Flex Academies

[Anonymous]

Wondering if anyone can share their opinions on the after-school programs run by Flex Academies at their school. We currently have a PTA volunteer coordinate after-school programs at our school but are looking at the possibility of using Flex or another management company. Would love any opinions from parents/PTA coordinators. Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Don't really like a lot of the offerings so kids sign up less often than when the PTA was working directly with providers. You'll find that there are a lot of companies that won't work with Flex because they take a big % of the fees so that limits the choices pretty radically. If I remember correctly I also think they number of classes is less than before per session but they charge the same.

I do like that sign up is quicker since you only have to login to one site and that they have an on-site coordinator after school so there's a central point of contact for everything--if you're running late for pick up or have a question about the class.

[Anonymous]

bump

[Anonymous]

My school's PTA just announced that they are partnering with FLEX for their after school programs. Has anyone else experienced this company at their school? It seems like the cost for the activities is higher than other programs that had been offered previously.

[Anonymous]

Not a fan of Flex. Enrichment class quality has gone down since our PTA switched to them, while cost has gone up. Limited offerings, only on certain days, and not so great instruction. My kids tried a few different offerings and have zero interest in trying anymore.

[Anonymous]

Our son is in kindergarten and is currently taking the afterschool cooking class. He seems to enjoy it and I think it’s great that they can work with kids ranging from kindergarten to fifth grade using the same materials and recipes. I do think the price was a little bit expensive given that they are not using real kitchen equipment like blenders and stove tops and such but he does seem to enjoy it. I cannot speak to the academic enrichment classes though

[Anonymous]

They suck.

[Anonymous]

My friend teaches for them and does not like them at all.

They say they ask for the teacher's rate and then say they add a percentage, but then they say they are "profit sharing," take an additional percentage from the teacher and add more to the parents. The mark up is astronomical. Even when a contract is agreed on, they somehow calculate slightly less than the base price. Also, when parents complain, they are NEVER accountable, even when they are totally at fault. When school wants more, they dump on the teachers without offering to pay. When parents complain, they throw it back with double speak. A LOT of bureaucracy. An amazingly well paid middle man.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Principals like them because they’re easy—they do most of the legwork and the school just needs a teacher coordinator on site. It’s not that great and it’s expensive.

[Anonymous]

When FLEX comes into a school, they email all the current activity providers and tell them that they need to contract with FLEX in order to continue offering classes at the school. Then they take the price of the vendor's class and add their fees on top of it. So a cooking class that used to cost $135 at your school now costs $200 for the exact same class taught by the exact same instructors who were doing it before.

Plus FLEX requires a parent or teacher coordinator available on-site, so it actually creates more work for a parent or teacher even though they claim it is less.

I don't understand why PTAs do this or why more parents don't complain. Parents are the ones who subsidize this business model.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When FLEX comes into a school, they email all the current activity providers and tell them that they need to contract with FLEX in order to continue offering classes at the school. Then they take the price of the vendor's class and add their fees on top of it. So a cooking class that used to cost $135 at your school now costs $200 for the exact same class taught by the exact same instructors who were doing it before.

Plus FLEX requires a parent or teacher coordinator available on-site, so it actually creates more work for a parent or teacher even though they claim it is less.

I don't understand why PTAs do this or why more parents don't complain. Parents are the ones who subsidize this business model.

This exactly. I teach a local class, and this happened to me. First they only raised the price a little. Then, they raised it a lot on the parents' side AND tried to gouge out from of my base charge. They said they provide so much, but it's not true.

[Anonymous]

FLEX came to our school and it’s terrible. They raised the prices of all the classes, per class, but changed around the schedule so that it didn’t seem to be as much of an increase.

Led to decreased enrollment because well, parents aren’t idiots.

Not recommended.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When FLEX comes into a school, they email all the current activity providers and tell them that they need to contract with FLEX in order to continue offering classes at the school. Then they take the price of the vendor's class and add their fees on top of it. So a cooking class that used to cost $135 at your school now costs $200 for the exact same class taught by the exact same instructors who were doing it before.

Plus FLEX requires a parent or teacher coordinator available on-site, so it actually creates more work for a parent or teacher even though they claim it is less.

I don't understand why PTAs do this or why more parents don't complain. Parents are the ones who subsidize this business model.

Good to know this. I will keep eye on our school to make sure we don't end up with FLEX.

[Anonymous]

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.)