Dear 25th Year HST Families,
Keeping with the “uniqueness” of this year – we are actually opening up registration for *next* year before we have finished *this* year! We decided to do this so that families would have the option of doing a 10 month payment plan.
*I realize that there are many questions about how we will do things next year. * I will be hosting a parent Zoom tomorrow evening at 8pm to answer questions about our current thoughts/plans for safety procedures in the fall. To be completely transparent, I will state upfront that these “plans” are tentative at best because we don’t know what we don’t know. It is impossible to predict what the status of Covid19 will be in the fall or what the CDC will require at that time. *All I can promise is that if we are not legally able to hold classes we will refund 100% of your tuition.* We certainly understand if families decide to wait until the end of summer to make decisions concerning dance (registration closes August 31st). We opted to NOT increase any tuition unless the length of the class increased (this is true for BW Tap & Jazz 1 and for Theatricals) and there is an early bird discount for almost all classes and Theatricals through June 30th. Troupe registration is normally required within a week after audition results but this year families will have until the end of June.
You should have received an invite to enroll your child(ren) from TADS (the company we have contracted with to do our registration). The *email should have “HST Cultural Arts, Inc.” as the sender.*
Before you click the link in that email, we ask that you first *review the 2 documents attached to this email*. They are:
1. Our *2020-2021 Class Chart*. Please review this prior to enrolling your children. Please note that the time and location has changed for all dance classes. All prices have remained the same except for the classes that had additional time added to them. New this year: There will be an early bird price for troupes as well. The early bird registration price will *only *be available through *June 30th*.
2. *Tuition, Prepaid and Fees Worksheets * This is a set of worksheets to help you calculate your total HST bill. New this year: You will be able to pay for your prepaid tickets through TADS. The system will not provide a total price until you have enrolled all your children. At that point, you will not be able to make changes without contacting us. In order to minimize this, we ask that you please download this worksheet and fill it out for planning purposes prior to enrolling.
After you review these documents, we ask that you click the link in the TADS email to enroll. This will bring you to the TADS sign-in page. You will need to sign-in with the email and password that you used last year. The system will then walk you through enrolling your child. If you have a new student to add, please complete their registrations first. You can do this by clicking the Admissions tab at the top and complete that application.
TADS will send you an email for each of the children you had enrolled with HST last year. You only have to click the link for one of these children. Once you have completely enrolled this child, TADS will bring you to a registration page that lists the rest of your children. Click on the numbers next to the remaining children and complete their registrations as well. Please make sure to click on the numbers under the 2020-2021 year. (Last year’s info will still be there.)
*Important registration notes:*
1. The 3rd page asks you to select your student’s grade in school from the pull down menu. This may be adjusted throughout elementary school (e.g. in cases where a student needs to either repeat or skip a grade). However, once you list your student as an 8th grader, your student will be eligible to enroll in HST for up to 5 years (including the 8th grade year). If they skip a grade or graduate early, they have 4 years left.
2. The 6th page is the main page that will allow you to enroll. This is a very busy page. But all parts have to be completed. You should be familiar with parts a, b and c. Part d is NEW and involves the prepaid tickets.
a. *Policies Contract.* You will have to read and agree to each of the 7 parts of this document.
b. *Course Selection*. If you select a class that has a prerequisite or required an audition, you will be prompted to acknowledge that they have met that requirement.
c. *Minimal Requirements*. You must agree that your child meets the minimal requirements listed in the blue box.
d. *Prepaid Ticket Questions*. Please answer ALL of these questions so that the system can calculate your prepaid tickets correctly. Unfortunately, if you have multiple children, you will have to answer each of these questions for each child. TADS will only assign the fees to once. But, please be careful when answering these questions. If there is a discrepancy between the answer you give between the different children, TADS will not charge the prepaid tickets correctly. Please see the important note in the payment notes below for more information.
3. Please note the terms and conditions on the Submit Registration page. Also please be aware of the important note that if you continue forward, you may not make further changes to your course selections without contacting HST directly.
4. Once you have enrolled your first child, you will be brought to a page that lists your other children. Please click on each name and repeat the enrollment process.
5. If the child is not returning, please click that name and indicate this when prompted. You *must* click all through listed names before your family is fully enrolled.
6. Once your family is fully enrolled, you will be brought to the payment agreement page where you can set up payments through TADS.
*Important payment notes*:
1. Payments can only be made by credit card or direct withdrawal from your bank. You will need to select one of these options. You may choose to use the same account you used last year or enter in a different one.
2. If you pay by credit card, TADS will charge you a 3% convenience fee on the entire amount.
3. *IMPORTANT:* Please double check your bill and make sure that the prepaid tickets charged correctly (by comparing to what you calculated using the attached Tuition, Prepaid and Fees Worksheet).
*If there is a discrepancy*, that means that there was an error with how you answered the Prepaid Ticket questions. Follow these steps to fix the problem:
a. Click the “Enrollment” tab at the top of the page. b. Click one of your children’s numbers. c. Click the blue link at the bottom that allows you to edit the enrollment. d. Under the gray box that has your child’s name and registration number, click the “Supplemental” tab. e. Scroll down to the very bottom and check your responses in the Prepaid Ticket section. f. If these are not correct, click the green “Edit Responses” button and edit. g. If they are correct, go to instruction ‘a’ above and check your other children. h. To go back to the billing page, click the “Agreements” tab at the top.
4. When you first register, TADS will charge you the $30 registration fee. This is the only thing that cannot be placed on a payment plan
5. Once you enroll all of your children, you will have the option of selecting a payment plan that splits your tuition over 1, 2, 6, or 10 installments. The details of these payment plans are on the attached Tuition, Prepaid and Fees Worksheet document.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Mena Stell at 410-905-1137 or menamacrina@aol.com
Finally, I would be remiss not to ask for your prayers for God’s guidance as we seek to keep HST afloat during these stormy times. Many thanks & blessings, Marilyn
P.O. BOX 150
ROCKVILLE, MD 20848
2020-2021-Class-Chart.pdf