Flex Academies

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's your choice:
A parent volunteer or paid person to coordinate everything, take payments, manage insurance, building permits etc. OR you get a company like Flex to do all the work but they raise the prices because they need to get paid.

If you have someone willing to do the work, great. If not, Flex makes sense.

If the PTA is paying for someone to coordinate everything, then you do need to consider if it makes sense to use PTA dollars to subsidize activities that are pay-to-play and that don't benefit all the kids (if they choose not to sign up for activities.)

This is not true (but maybe what FLEX wants you to think). I have organised after school classes for my PTA - the vendors handle all payments and flyers themselves, plus book all rooms with the county - PTAs are actually not allowed to book rooms w the county on behalf of after school programs.

All the PTA has to do is distribute vendor flyers and post on their website/social media about the classes to let parents know that the programs are offered.

As a PTA we also required all vendors to provide 1 need based scholarship for every class (need confirmed by school counselor).

The work is not much - the vendors all do what flex says it will do.

Also, FLEX does not actually do it's own background checks - just requires vendors to do their own and say they have been done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's your choice:
A parent volunteer or paid person to coordinate everything, take payments, manage insurance, building permits etc. OR you get a company like Flex to do all the work but they raise the prices because they need to get paid.

If you have someone willing to do the work, great. If not, Flex makes sense.

If the PTA is paying for someone to coordinate everything, then you do need to consider if it makes sense to use PTA dollars to subsidize activities that are pay-to-play and that don't benefit all the kids (if they choose not to sign up for activities.)

This is not true (but maybe what FLEX wants you to think). I have organised after school classes for my PTA - the vendors handle all payments and flyers themselves, plus book all rooms with the county - PTAs are actually not allowed to book rooms w the county on behalf of after school programs.

All the PTA has to do is distribute vendor flyers and post on their website/social media about the classes to let parents know that the programs are offered.

As a PTA we also required all vendors to provide 1 need based scholarship for every class (need confirmed by school counselor).

The work is not much - the vendors all do what flex says it will do.

Also, FLEX does not actually do it's own background checks - just requires vendors to do their own and say they have been done.

Thanks for this info, very helpful. Sounds like Flex is a scam. Most schools would have little difficulty finding a parent volunteer to coordinate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's your choice:
A parent volunteer or paid person to coordinate everything, take payments, manage insurance, building permits etc. OR you get a company like Flex to do all the work but they raise the prices because they need to get paid.

If you have someone willing to do the work, great. If not, Flex makes sense.

If the PTA is paying for someone to coordinate everything, then you do need to consider if it makes sense to use PTA dollars to subsidize activities that are pay-to-play and that don't benefit all the kids (if they choose not to sign up for activities.)

This is not true (but maybe what FLEX wants you to think). I have organised after school classes for my PTA - the vendors handle all payments and flyers themselves, plus book all rooms with the county - PTAs are actually not allowed to book rooms w the county on behalf of after school programs.

All the PTA has to do is distribute vendor flyers and post on their website/social media about the classes to let parents know that the programs are offered.

As a PTA we also required all vendors to provide 1 need based scholarship for every class (need confirmed by school counselor).

The work is not much - the vendors all do what flex says it will do.

Also, FLEX does not actually do it's own background checks - just requires vendors to do their own and say they have been done.

Thanks for this info, very helpful. Sounds like Flex is a scam. Most schools would have little difficulty finding a parent volunteer to coordinate.

Our school didn't.

[Anonymous]

I think it's one thing to offer scholarships to kids who can't afford it, it's another to pay to coordinate/subsidize coordination for extracurricular activities that lots of kids don't do. But that's my opinion. Your PTA may vote that it feels it's ok.

[Anonymous]

Are there alternatives to Flex who do the same thing for less $$?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's your choice:
A parent volunteer or paid person to coordinate everything, take payments, manage insurance, building permits etc. OR you get a company like Flex to do all the work but they raise the prices because they need to get paid.

If you have someone willing to do the work, great. If not, Flex makes sense.

If the PTA is paying for someone to coordinate everything, then you do need to consider if it makes sense to use PTA dollars to subsidize activities that are pay-to-play and that don't benefit all the kids (if they choose not to sign up for activities.)

This is not true (but maybe what FLEX wants you to think). I have organised after school classes for my PTA - the vendors handle all payments and flyers themselves, plus book all rooms with the county - PTAs are actually not allowed to book rooms w the county on behalf of after school programs.

All the PTA has to do is distribute vendor flyers and post on their website/social media about the classes to let parents know that the programs are offered.

As a PTA we also required all vendors to provide 1 need based scholarship for every class (need confirmed by school counselor).

The work is not much - the vendors all do what flex says it will do.

Also, FLEX does not actually do it's own background checks - just requires vendors to do their own and say they have been done.

Thanks for this info, very helpful. Sounds like Flex is a scam. Most schools would have little difficulty finding a parent volunteer to coordinate.

Our school didn't.

I've coordinated after school activities for my PTA and also organized events. Being a coordinator takes no more time that organizing a family event at the school. Do you get volunteers to run any events at your school or does nothing happen in your PTA? It's really manageable and again, vendors are responsible for their own registration, room reservation, insurance, etc. If no one steps up to do things at the school that is a shame because it means each parent is paying an extra $60/child to attend classes which makes them more inaccessible for many students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's your choice:
A parent volunteer or paid person to coordinate everything, take payments, manage insurance, building permits etc. OR you get a company like Flex to do all the work but they raise the prices because they need to get paid.

If you have someone willing to do the work, great. If not, Flex makes sense.

If the PTA is paying for someone to coordinate everything, then you do need to consider if it makes sense to use PTA dollars to subsidize activities that are pay-to-play and that don't benefit all the kids (if they choose not to sign up for activities.)

This is not true (but maybe what FLEX wants you to think). I have organised after school classes for my PTA - the vendors handle all payments and flyers themselves, plus book all rooms with the county - PTAs are actually not allowed to book rooms w the county on behalf of after school programs.

All the PTA has to do is distribute vendor flyers and post on their website/social media about the classes to let parents know that the programs are offered.

As a PTA we also required all vendors to provide 1 need based scholarship for every class (need confirmed by school counselor).

The work is not much - the vendors all do what flex says it will do.

Also, FLEX does not actually do it's own background checks - just requires vendors to do their own and say they have been done.

Thanks for this info, very helpful. Sounds like Flex is a scam. Most schools would have little difficulty finding a parent volunteer to coordinate.

Our school didn't.

I've coordinated after school activities for my PTA and also organized events. Being a coordinator takes no more time that organizing a family event at the school. Do you get volunteers to run any events at your school or does nothing happen in your PTA? It's really manageable and again, vendors are responsible for their own registration, room reservation, insurance, etc. If no one steps up to do things at the school that is a shame because it means each parent is paying an extra $60/child to attend classes which makes them more inaccessible for many students.

Great points. Can the PTA offer a small stipend to the parent coordinator?

[Anonymous]

Also Flex Academy classes are enormous. After being lost in large dance and Spanish classes, my kid said she wasn't getting anything out of them and wasn't willing to try anything else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's your choice:
A parent volunteer or paid person to coordinate everything, take payments, manage insurance, building permits etc. OR you get a company like Flex to do all the work but they raise the prices because they need to get paid.

If you have someone willing to do the work, great. If not, Flex makes sense.

If the PTA is paying for someone to coordinate everything, then you do need to consider if it makes sense to use PTA dollars to subsidize activities that are pay-to-play and that don't benefit all the kids (if they choose not to sign up for activities.)

This is not true (but maybe what FLEX wants you to think). I have organised after school classes for my PTA - the vendors handle all payments and flyers themselves, plus book all rooms with the county - PTAs are actually not allowed to book rooms w the county on behalf of after school programs.

All the PTA has to do is distribute vendor flyers and post on their website/social media about the classes to let parents know that the programs are offered.

As a PTA we also required all vendors to provide 1 need based scholarship for every class (need confirmed by school counselor).

The work is not much - the vendors all do what flex says it will do.

Also, FLEX does not actually do it's own background checks - just requires vendors to do their own and say they have been done.

Thanks for this info, very helpful. Sounds like Flex is a scam. Most schools would have little difficulty finding a parent volunteer to coordinate.

Our school didn't.

I've coordinated after school activities for my PTA and also organized events. Being a coordinator takes no more time that organizing a family event at the school. Do you get volunteers to run any events at your school or does nothing happen in your PTA? It's really manageable and again, vendors are responsible for their own registration, room reservation, insurance, etc. If no one steps up to do things at the school that is a shame because it means each parent is paying an extra $60/child to attend classes which makes them more inaccessible for many students.

Great points. Can the PTA offer a small stipend to the parent coordinator?

I doubt it, but your PTA could check with the MDPTA for guidance. If an activities coordinator is paid what about all the work the PTA president does, or the treasurer, or the talent show organizer, etc??? Everyone will want to be paid, and I'm pretty sure in order to keep the PTA's non-profit status there are rules about volunteers vs. employees.

[Anonymous]

I've hated Flex Academies and the other similar company our school contracted with.

They made after-school activities more expensive, and took away the ability for a parent with initiative to start a club based on the interests of the kid.

The fees are crazy. There was one after school activity that two of my friends ran, and Flex charged $125 per kid, even though the parents running it were paid nothing.

[Anonymous]

I thought Flex was bad too but if you don't have a super active PTA it may be all you can do. If your PTA brings in separate programs then the coordinator has to manage them. This means schedules, dealing with school complaints about a particular program (teachers didn't show up, teachers left before kids were picked up, room left messy), making sure they have insurance, getting their flyers/ materials out to the parents, if enrollment is low sending out more reminders and this is fine for a few programs but if you are doing before and after school programing in increments of several weeks with a whole new group turning over several time a year -its a lot. Some of the parents who volunteer within the PTA really don't have basic skills to manage something and it can become a mess. Its been surprising which parents turned out to be incompetent at this so not only does your PTA need to a find a volunteer they need a back up in case the one that volunteered isn't up to it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought Flex was bad too but if you don't have a super active PTA it may be all you can do. If your PTA brings in separate programs then the coordinator has to manage them. This means schedules, dealing with school complaints about a particular program (teachers didn't show up, teachers left before kids were picked up, room left messy), making sure they have insurance, getting their flyers/ materials out to the parents, if enrollment is low sending out more reminders and this is fine for a few programs but if you are doing before and after school programing in increments of several weeks with a whole new group turning over several time a year -its a lot. Some of the parents who volunteer within the PTA really don't have basic skills to manage something and it can become a mess. Its been surprising which parents turned out to be incompetent at this so not only does your PTA need to a find a volunteer they need a back up in case the one that volunteered isn't up to it.

There is a process for dealing with vendor complaints that the school administration should already know about - if there are issues with a vendor, especially messy rooms, the ICB will ban that vendor from renting space in schools for a period of time. Think about all of the other programs that occur in schools - the PTA does not have to be a liaison for dealing with these complaints; the school administration can and should go directly to the ICB to handle that. All the school needs to do is tell the PTA coordinator not to invite that vendor back again. And if a parent is coordinating, they can decide how many programs they can handle dealing with - 3-5 is a manageable number, and after that other vendors can be told that there is not space for their program at that time.

Re: incompetent volunteers - sure, but that is true with anything the PTA runs. Maybe your PTA president is incompetent or the staff appreciation volunteer is incompetent or the book fair chairperson - do you hire an outside vendor to run those PTA events and positions, too?

After-school program coordinating is only as time consuming and complicated as you choose make it - all that is really needed is for class information to be posted on the PTA website and parents told to check the website and follow up with the vendors for registration. Vendors are responsible for rosters, registration, room reservations, insurance, flyers etc. They are required by the ICB when renting a room to check a box that says they have insurance and have background checks for all individuals working with minors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids were picky about activities before our school went to Flex. Now, they are not interested in any of their offerings. And I don't blame them. The classes are definitely more expensive.

Not a fan.

+1
Before Flex my kids used to do 1-2 activities each session. Now they do none. The offerings are really lame and they only work with a small number of providers so it's the same group every session.
I also dislike the management. They're pretty rude and charge you extras at every turn. Want to sign up an hour late? That'll cost you. If you sign up right before classes start you have to miss the first class even if the instructor is okay with your child attending.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Here's your choice:
A parent volunteer or paid person to coordinate everything, take payments, manage insurance, building permits etc. OR you get a company like Flex to do all the work but they raise the prices because they need to get paid.

If you have someone willing to do the work, great. If not, Flex makes sense.

If the PTA is paying for someone to coordinate everything, then you do need to consider if it makes sense to use PTA dollars to subsidize activities that are pay-to-play and that don't benefit all the kids (if they choose not to sign up for activities.)

This is not true (but maybe what FLEX wants you to think). I have organised after school classes for my PTA - the vendors handle all payments and flyers themselves, plus book all rooms with the county - PTAs are actually not allowed to book rooms w the county on behalf of after school programs.

All the PTA has to do is distribute vendor flyers and post on their website/social media about the classes to let parents know that the programs are offered.

As a PTA we also required all vendors to provide 1 need based scholarship for every class (need confirmed by school counselor).

The work is not much - the vendors all do what flex says it will do.

Also, FLEX does not actually do it's own background checks - just requires vendors to do their own and say they have been done.

I could have written this! The only difference is that when I organized our school's, we handled the sign ups and processed the money. We also asked vendors to offer 2 scholarships if classes met a certain threshold. It was a fair amount of work but totally manageable. I like your model even better. Still, I worked really hard to make sure our classes were affordable, raised money for the PTA (we also offered parent-volunteer led clubs which made money for the PTA) and served FARMs kids. Now, the have two coordinators, but it is "too much work" so they brought on FLEX. One even said she didn't care if the offerings made money for the PTA or served FARMs kids as long as enrollment was easy and online. Now there are fewer classes, fewer FARMs kids served, exorbitant prices, no money for the PTA, lots of bureaucracy and no accountability.

[Anonymous]

There are competitors to Flex. I don't remember the names but my child has a good friend from a different school and I looked through their catalogue once and it was a lot more interesting and much cheaper too!