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[quote=Transplant_1][quote=Anonymous]The experience we had with them was truly horrendous. A lot of it was under staffing and this was last year when that was a citywide -- not just them -- problem. But... they were awful.

Many of the enrichments were excellent and it is useful that it's so turnkey. That said, they rip off teachers who want to provide enrichments (taking 20% from them and then upcharging parents another 25%, so that the teacher is taking home only about half of what the parents are being charged), so if you have any culture of that at your school... watch out.[/quote]

At  Hearst, the PTA used to run aftercare.  As part of that, teachers taught great classes - handwriting, writing in cursive, jewelry-making, art, etc.  They were paid by PTA funds.  Alongside, there were classes run by vendors, for karate, ballet, etc.  The teacher run classes were very good, and much cheaper, so they were always oversubscribed.  So the PTA built a lottery system for the teacher-run classes, with a preference for a child that had not already had a chance to take a teacher run class.  Once Flex took over, the teachers stopped teaching classes.  I suspect it has to do with how they were reimbursing teachers, per the quoted poster.  It was a huge loss.  But the PTA didn't have enough volunteers to organize and run the after school program.  Also, Flex's regular after care program (not enrichment, just watching kids) seems understaffed / not the most happiest of staff.

I used to be on the PTA, so was in the Hearst building after school for meetings or organizing stuff.  So I got a chance to see the vendor run classes as I walked the hallways.  Many of the vendor run classes were not very good.  I think it's because parents do not observe, and so the usual quality control mechanism isn't there  (for example as parents normally do for sports, or other type of classes, eg. dance studios where they could observe and meet the teacher.)  Parents probbably can probably observe if they ask, but most kids are just picked up in the lobby.  And, probably most parents are coming to pick up after work; and most parents probably think something is better than nothing.  [/quote]

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