Zapata banker Renato Ramirez was recognized at the October 12 ribbon cutting ceremony of Harmony’s high school —the Harmony School of Excellence — for his vital and longstanding commitment to Harmony schools in Laredo.
Ramirez, the CEO of IBC Zapata, through R & P Ramirez, Ltd., a family partnership, played a key role in the financing and construction of Harmony’s first school in Laredo — the original 48,000 square foot K-12 campus (now the Harmony Science Academy (middle school, 6-8) at the corner of San Francisco and Taylor, which came to life on land Ramirez purchased as a speculative venture over a decade ago.
District 80 State Representative Tracy O. King, Patricia Ramirez, Mayor Pete Saenz, Renato Ramirez, and Principal Mustafa Ayik are pictured at the ribbon-cutting for the Harmony School of Excellence.
Ramirez’s unwavering commitment has been an important pivot upon which the Harmony charter school system has well-established itself in Laredo.
As with the construction of the first K-12 campus in 2008, Ramirez and R & P Ramirez, Ltd. mirrored their generosity for the construction of the high school by providing the land, financing the construction, and covering fees for title insurance, surveys, attorneys, environmental experts, loan origination, and carrying interest.
In the week in which preparations were underway for the inauguration of the high school, R & P Ramirez, Ltd. sold the middle school and high school campuses to the Cosmos Foundation, Harmony’s parent organization, for $11.25 million — about $110 per square foot, a figure far below South Texas school construction averages that range from $180 to $240 per square foot.
State Representatives Richard Peña Raymond (District 42) and Tracy O. King (District 80) congratulate banker Renato Ramirez for his role in the construction of the Harmony School of Excellence.
In addition to securing financing for construction, R & P Ramirez, Ltd. paid about $1.2 million in property taxes for the Harmony site over the last 10 years. Additionally, Ramirez donated $400,000 in cash and absorbed costs for change orders, fencing, and improved parking.
Ramirez said that the financial support and confidence of Commerce Bank, its board of directors, and its management were key components of the project’s success.
Ramirez recalled that the Cosmos Foundation had approached him about 10 years ago to retrofit the old warehouse property into a school.
Laredo Morning Times publisher Bill Green and Renato Ramirez at the Harmony School of Excellence ribbon cutting.
He said that in his negotiations with the Foundation he learned that Harmony schools focused on high intellect activities and robotics and that their teaching methods included frequent visits to the homes of students and evening and weekend tutoring.
Ramirez observed that some of the operators, founders, and educators of Harmony charter schools, are followers of Fethullah Gulen, a charismatic Turkish preacher of a moderate form of Islam whose devotees have built a worldwide religious, social, and nationalistic movement in his name.
“This has been a very rewarding experience. I met many Turkish immigrants with a different view of education and a commitment to America, to our military, and to tolerance and dialogue,” Ramirez said.
The Cosmos Foundation has built 120 schools across the country in 25 states, establishing one of the largest charter school systems in America.
He said that Texas embraced the ideology of charter schools in the 1990s as a pet project of then-Gov. George W. Bush. The Texas Legislature authorized their establishment in 1995 as public schools. Charter schools are monitored and accredited by the State.
“The independence of charter schools from local school boards and union contracts, the theory goes, frees them to become seedbeds of educational achievement in a landscape of underperforming failure,” Ramirez said.
“I have had a very good personal relationship with many of the executives of Harmony and Cosmos, as well as with instructors and school administrators. I am proud to be associated with them because of the impact the schools have had on so many Laredoans,” he said, adding, “Harmony brings an educational model significantly different from the public education model. Harmony graduates have 100% acceptance into colleges and universities, and they are well prepared.”
Webb County Pct. 2 Commissioner Wawi Tijerina, Mayor Pete Saenz, and District V City Council member Nelly Vilma attended the festivities and ribbon cutting at the Harmony School of Excellence.
Harmony and R & P Ramirez, Ltd. initially agreed to a five-year rental and purchase agreement, but when conditions did not allow for the purchase at the designated time, a second lease/purchase agreement was signed.
Ramirez said that a site assessment before the construction of the high school revealed environmental concerns over what had once been a solid waste dump.
“We moved 25,000 cubic yards of waste and replaced it with clean soil at a cost of $1.3 million,” Ramirez said, “and once the land was cleared by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, we entered into a contract to build the new 50,000-square-foot high school.”
The articulate, focused banker who is known to complete worthy projects before anyone can intuit that he is doing the financial heavy lifting, often does so with finesse and sometimes a measure of alacrity.
The beautiful L-shaped configuration of the campuses of the Harmony Science Academy (the 6-8 middle school) and the Harmony School of Excellence, the new high school, call attention to an impressive educational landmark along San Francisco Ave. and Taylor St.
The new high school, which was built by O’Bryant and Associates, includes a gymnasium for the school’s expanding athletics department. There are 50 teachers for a current enrollment of 400 students.
Like the other two Harmony schools in Laredo, the School of Excellence is focused — according to its website — on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) SOS, a rigorous, interdisciplinary, standards-focused, and engaging STEM teaching approach that is teacher-facilitated, student-centered and directed through sets of project-and inquiry-based (P&IBL) projects. The goal of STEM-SOS is to promote not only collaborative skills and student ownership of learning, but also to promote student success in state and national standards. Harmony’s STEM curriculum, which follows the requisites of the Texas Education Agency, is the only TEA or TSTEM accredited program.
According to Harmony’s public information officer, Nicole Romanos, the Harmony School of Excellence offers Project Lead the Way (PLTW) biomedical, engineering and robotics, IT and media, and law enforcement courses.
There are more than 800 Laredo school children on the waiting list for admission to Harmony’s three tuition-free charter schools. Admission is decided at a live lottery.
Harmony’s K-5 campus is located at 4608 Daugherty on the old Laredo Air Force Base site. It was inaugurated in 2011.
Like independent school districts (ISDs), charter schools are funded by the federal and state government. Unlike ISDs, however, charter schools do not benefit from local property tax revenues.
