Accomplishments

Hartt Community Division Programmatic & Administrative Contributions

Chronological Order:

• Committee of School Directors, National Guild: participating member 2005-2011. Our work included analysis and editing of the new document presented by the guild for school directors to assess the overall effectiveness of their school.
• Contract Worksheet: Drafted a new contract drafting worksheet designed to generate adequate contract negotiation topics so that contracts for full-time faculty can be more comprehensive and more accurate, and to provide the budget administrator with adequate information to generate contracts and subsequent forms. (2010)
• Summer Programs: Designed & implemented new summer programs geared to bring in new students to the HCD who have casual interest in the arts, need full-day programs for child care purposes, and to generate interest in additional school programs in the future. (2009)
• Advisory Panel Member: Kinsella Magnet School of the Arts, Hartford; served as a member of an advisory panel meeting 3-4 times per year with other arts leaders in the Hartford region. We worked together to brainstorm ways to support arts education in Hartford, specifically for students at Kinsella School. (2007-2010)
• National Guild Workshop Presenter: Customer Service Workshop, presented during the National Guild conference in Philadelphia, PA and designed to share best practices to analyze current customer service delivery and to design and plan an improvement system for staff to be engaged in the process. (2008)
• Staff management: researched and implemented a new software system to facilitate project management, to ensure staff completion of tasks & responsibilities, and to provide more comprehensive documentation of yearlong staff responsibilities leading to stronger and more accurate personnel review process and greater accountability (Result = Central Desktop, 2008)
• Administrative Procedural Analysis: Worked with the Bursar and Registrar of the University of Hartford to assess the security and effectiveness of HCD registration and payment processing systems in response to customer complaints; implemented a series of changes based on their recommendations including a centralized system for storing and working with student forms and payments, installing safes at 3 office locations, and continued analysis of secure handling of payments. (2008 – 2011)
• Email Marketing: Researched and implemented a new email marketing software program to improve the graphic presentation and organization of email newsletters, allow for tracking of recipients that open school newsletters as well as those who click through to our website (Result = Constant Contact, 2008)
• National Guild Workshop Presenter: Recruiting Students, presented during the National Guild conference in Phoenix, AZ. This presentation focused on recruiting students particularly through grass-roots efforts and specifically designed for non-profit schools with limited funding for marketing purposes. (2007)
• Project Budgets: Created a new program/project budget template for use by faculty when they have new ideas, trips, workshops, programs, etc. The budget template was set up to require appropriate percentages for the University of Hartford as well as the HCD so that the addition of new programs and projects are drafted with a healthy financial expectation, and so that they can be staffed appropriately. (2007)
• Budgetary Improvements: Analyzed the accuracy of HCD budgets, shifted expense lines to appropriate ORG’s so that income and expense accounts lined up more accurately in relation to one another. Specifically, major re-alignments were made to the Simsbury Satellite and Dance budgets. (2007)
• Marketing Team: Coordinated the school’s marketing team, establishing consistent multi-year plans to improve marketing for Hartt Community Division programs.
• Chamber Music: analyzed the effectiveness of the chamber music program in comparison with other schools, particularly focusing on the success of the Neighborhood Music School; implemented a new system including larger chamber ensembles for younger players to serve as a feeder for the high school ensembles. (2006)
• Customer Service Initiative: Designed, implemented and supervised an initiative to improve customer service relations; established and cultivated a working relationship with the Neighborhood Music School staff in New Haven, CT to build a customer service plan for each school (2005 – 2007). As a result, permanent improvements are in place specifically including regular attention to customer service at staff meetings, interview questions for both faculty and staff prior to hiring, training and orientation for faculty & staff includes customer service expectations, procedural improvements made including reduction of the number of registration forms, addition of Google calendar features to the website, streamlining payment handling to expedite processing,and streamlining the organization of files so that numerous staff can assist customers.
• National Guild Workshop Facilitator: Bringing your faculty on Board, presented during the National Guild conference in Pittsburgh, PA. I facilitated a panel discussion on how to foster faculty investment into your school. (2005)
• Simsbury Location: Supervised the opening of a new branch for music lessons, dance classes and early childhood music classes. Worked with the architect & landlord to ensure the successful and on-time opening of the building including decorative and administrative decisions until a site-manager was hired 2 months after we opened. (2005)
• Hartford Symphony Orchestra Pre-Concerts: Managed the pre-concert series whereby HCD students performed prior to HSO Masterworks Series Concerts. This included the development of the series, recruiting HCD Advisory Board members to host events, working with HSO Education Staff to create a friendly and professional atmosphere for HCD students and their families regarding their performance, HSO tickets, audience awareness of the program and the performers, and good communication to performers regarding logistical details. (2003-2005)
• National Guild Workshop Presenter: Arts Assessment and Program Evaluation, with David Pankratz, EMC Arts, Inc., presented at the National Guild conference in Boston, MA. This was a joint presentation on student and faculty assessment by myself along with program evaluation by David Pankratz. (2004)
• Program Evaluation: created and distributed evaluation forms to students and families of our ensemble and class programs. Shared results with ensemble directors and other personnel as appropriate. Prior to this date, evaluations were only sent to private lesson students. (2004)
• Conference Planning Committee Member, National Guild Conference in Boston, MA: served as a member of the planning team to collaborate with committee members to design and implement all aspects of the annual national conference. (2003-2004)
• Chair, Hospitality Committee, National Guild Conference in Boston, MA. Lead a committee of school directors to design and implement a hospitality plan for participants of the annual national conference. (2003-2004)
• Budget: Analyzed HCD budgets to identify the cause of a known deficit of $100,000 and provide a recommendation to the Director for resolution (proposal given to Michael Yaffe in 2004 and implemented – elimination of The Company; increased 1^st steps tuition & reduced the number of classes offered; increased Suzuki tuition to balance the cost of group classes and orchestras against the tuition charged) (2003-2004)
• Visibility amongst Public School Music Teachers: Created and supervised a project to provide sample CD’s of our top ensembles to public schools in Connecticut in order to raise visibility of the school and increase enrollment in ensembles (2004)
• Early Registration: Drafted and supervised the implementation of an early registration system for all private lesson students including the addition of late fees to reduce the amount of late registrants and unpaid faculty (2004)
• National Guild Workshop Presenter: Music Assessment Simplified, presented at the National Guild Conference in Chicago, IL. This was a presentation on student and faculty assessment including the construction and use of rating scales, portfolio assessment, and other general details relevant to why, how and when to evaluate students and teachers in the field of music. These forms are highlighted on the website of the National Guild for Arts Education, as samples for school directors to use toward the implementation or improvement of the assessment system for their school.(2003)
• Evaluation: Created and supervised the current student & teacher evaluation system in conjunction with departmental chairpersons and the Director of the school (2003)
• Audition Day: Redesigned the administrative procedures for producing our annual ensemble audition day. This included shifting to database management of students rather than paper sign-ups, working with the Advisory Board to provide meals for faculty and staff, changing distribution of audition results from U.S. Mail to email distribution, creating ensemble handbooks and calendars for students and families. (2002-2005)
• Northeast Chapter Workshop Presenter: Evaluation and Assessment in Music, presented at the Northeast Chapter Meeting of the National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts in West Hartford, CT. This presentation focused on student and faculty assessment in the arts. (2002)
• Ensemble Management: Created handbooks for all large ensembles and chamber ensembles (2002)
• Technology Improvements: Created and supervised the implementation of a server-based database system for tracking new student placement (2002) (Microsoft Access)
• Website Redesigns: Supervised the creation and launching of three versions of the school website over a period of seven years (2001, 2004, 2007)
• Personnel Analysis: Created and supervised the redistribution of staff duties on numerous occasions to continuously improve upon job performance and to help personnel become more efficient and economical. (2001-present)
• Phone system: Worked with telecommunications to implement an automated phone system for the main office. (2001)