New student open house occured on Wednesday at Schiel Primary School for Arts Enrichment. A table was set up for parents to turn in/pick up registrations. This was also a great opportunity for parents, as well as the new students, to meet Mary Anne and ask questions about the dance program. The open house was a great success. There was much interest in the program and registration forms are beginning to pour in. In fact, the kindergarten class is already closed!

Before the open house could come together, I was given the tedious task of folding/stapleing over 800 copies of the new and improved registration brochure (between Schiel and North Avondale Montessori Schools). This of course took a lot of time, but it was exciting to see the changes. The old registration form was simply a one-sided legal size piece of paper. The brochure is much easier to read (four pages) and includes pictures of some of the performances from previous years.

The structure of both The Cincinnati Dance and Movement Center and Mary Anne Schaeper's Dance Programs are an entrepreneurship. At the helm is Tina Marie Prentosito for the CDMC and Mary Anne for her own programs. Both of them have been my supervisor during this summer internship. Both organizations are service-based with their financial success directly relative to student enrollment. I think a big challenge during the past school year and into the summer months (which traditionally is a slower time) has been to revive enrollment numbers given the current sluggish economy. Dance classes are considered by most to be a luxury, not a necessity. However, the popularity of television shows such as "Dancing with the Stars", "So You Think You Can Dance", and "America's Got Talent" seems to have brought dance training programs back into the radar for parents.

A recent challenge for Tina has been the transition into a new company name, "The Cincinnati Dance and Movement Center". More than simply new signage and logo is the long transition process beginning with obtaining copy rights, researching comparables, updating and overhauling a web site, and increased advertisement to announce new name (same business). Newspaper advertisements and Open Houses on various weekday evenings or week-end days seem to be the most effective marketing tools.

Mary Anne's personal challenge is to be able to continue to offer the high standard of teaching that she does in an economically depressed neighborhood school. With many scholarships being offered, and many sustaining delinquent accounts, it is difficult to maintain a cost-effective balance while trying to fulfill a personal mission of non-exclusion. In other words, Mary Anne has never turned away an ambitious student who was not able to pay. The classes are fee-based about half the cost of tuition at dance studios. This is off-set by the support system of the home-based school (principal, teachers, maintenance staff and other personnel). However, Mary Anne is implementing a new contract this year that will need to be signed by parents agreeing to policies regarding payment, attendance and behavior guidelines. I have been involved in the formulation of this new document.


Lately, one of my main focuses for Mary Anne is to create an updated ledger on Excel. This ledger is an alphabetical listing of the total enrollment and an eight column debit/credit posting. I am following the same format she used for last school year, but am adding a color code for paid/not paid students. Enrollment is slow right now, but with open house at Schiel Primary School Wednesday night, we are expecting many more registrations.

Upon returning from vacation, I was presented with the daunting task of preparing for Fall Registration. This project was multi-faceted. Phase One was organizing the most efficient transition of directorship possible for one of the CPS School programs that Mary Anne has. She is turning over the program at North Avondale Montessori School to her Teacher Assistant of the past five years. My job was to transfer the files containing Registration Information, Registration Confirmation Forms, Dance Bag Order Forms, Hip-Hop Shoe Order Form, Newsletter format, New Term Tuition Reminders, Costume Info. Letter, Spring Concert Info. Letter, Attendance Sheet Format, Class List Format, All-School Dance Roster Format, 2009-2010 Schedule, etc. Once the new files were in place, I made hard copies of everything that was in standard form for a fifty student enrollment. Some of the documents were date sensitive and had to be updated to this year's dates (School year, starting date, registration deadline, etc.)

The registration form itself was probably the most time consuming. After updating to 2009-2010 information, 500 forms had to be printed. Printer complications of course occurred, making this simple task a huge headache. Then, I had to call the school to get the actual class numbers for each homeroom for the entire school (Pre-School - 6th Grade). Next came counting out groupings of the aforementioned classes for distribution. That made it easier for the office personel to include the registration form in the "Beginning of the School Year Packet" that is distributed on the first day of school to each student in the school.

Basically the same procedure is followed for the other two schools where Mary Anne teaches. So far only the registration form part needed to be completed for Schiel. They actually distribute the forms twice. Once for an all-school mailing that goes out mid-July (no classroom counts nessessary) and once again for their "Beginning of the School Year Packets". In -Person Registrations along with sale of dance bags and dance attire will take place at the New Student Registration on August 12th and mary Anne has asked me to assist with that.

Mary Anne has a "shoe lending program" in which students donate used, outgrown shoes combined with a supply of donated new shoes to be distributed to students who need them. A Summer task has been to organize all the shoes according to sizes and type.

Another summer task has been to make copies of group pictures that have been requested on 8 x 10 photo paper ready for purchase.


Summer also brings Summer Camp. Mary Anne taught a one week dance intensive for 2nd through 4th Graders at Schiel Primary School for Arts Enrichment. The hours were 9:00 am to 12:30 and this included a snack break twice. I was assisting throughout the camp with the transport of euipment, writing/printing of reminder notes and performance program, supervision during breaks and otherwise, making sure students stayed hydrated and of course during the culminating dance demonstration on the last day.

Cincinnati Dance and Movement Center

Susan,
Yes, I have done work at the Cincinnati Dance and Movement Center. I got on board with the dance studio during their busiest time of year, recital. Tina Prentosito, the owner of the studio, has had me come in on Mondays and Thursdays so far. I started out by shadowing the studio's main administrative assistant, Rachel Sanders. Rachel does everything from collecting tuition and costume fees, to payroll, selling tickets, answering phones, etc. I was able to catch on quickly and learn the ropes of the studio because of the work I have done for my mom (though both businesses have unique differences).
In preparation for the studio's end of the year dance recital, each parent/student receives a "Recital Packet" that includes information needed for the dress rehearsal and final performance. I was in charge of putting together these recital packets for each student. I was also in charge of making sure each parent turned in an emergency contact information form for the class supervisors to have at the recital. I did this by verbally asking parents in the waiting room of the studio. As I received the forms, I checked off names and put forms into alphabetical order.
On the actual recital date, I helped with not only the production aspect of the show, but the business side as well. I took tickets at the door of the auditorium, was a class supervisor for some dancers, and sold tee-shirts during intermission. I basically made myself available for whom ever needed my assistance to make the recital run as smoothly as possible.
Things have died down at the Cincinnati Dance and Movement Center since recital has just past, but summer dance camps and workshops, competition team auditions, and fall registration are starting soon!

summer camp

Today was the first day of the Summer Dance Camp at Schiel Primary School for Arts Enrichment located in Clifton (by U.C.). Schiel (Grades Kindergarten - 3) is a Cincinnati Public School that is the "Feeder" school for the School for Creative and Performing Arts (Grades 4 - 7). The camp actually drew from three separate schools where Mary Anne Schaeper directs a dance program. The three schools represented were: Schiel, North Avondale Montessori School, and Sands Montessori School. The latter two are "Magnet Schools" of the Cinti. Public Schools. This means enrollment to these schools are through a lottery system and certain criteria must be met. Consequently, registering for these schools is a more selective process than the "Neighborhood" schools in which any student living in the required vicinity may attend.
The dance camp was directed by Mary Anne Schaeper. I have been in charge of processing the registration forms. Once I received the forms, I moved the information from them into an Excel spread sheet and wrote receipts for cash payments. I also had to type, print and hand-out a camp instruction sheet for each of the campers.
One of my main jobs as an intern for Mary Anne, is to be in charge of account balances. As the end of the school year came, I had to identify which student's account had an outstanding balance. When a balance was owed, I made a list of those names and called the secretary at Schiel Primary School, so she knew which kid's report card to hold. If an outstanding balance is left on a child's account, I also sent statements to the parents and have made personal phone calls as well, working out payment plans if need be.