Dear Strike It Up Families – Options for the rest of the year.
 

   I’m reaching out to everyone just to give you updates on where we sit as an artistic center after having followed the Covid – 19 virus for the past 15 days. We will be continuing to follow all of the state and federal mandated restrictions until they decide it is safe for us to resume our regularly scheduled classes and activities. Miss Danielle, the Head of the Music Department, and Miss Jen, have been working feverishly to try to set up billing and lesson plans to be able to do Tele-lessons. That information is attached, for those who wish to continue voice or music lessons over the Internet. In the meantime, I’m sure you’re all wondering how we are going to handle the remainder of our season. Here are some ideas that I have that could be potential possibilities for when we return.
 

Option 1-

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   This is our best-case scenario. The studio is only closed for four weeks, making it much easier for us to simply extend our season through June after we resume lessons the last week of April. Hopefully the recital dates and rehearsals won’t change, and the picture company will still be available to hold our picture weekend. This means that all of the billing will resume as it was prior to everything shutting down. This also means that you will be billed for the whole month of March, April, May and June as originally planned because we will make up the missed classes in June still giving everyone a 34-week season.
 

Option 2-

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   The situation is not as ideal, but let’s say that we are closed until the middle of May. We will probably have to reschedule our picture weekend for some time during the month of July. My guess is there will be scheduling conflicts with the school once it is back in session, so the recital date rehearsals and performances themselves, might be changed. We will have missed too many weeks in our season for me to be able to make them up so that your season has 34 weeks. So, after billing everybody for the month of March, we will suspend the regular April and May tuition, make up the two weeks we missed in March, then bill you for however many weeks we are open till recital. (pending the schedule change to the recital to get the total number of weeks.)
 

Option 3-

 

   Not my favorite situation, but if we are forced to stay closed until June, I will try my hardest to schedule some sort of recital in July after possibly rehearsing with the children for a few weeks leading up to the showcase. All billing will have been suspended for the rest of the season. All your accounts will need to be paid in full up until April 1. I will use the two weeks we need to make up in March towards the rehearsals I will have the two weeks leading up to the recital mid-summer. I will also greatly encourage everyone to sign up for summer classes. I will devise a more in depth summer schedule to offer more classes since the children didn’t get a full dance season at this point. We are offering online classes and as restrictions are lifted, I will start teaching private and semi-private lessons at the studio upon request to get everyone back into the swing of things slowly. This will be billed completely differently and have no impact on the originally planned dance season. Please see attached letter for further information on this. I have to say as an artist, I am completely devastated to not be able to spend my favorite part of our season with your children. Everyone was working so hard to get ready for the big final push before the end of the year. I want you to know I will do everything in my power to try and wrap up the season as quickly and easily as possible once the pandemic calms down and we can go back to normal daily activity.

 

   If you have any questions regarding billing please feel free to reach out to me, Judy, Terry or Joe. Obviously, it is as crucial for us as a small business to collect all past due tuition. If you can rectify and settle up any of your past debts with the studio as soon as possible, it is greatly appreciated. I do understand that we are all in this together and we are all trying to make the best choices for how to proceed, finances being a big stressor for all of us. As you all know, I always want to be fair, so I think I have devised enough possible options that make sure that all of you get all of the classes that we can possibly fit in and are billed accordingly.
 

I miss all of you, and I hope that you are all staying healthy and finding ways to keep moving!
 

I will be in touch and giving information as it unfolds. Thank you for your continuous support while we all struggle through these uncharted territories.
 

~Cori Colombo~

Artistic Director