City Strings & Piano Teacher Handbook

Basics

1) Tuition payments are for 11 lessons in each quarter and teachers get paid the same amount every month as long as they are on track to complete the quarter with 11 lessons and teach at least 3 per month.

2) Students are enrolled on an ongoing basis and receive 44 lessons per year. They can start and stop at any time.

3) Make lessons fun for your students and work towards their individual goals.

4) Respect the home you are entering.

5) Use common sense for shoe removal and parking.

6) Wear appropriate clothing.

Potential New Students

1) We will email you to see if you would like a new student. We have one email address, lessons@citystrings.com. Incoming emails are then routed to the appropriate person.

2) Respond to emails ASAP or within 12 hours, the sooner the better if you are looking for new students.

3) Always respond, even if your answer is no.

4) Give specific day and time options when scheduling. Try to keep track of days/times you have offered for other students, since 2 different people may be working on finding you students.

5) We do all of the schedule communication before the first lesson for you.

6) Only go to a student’s home after you receive the registration confirmation.

7) Send an introduction email before the first lesson to say hello and confirm.

New Students

1) Once the student is confirmed, we email you the details, and after that all communication goes between you and the student’s guardian. If you communicate directly with any student under 18, you must copy the parent on all texts or emails.

2) Make a good first impression regarding lessons and schedule.

3) Stay for 15 minutes if your student is not there at the scheduled lesson time.

Schedule

1) Students must have 11 lessons scheduled each quarter, with at least 3 lessons each month. That means you get 2 weeks off each quarter. Tell families about your weeks off as soon as possible, at least 6 weeks in advance, except in the case of emergencies.

2) Lessons should always occur on the same day/time each week. If you need to make any adjustments, you also have to give the family plenty of flexibility with their schedule.

3) Make up lessons should be offered for reasonable requests. Do what you can to keep the families happy. But if you absolutely cannot make up a lesson, the missed lesson can count towards the quarterly total. You can use your discretion. Examples of unreasonable requests could include no-shows or cancellations for non-emergency reasons with less than 24 hours notice. An excessive number of lessons that are not made up may result in a reduction in your pay, because the student may be terminating lessons and the lessons may not be paid for by them. If the student cancels more than one lesson in a month, you should contact us as soon as possible so that we can proactively handle the situation.

4) Days off due to weather or sickness can be made up, or used as a day off. Taking snow days is at your discretion, but always give families plenty of notice.

5) If you are unable to schedule 11 lessons per quarter, substitutes can be arranged with our approval. This should only be done for extended absences. Contact us to discuss.

Transitions

1) Give the office at least 45 days notice if you will need a substitute teacher.

2) If you use a sub, only tell families about it once we have it arranged, unless we request otherwise. We will discuss how to communicate.

3) If you need to stop teaching for us, give us as much notice as possible, preferably at least 45 days.

4) Only tell families you are leaving after we tell you that we have the new teacher arranged.

Student Billing

1) We explain the billing, quarterly lesson count, and makeup policy to families in writing at least 3 times before you see them, so don’t be afraid to refer to it. Tell families to contact the office with any issues. They should email the same address as you: lessons@citystrings.com

2) If a student wants to change the lesson length, let us know and we will confirm the billing with them. You will only get paid for longer lesson time once it is confirmed with the family.

3) If a student needs to take any time off, they need to let us know.

Teacher Pay

1) You are paid the same each month for each student, as long as you are on track to teach 11 lessons in the quarter and at least 3 per month. In order to calculate your hourly pay, take the monthly pay for a 60 min. student and divide by 3.66, which is the average number of lessons per month (11/3=3.66).

2) If you do not offer 11 lessons in the quarter, your pay may be prorated.

3) Fill out the Student Sheet in Google Sheets by the end of the day on the 27th of each month.

4) Then your pay will arrive in your bank account on or before 2nd business day of the next month, if your Student Sheet is completed on time.

5) If your Student Sheet is late, your pay will come as soon as the office can process it. Let us know when it is done.

6) If there are less than 3 lessons for any student, please add a comment to explain or detail your make up plan.

7) If you are overpaid, we may have to withhold the excess payment amount from your next paycheck, but we make every effort to avoid overpaying.

Student Sheet

1) Your Student Sheet tracks the days you taught in each quarter.

2) To fill it out, enter the dates for each lesson in the row for each student and the column for each month. a) You only need to enter the number of the date.

3) For lessons that were canceled by the student and will not be made up, enter the date with an X next to it and the reason for the cancellation. a) It will not count towards the 11 quarterly lessons unless it is entered in the sheet with a X, so don’t just enter nothing for that date.b) You must save records of these cancellations and provide them if requested. If you fail to do so and the records are needed, your pay may be withheld. c) If there are multiple lessons in a month with an X we may withhold pay. d) Do not enter an X for lessons that you cancel.

4) If you make up a lesson, only enter the makeup date (not the original date). Add a comment if future makeup dates are scheduled but haven’t yet occurred.

5) Longer lessons previously agreed to serve as make-ups or partial make-ups should have the lesson length in parentheses next to the date. Only add time in 15 minute increments.

6) You are only being contracted to teach 44 lessons per year, so you won’t be paid extra for any extra lessons, unless the family purchased additional lessons and all parties were in agreement beforehand.

7) The office will complete the “Amount Paid” row after your direct deposit has been submitted.

8) The comment row is for the office to explain any deviation from your normal pay amount, i.e. if the student starts in the middle of the month and their tuition is prorated.

9) The final sheet of the year is due on Dec. 25.

10) Each year will have its own tab at the bottom of the sheet. The new year’s tab will appear as soon as possible before the end of January.

Prorated Quarters

1) For students who start or stop in the middle of the month, or need to take some time off, their tuition and your pay will be prorated to reflect their planned number of lessons in that month.

2) Prorated months will be divided by 4, rather than 3.66. This is the case both for the student's tuition and for your pay. This results in a small deviation from your normal rate in some cases, but prevents families from thinking they are paying by the lesson, which works out in your favor in the long term.