New Year and next season’s changes & reminders for policy

Every year studio does a review for changes & tweaks including an annual minimal price increase for inflation. I always try to be both responsive to families and also keep my business afloat for our community. Changes will be implemented over the next month as the 2025 season ends and the new Winter to Spring 2026 begins. There will be minimal changes - mostly time limits, enrolled family’s will need to make sure they manage their accounts & check for updates, and hopefully new class options. Here are the changes & reminders I am working on for the 2026 year…

•I am hoping to complete new partnerships soon. My hope this will allow for more baby (and age specific) classes and leave me more time make customer service better and reopen older classes and even a new location or so. But as we grow and change this also means I need families to mange thier accounts more carefully to get good access & service.

•Our annual price increase this year will be applied with Winter to Spring enrollment. Spring term will go up by only $10 for all ages.

•Reminder that once you enroll, a notice of month(4 week) minimum is required for any changes to your account.

• Studio/teacher responsibilities…. will send out email updates at least monthly and have a blog to check (there are usually weekly updates and several social media pages but updates from email & blog will never be longer than a month). Teachers will also take attendance every class but will not check it unless a family requests a change on their account.

•Enrolled Family responsibilities… It will be the responsibility of the enrolled family to keep their accounts updated, check emails/blog for updates, and to opt in to texting if it’s preferred for time sensitive information (like schedule changes). ALSO it is the enrolled family’s responsibility to request any changes to payment (like for credits or unenrolling) with a month’s notice for implementation.

•Reminder you can makeup or attend extra classes as you’d like by coming to other day/times/locations with open spaces/spots. Right now that can be done by texting Sally. We are looking into using the automated system to help with this in the future.

We are hoping there will not be any further increase or policy changes until we review next year however as we navigate bringing on a new teacher, new locations, and as inflation continues to impact there may be future needs. We are still committed to keeping classes as affordable & flexible as possible and are looking at a variety of options for handling inflation !! Here are some more detailed notes on the above reminders & changes to how studio will handle them…

•I am in the final stages of discussions with a new Kindermusik teacher who will focus on infants and babies.

•Reminder on account and payment policies: You pay for access to the studio resources, for most families this includes studio classes, studio online resources, and Kindemrusik online account. Payment includes access over a period of time and is not based on attendance or amount of time logged. However we are sensitive to families needing the best value they can get so we try to offer a variety of options for dealing with absences, studio resource use, and payment. In the past as a solo proprietor with few families, I could be very individual on how I did this. Going forward the studio will need more time and consistency to make sure this happens fairly for all.

•Teachers will now take attendance every week. This is for our records and you are not required to attend. However this will allow us to track & check who has accumulated what credits. Payment assumes that everyone will have a acouple of absences. To get a credit you’ll need to accumulate a month (at least 4weeks) of absences. Even though we are taking attendance we will not check attendance. So a reminder that even though we take attendance, you need to request a credit if you have a lot of absences. And since class attendance is only one part of the access you will only receive a partial credit. There will be no credits for unused online resources since there is no way for us to track most of them. However I do want to remind everyone that if you know you need physical resources (including physical music CD’s, home play & activity sets) you can borrow from the extensive studio library!

•Please be aware that we will need a month (at least 4 weeks) notice to process a request for unenrollment or payment credits. This means if you have an automatic payment it will go through unless you give us a months notice on a request of either an unenrollment or a credit for missed/absent classes. While someone is enrolled credits can just be for any absences. Unenrollments & credits after unenrollment are done based on emergancies or other out of normal circumstances. Please be advised that studio will not do credits for absences automantically or for fewer than 4 missed classes over the course of a term/season- you will need to have at least 4 missed classes to get a credit and you’ll need to request the credit to be placed before the next pay period (hense the month/4 weeks notice).

•Another thing to remember is that your account is your responsibility. We use automated system to keep fees low so you need to make sure your account stays upto date. This includes both staying updated on information and payment. if you don’t pay (either letting a single month end, a term end, or a payment fails to go through.

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