Thread: Teachers: quick - what would you do?

I have an immediate little dilemna here. Due to the fact that my beginning level classes usually fill to capacity, I have started having other teachers (a professional dancer who has studied with me) teach additional beginning classes.

The current series has just begun, and two of the beginning level classes start tomorrow. The series I'm teaching at 5 pm has 20 students enrolled and is full. About half of the students are my returning students and half new. But the 3:45 pm Basics class that the new teacher was to teach only has three students in it, and we need about 8 - 10 students to make it worthwhile - cover the rent and earn some pay.

I think it's a combination of the earlier time (3:45 pm) and starting the series so early in September rather than waiting until people have settled into their new Fall routines.

So here are the choices as I see it:

a) Tell the three students today that the start of the class will be postponed for two weeks, and then see if we get the minimum number of students by then. If not, cancel it and give refunds.

b) Have the teacher teach the class anyway, just in case there are last minute students who want to sign up, and then if not, she will have to tell those who did show up that the class is being postponed, and that if that doesn't work for them, they will get a refund. (We could send out an email blast today, but it's pretty last-minute).

The thing is, if she shows up to teach the class, we have to pay $35 rent for a class with three people, which means she earns nothing.

I've never had this happen before, so just thought I'd get some opinions to help with the decision-making. Non-teachers are welcome to put in their 2 cents as well. Thanks!

I'd say A.

Can you have her teach the class tomorrow and tell those students about the required 7 more bodies to continue, and announce in your class that there's lots of open space in the previous class if anyone wants to move?

I'd say give it two weeks to see if the first class fills up a bit, and then cancel if there aren't enough bodies to make it worthwhile financially (as long as your new teacher is okay doing this for experience for those two weeks).

Have you given your assistant the options?

My personal instinct would be to go ahead with the first class and pay the assistant *something* (given that my own classes are full to capacity and therefore presumably profitable, and given that she's teaching as part of my school). However the students on that first night would be told, if we don't get our minimum number by <date>, this class won't be running and you'll get a refund (code for, get your friends to come along!)

I work in Adult Education, so I don't have the same imperatives as teachers working for themselves. But in the past, the Centre has always tried to run the course, even if there aren't enough people. The way they do it is to run the course for a shorter period (e.g 6 weeks instead of 10 weeks), With a smaller class, the students get more intensive tuition, so even though they are paying the same as for the 10 weeks, and only getting 6 weeks (or whatever), they end up getting value for money from me as the teacher.

I'm going to chime in on the side of run the class, ask the gal doing the instructing if she doesn't mind doing it for no or a smaller amount of pay if you can swing it, in an effort to give the class a chance. Announce to the class that if there aren't your minimum number required of students you will have to cancel the class, whether you give it a week or two of a delayed start like was suggested or not, and offer refunds if you have to cancel the class.
What I've noticed is that the gals who really have a good time in that first class go to work, to their friends, to parents at the PTA meeting, you get the idea, and the talk about how fun the class was and how much they enjoyed it. That in turn ususally brings in a few new students for the very next class. They get mainly friends/co-workers/family to come to class with them for the second class, and they in turn sign up and tell their friends and so on. Good old word of mouth advertising. It works like a charm.

Just a different perspective-from the instructor's side: I would get very mad if someone asked me to teach and then ask if I could do it for free or less than agreed upon because the class is down. I would rather have the option to wait for more people to come. But I do agree with you all about giving the instructor the option and how students tend to run off an find more peole!

Yes I did ask her yesterday how she felt about each option, and she was sort of on the fence about it - said she could go either way.

Lilladancer,

There is additional relevant information you haven't provided: Is this other teacher working for you or is she in business for herself? If she is working for you, then unless you have agreed otherwise, having her eat a loss is not fair.

Especially if you are paying her by the hour, you can't take profits when enrollment is high, but make her eat the loss when enrollment is low.

If you are taking a percentage of what she takes in, or taking nothink, and she essentially runs the class, then this decision is hers to make, not yours.

Sedonia

I am handling all of the advertising, enrollment, and payment processing, and then taking a smaller percentage of the class take, she gets the bigger percentage. She's generally independent as a teacher, but enrollment and payment goes through me, so she is basically a sub-contractor. No, I don't feel good having her teach for nothing, nor do I feel it should cost me out of my pocket for the class to be taught to three students. She had said she was fine with teaching the class this week anyway to see if it builds up, but I didn't feel that good about her teaching when there is not enough enrollment for her to make anything this week. Three students just covers rent.

Sedonia, I know the decision is hers, but she was looking to me to help her make the decision. We just talked and have decided to postpone two weeks to allow more students to enroll, but she wants to be at the studio tomorrow anyway just in case people show up whom we weren't expecting. I think it's a good compromise. Thanks for all your input everyone!

Pay her to teach. Run your class Split the difference on the profit you made from your first full class. About half of that should be profit after rent?. The exposure that those 3 people will get you is large. If you run it and really focus on the 3 students they are more than likely to keep coming back because they rec'd such good service. These are the people who sing your praises and continue to bring you more students in the future. Remember the old Fabrege shampoo commercials? ....and she told two friends, and she told too friends and she told two friends............ If your students appreciate good customer service and special attention this is what will happen. Your student base will contiue to grow. When teachers are not good to their students it can do the opposite and ruin your chance for full classes and growing clientele. my 2cents for what its worth. Good luck with your classes and happy dancing to you!

Thanks for the suggestions, Susuabdo. I'm actually not trying to build a bigger student base, though. I needed to cut down on my classes due to the demands of my other business, so I have offered the "spillover" class to other teachers so that someone else can have an opportunity to teach and I have somewhere to channel beginners who call after my classes are full. I don't really run a studio and don't plan to. It would be a different situation if that were my goal.

I think that in the next couple of weeks she will have the 8-10 students she needs, and can run the class from there. I think most people understand that sometimes a class doesn't run if enrollment minimums are not reached. We were just debating which way to go - teach the first class with no profit, or postpone. Thanks, guys! ..g.:

Our studio has 17 scheduled classes per week and numerous different teachers and if class doesn't have min numbers to run then it doesn't run. This is made clear to all teachers up front so and is considered standard practice so there is never any drama.

The teachers are on an hourly rate, not wages so the studio has no obligation to cover the teacher's potential income. Those students that did sign up get contacted directly and are offered a place in another class or a refund.

The studio will advertise the class for a few sessions and if there is still a poor response it gets canned.

I'm with Beafarhana (the pay issue) and Nasila (the extra 7 spots comment) on thier replies. One or the other of course, not both. I would not cancel the class at the last minute. A teacher's reputation is valuable, not just the money she makes. As a beginning teacher, there were a few months where I took a bath. It sucked, but my 2-3 students who did come, are still with me today as very valuable parts of my performance group. I think my consistency and determination is one reason they are so loyal.

Hope this helps,

Kittie

Originally Posted by s1dur1_sab1tu

I'm with Beafarhana (the pay issue) and Nasila (the extra 7 spots comment) on thier replies. One or the other of course, not both. I would not cancel the class at the last minute. A teacher's reputation is valuable, not just the money she makes. As a beginning teacher, there were a few months where I took a bath. It sucked, but my 2-3 students who did come, are still with me today as very valuable parts of my performance group. I think my consistency and determination is one reason they are so loyal.

Hope this helps,

Kittie

Thanks Kittie but we're not actually cancelling the class last minute. We're postponing it by two weeks, and I've given the two enrolled students (one of them wasn't even pre-enrolled) the option of attending my 5 pm class today for free until their class starts. I think that's enough insurance to protect both the other teacher's reputation and mine...

Well Bea, would you like to earn some extra money on the side selling good hunches? lol

As it turned out, since three people showed up who had sent in their enrollment forms having marked the WRONG class (so I had them listed in mine), and one of the enrolled students never got my message, I had the teacher go ahead and teach the class. There were still only four students which is half of the minimum, but including the three I had told of the postponement, (one enrolled and two who called this morning) we would have had seven .

Sometimes it's just so hard to make a call on these things. But despite her protests, I'll be paying the teacher for teaching today's class, and the students who showed up today, even though they did not mark their forms correctly, will get an extra class as we will be officially re-starting the series next week (can't beat that for customer service!), at which time it seems we will most certainly have a good sized class, since two of the students today said they have friends who would like to join, and more calls will come in over the next few days.

Sometimes these situations can seem like a comedy of errors but on the bright side, the three students who had marked their forms wrong enabled me to let in three more people who showed up to get into my 5 pm class, which filled to capacity, and the additional three I still had to turn away, I hopefully convinced to sign up for the other class next week!

Thanks again for everyone's input. ..g.: