Parents Tuition During the Pandemic

[Dahlia]

So sad to lose so many gyms. I fear that list will just get longer.

Our gym suspended tuition and provided free zoom workouts, but I believe that all families that could pay continued to do so and more. I know one parent offered free legal services so they could renegotiate their lease as well. Our gym owners are amazing and my dds coach is like family. The team rallied to support them. I am grateful and hope so much our small gym can stay afloat through all this.

We are in WA. I also know Seattle Gymnastics Academy cut their JO program. This doesn’t surprise me though. Their team program has been a mess for years. These team kids were forced to scatter. I heard from parents there that it was super stressful to find a spot. Very competitive as most gyms don’t have a lot of room to build their team numbers during this time.

I also heard that northwest in Spokane was actually purchased by another gym in town and that it had been in the works before this happened. Their team kids and coaches are still in the same location. So that is good news.

really sad about SPU. Hate to lose a college program But they were also looking at closing the program before this happened. D2 gym programs are few and far between and the closest d2 program was over 1000 miles away.

I know Bothell cut their team program too. No idea on their status prior to covid.

 

[cogymmom2dd]

Our gym did not require payment during closure from mid March up until June. Many families continued to pay and we had the option of getting a monthly prorated discount for this year (June-June) or adding it into our expense accounts. We opted for the monthly discount since our expense account is pretty well-padded due to the fact that the last 3 meets of our season were cancelled and partially refunded for the most part. We haven’t signed a contract yet because they have no idea what the competitive season will look like at this point.

 

[raenndrops]

Our gym was closed toward the end of the "session" in March, so that was already paid for. We were not required to pay anything since April, BUT, for those who could afford it and had autopay set up, they could continue to pay and it would be considered a tax-deductible donation (the perks of being in a YMCA program). We did have 2 zoom sessions a week until they were able to start having privates. The zoom was supposed to continue until "camps" started, but they stopped after the first 2 weeks because the coaches were exhausted.
Privates were $30 for 50 minutes (but you could have up to 3 girls from the same "family" in 1 private. We did exactly 1 of those. (Regular tuition is $80 a month ... @ 7.5 hours a week x 4 weeks ... so for 30 hours. And my 3 have scholarships which can't be used on privates or camp ... so combined, we usually pay $120 a month for all 3. We also did 1 week of camp at $50 per gymnast for 55 minutes x 5 days. Camps will run through the end of this week. We haven't heard what is happening after this. I am hoping we go back next week, but I doubt it.

 

[ReluctantGymMom]

Besides the gyms that closed permanently, a lot of gyms lost coaches who had to go take other full time work - our gym has received a ton of gymnasts from 3 nearby gyms who lost their coaches or cut their programs so all the gymnasts left. And that’s within like 10-20 miles of us. There’s Definetly more

 

[Freddy's Fred]

I'm curious how other gyms handled this. It seems like most gyms either discounted tuition or offered zoom lessons while they were shut down. Ours did neither of these. We got our new contract and it strongly implies that if the gym closes or girls need to quarantine because of gym exposure, we are still responsible for full tuition. Is this the situation for anyone else?

We are not obligated to sign a year contract this year. It is just month to month tuition.

 

[mom2newgymnast]

We just had to sign our 12 month contract this month. They did not address what would happen if the gyms were closed again, but I am fairly sure it would be like the first time for us. Which basically was continuing to pay tuition during the 2 months off, but they provided 3+ hours of zoom workouts daily that were expected to attend. The competition season is still a big unknown. The coaches fees are usually divided into 6 payments and start in September. I do wonder what will happen if they collect that money, but there are no competitions. I don't think we will pay specific meet fees until we are registered for meets and we haven't seen any updates about that either.

 

[FlippinPrincess]

Ours states this directly, that in the event of a covid closure they will move to zoom but tuition will remain the same with no refunds. It gave me pause, but I understand they have to have that policy in order to stay afloat and the only alternative is to quit gym - which isn’t something we would consider at this point. So, I just had to swallow the pill and sign it.

I've heard from some gym owners here in Michigan who haven't been allowed open at all yet and the debt amount is staggering. We have continued to pay the entire time hoping we have a gym to come back to. This is week 21. I'm not surprised gyms are now enacting a policy to continue paying during a Covid-19 shutdown. It stinks to have to pay for something you aren't receiving but the trade off of no gym at all is worse.

 

[Gymsanity]

I didn't charge during the closure as I saw no way to justify it and I didn't do any Zoom classes as I felt the participation and benefit would be minimal. However, I had many wonderful families that voluntarily continued to pay throughout and two others that made out of pocket donations to help keep the doors open and another offered a loan. So to all the above families that helped to support your local gyms, I'd like to give a big 'thank you.' Despite what many think, the smaller to mid size gyms usually consider just keeping the lights on a 'good' month! I think most of my parents understood that after 25 plus years losing our facility would be a huge loss to the children and families of our city.

 

[Busymomma]

Our gym has a large men’s team, and we have only lost a few of them. But we did lose a coach. We were out March and April, and we, personally, have continued to pay the tuition so that we would have a gym to return to. I think that most of the optional parents did the same. Tuition at that time was discounted and we had almost daily zoom sessions that focused on conditioning lasting about 2 hours. Since returning in May it has been full steam ahead, but contract are due to be signed. I believe, before the pandemic, we were looking at a rise in tuition for the coming season, but I do not believe that will be happening this year. Our CPU dues for travel meets have been slightly discounted. Normally, we prepay our year to get a discount, but this year, we will not be using this option in case we need to find a new home. Kids return to school next week, so it will be interesting to watch what happens to businesses if/when a spike happens in the case counts

 

[Tulip811]

All of you who are paying just to be nice, what is your tuition? I pay $475/mos for 9hrs Xcel. I cant imagine paying this out when the gym is closed just because.

 

[amiandjim]

$390 for 16 hours of level 6/7 plus $75 for 6 hours of fast track (although she isn’t doing that right now, so we aren’t paying that, but we did.).

 

[lostinfog]

I also wonder the opinions of those of you with multiple athletes on team paying full tuition for time the gym was closed. Did your gym expect it?

 

[Kegler]

Our gym closed mid-March. I continued to pay in April and May but when I asked the owner he said no tuition was due since no services were being provided. We reopened on 7/1 with the same tuition amount as pre-pandemic. Most of my son’s teammates in the optional program have returned. Our gym was boys team only before the pandemic. One of the girls teams from one of the closed gyms above moved to our gym when we reopened. It’s been fine for summer but I’m not sure how everyone will fit once school starts.

 

[Sk8ermaiden]

All of you who are paying just to be nice, what is your tuition? I pay $475/mos for 9hrs Xcel. I cant imagine paying this out when the gym is closed just because.

I also wonder the opinions of those of you with multiple athletes on team paying full tuition for time the gym was closed. Did your gym expect it?

Between my (at the time) 15 hour Xcel Platinum and my rec kid, it was just over $400 a month.

I did pay because I was financially able to and we wanted a gym to come back to. My view on it was that I pay that bill every month. My expenses and income during lockdown did not change, so it's not like I needed that money for other things any more than I usually do. The gym has value for my family so I was willing to keep paying as if it were open.

If I had lost income, I wasn't thrilled with the gym, or if it was already a struggle to pay that bill, we would have paid less or not at all.

I sometimes work the front desk, and there were clear tiers of who paid during the closure and who didn't. Almost no rec or preteam families did, maybe half of Bronze and Silver, and almost all Gold, Platinum and JO optionals. Excepting families who lost income, people for whom the gym is a bigger part of their lives were willing to help keep it afloat even though they have the bigger bills. This was true for families with multiple kids on team, too.

But our gym didn't demand anything, they just appreciated it.

I would never pay almost $500 a month for 9 hours of gym, ever, so yeah, that's a big bill. My kid going 20 hours a week is far under that. I live in a low COL state, but yikes! Is that NY or California?

 

[Kegler]

Our gym closed mid-March. I continued to pay in April and May but when I asked the owner he said no tuition was due since no services were being provided. We reopened on 7/1 with the same tuition amount as pre-pandemic. Most of my son’s teammates in the optional program have returned. Our gym was boys team only before the pandemic. One of the girls teams from one of the closed gyms above moved to our gym when we reopened. It’s been fine for summer but I’m not sure how everyone will fit once school starts.

To clarify, the gym never cashed the checks I sent while the gym was closed.

We pay $450/month for 16 hours a week of boys optional level training. Ours is a fairly large gym with approximately 20 boys in the optional group.