Important Message - School Update on 2016-17 Tuition

Dear Chinese School Families,

Since last semester the school admin team has been working with the school council to evaluate and propose actions on three key initiatives - curriculum, tuition and compensation, CCC membership. Here I want to give you an update on the progress of tuition and compensation initiative.

First of all, let me bring a bit of history into the context. Last time we took action on tuition and compensation was about five years ago. Since then, our language and culture class enrollments have grown for more than 15% and 40% respectively. Along with enrollment growth are operational cost and program expenses, such as annual ~3% increase of facility rental. So far we have been able to maintain a balanced financial budget, but at the cost of each teacher, school staff, PTA members shouldering much more responsibilities than before.

With a forward looking mind aimed to provide better learning experience to our students, to ensure a more sustainable operation, to deliver better and diversified programs, we believe it is time to adjust tuition and compensation accordingly to ensure a stronger finance foundation that supports teaching, operation and meet the future needs of our students.

I am happy to announce, after a few month’s deliberation and discussion, the council has approved the proposed 2016-17 tuition and compensation plan, and a long-term plan for public hearing in the next few weeks.  Below are highlighted changes in the proposed plan:

1.      Tuition Increase
Language class tuition is proposed to increase from $240/year to $280/year.
Culture class tuition is proposed to increase from $120 to $130.
Classroom fee is proposed to increase from $8 to $15 and from $8 to $10 for language and culture classes respectively, so effective tuition increase is $33 and $8 for each.

2.      Compensation Increase
Hourly rate for teachers is proposed to increase by $2.5/hour (~10% increase)
School staff gas mileage reimbursement is proposed to increase by $200/year.
New school staff office supply and communication reimbursement is added for $200/year.

3.      Tuition Reimbursement
All language class teachers, PTA officers, school staff are entitled to receive tuition reimbursement up to 50% for one child and for language class only.

4.      Other changes
Many other programs, such as scholarship, field day, story-telling, New Year party, will all see a proportional budgetary increase.

The details of the proposed tuition and compensation plans can be found in the attached file. School council will vote on the proposed plans in April. We want and need the votes to represent what you think. So it is important for you to review the plans and have your feedback heard by one of the council members.

I truly believe that the actions we are taking today will lay solid foundation for us to build higher, look farther and achieve much more. I hope you share the same thoughts with me.

Finally, we thank Vice Principal Yinghui Shan for his leadership in evaluating the impact of the tuition and compensation plan, comparing our case to neighboring Chinese schools, and finalizing a comprehensive plan.

Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me or other council members.

Sincerely,
Feng Chen
Principal
CCC Chinese School 2014-2016