To reply to the May 28 review and to best defend our business and to re-assure you that your child's welfare, well-being and enjoyment are our number one concern that I must provide you with some details about this situation.
1) The statements about how the instructors taught the children and interacted with parents is our standard operating procedure as it has proven over more than 30 years to be most successful.
2) By law, there is only so much information I can provide about the specific details of the situation. But I can tell you that the two instructors that this reviewer mentions had provided us with notice at the beginning of the semester that they would be resigning their employment as of the end of that semester. As a result, we hired replacement instructors by the final month of their employment and were training them. In the meantime, these two instructors changed their mind about resigning. We made the choice not to continue their employment because we'd already hired new instructors and they wanted to continue employment on a week-to-week basis, which is obviously not the best for our children.
3) The decision to terminate the employment of these two instructors before the end of the semester was based entirely upon their behavior towards the new instructors and their behavior towards the parents. They attempted to prevent the proper training of these instructors. I also had numerous parents calling me in the final two weeks of their employment stating they were very uncomfortable with being drawn into the employment situation by the instructors' discussions about our decision not to accept the withdrawal of their resignations.
I don't know if you have ever been involved in the human resources side of running a business, but staffing is one of the most difficult aspects. As in any business, we are an on-going business that cannot be dependent upon one or two particular employees to continue operations. We do work extensively to train each and every employee to provide the children with the best, most fun and educational program possible. We are all well aware that without members, our business cannot survive. I'm sure you realize, too, that employees come and go and a business has absolutely no control over that issue, but can only plan for continuation.
Finally, to address the reviewer's statement that "other parents who have called and complained have been yelled at when they questioned what was happening with coaches." I am absolutely amazed at this statement. I told my team that I would be more than happy to address any questions or concerns of any parents about what had occurred. I spoke to 10 or so parents about the situation and explained as best I could within the constraints of the law what had occurred. I can assure you that I never yelled at anyone - that is simply not the type of person I am. I told each parent who expressed a concern that they could bring their child to the final, show week and, if they were not completely satisfied with their child's performance, would be given a refund for the final month of tuition. I only had one parent, who was a personal friend of one of the named instructors, request that refund. We also checked with each of the parents who did not continue their enrollment in our programs to determine why they did not re-enroll. Of those, we found only two families who did not continue their child's enrollment because of the instructor change.
Rachel Searson
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