the safety of our students, only designated walker students will be permitted to leave the complex on foot.
- Please do not arrange to pick up or drop off your child off campus property or outside of the designated dismissal locations, as this violates campus dismissal policies and places students in danger.
**NOTE: Dismissal Procedures may be revised in planning with safety in mind. We will notify parents if any changes are made. Please check your emails or read our Weekly Newsletter for updates.**
If you have any questions or concerns, please call 713-541-3030.
2022-2023 Academic Calendar
Federal Programs and Parent Engagement
Here are some practical tips and questions to ask your elementary, middle, or high school student.
BY LINDSEY ANTIN, MARYAM ABDULLAH
A year and a half is a very long time for a child. For much of the COVID-19 pandemic, schooling meant sitting in front of a screen. Parents helped young children talk to grandparents who lived inside a phone. Even playgrounds were closed. There are kids who haven’t seen their best friends in well over a year.
But things are changing. Now that the school year has begun, kids of all ages need help making sense of this next chapter. Everyone will be seen again, if only just above their masks, and students in my (Lindsey Antin’s) counseling practice have all the feelings about it.
Parents can help their kids by understanding the developmental stages they are in, and understanding that authoritative parenting strategies that are grounded in providing both warmth and support—as well as clear and appropriately high expectations—will greatly help their children’s social-emotional development.
Now is a chance to understand some challenges our kids are going through, and how to help them enter this next chapter. While much of our adult lives might have felt on hold until recently, our kids have been growing up all along. Whether your child is in a funk or still enjoying the return to school, parents can help their kids become more conscious of their capacity at each developmental milestone in the context of a pandemic that isn’t over yet.
Middle school: help them understand themselves
Our middle schoolers are at an exciting and awkward and blossoming time in life. One of their key focuses during this age is identity development—who they are and who they want to become.
Middle schoolers can be especially curious, passionate, closed off, and unpredictable. What is important to one set of middle schoolers may be boring to another. Middle schoolers begin defining themselves by whom they spend time with, what activities they are diving deeper into, and branching out from their families.
Boys and girls are often at very different stages; my experience with middle schoolers has been that eighth-grade girls and sixth-grade boys are the ones who especially benefit from a little extra attention. Girls need help with emotional regulation, and boys need help putting language to feelings and forming bonds with friends and adults who can encourage their emotional development. Middle schoolers are developing their personal identity as well as their group identity among friends (both who they are and which groups they choose to belong to).
Middle schoolers are starting to have profound conversations with their peers that aid in this identity development. They may be paying more attention to the news, which often involves deep questions about complex situations and learning of tragedy. With the pandemic touching all of us in some way, middle schoolers may be hearing for the first time of friends who lost loved ones. They also are likely to begin using some form of social media in middle school, and may discover things about each other that we can help prepare them for. We can help middle schoolers to have these types of experiences by tapping into their capacity for compassion.
Parents of middle schoolers can:
- Prepare their children for increased contact with the outside world by talking about the news, subscribing to kid versions of magazines, and having regular conversation about topics they show interest in.
- Ask about and normalize changes in adolescence from puberty. Kids are being seen again after many months, and whether it is braces or bras, many physical milestones happen during middle school.
- Take initiative to help students, especially boys, make social plans. Open plans with family as backup are helpful to take pressure off kids from invites that don’t get accepted.
You can help middle school kids socialize with fleeting group dynamics by asking these questions:
- Let’s do a family pizza and movie night outside. Who else can we invite? Or: Can I drop you and two friends off downtown tomorrow for a couple hours while I run some errands?
- Who do you sit with at lunch, and what is everyone talking about? What world topics do you care about right now?
- Who do you remember from Zoom who is different in person than you thought?
Middle schoolers may be chatty one day and silent the next. They are processing a lot of information, so parents who can be consistent in their curiosity regardless of mood will help keep a stable baseline for them.
Volunteer Registration
Would you like to be a Volunteer at our School?
Useful Links
Family access Skyward
Upcoming Events
- September 5: No School / Student&Staff Holiday
Harmony School of Innovation-Houston
Website: https://hsihouston.harmonytx.org/
Location: 9421 West Sam Houston Parkway South, Houston, TX, USA
Phone: 713-541-3030
Facebook: facebook.com/HSIHOUSTON.ORG
Twitter: @HSI_Houston