WPCNR WHITE PLAINS VOICE. October 23, 2004: A reader familiar with rink practices around the county writes these comments on the Ebersole Rink Commission Fee Plan:
Lets do some math.......If say 12 Ebersole instructors are now going to be paid $60.00 per hour ($30.00 per 1/2 hour class taught) and given the 50% increase over $30.00 per hour or ($15.00 per class) then they will earn for 8 classes or 1 8-week semester: $240.00 versus $120.00. Multiply that times perhaps 20 classes per week for sixteen weeks!!! WOW, how was the Recreation Department able to adjust their part-time salary budget in September, when the budget has already been approved for this fiscal year?
And, paying municipal rink instructors $30.00 per class is unheard of!!!!! So, the Recreation Department pays A LOT more money out now in hourly wages, because they instututed a $400. annual commission fee!
That's incredible...who approved that manuever? Having an open commission policy is standard in the nation for skating instructors, either you pay a commission on lessons or you MUST teach program group classes and be part of their learn-to-skate program. This is fair as why should any instructor be able to walk into a rink and solicit lessons away from the instructors who are supporting a particular program.
And lastly, Arne Abramowitz stated that the skating instrcutors make "thousands of dollars"....well, Mr. Abramowitz, these same instructors also come with years (10-15 at least) of amateur training paying their instructiors the same industry professional fees...so by the time a young woman decides to teach figure skating, she has made an investment in herself equivilant to the cost of tuition at most 4-year top-notch colleges!!
There is also the cost of equipment, association dues and professional insurance to the instructor.
What a shame....Ebersole used to be a nice community skating rink where you could find caring instructors who taught outside with no roof for many years, (in the rain and snow & sleet) now they have a roof however, still not completely sheltered from the elements, unlike the Westchester Skating Academy with climate control and heat, now the Recreation Dept. has gotten involved without doing their homework as to how skating school programs should be run and I see the beginning of the end of a good quality recreational skating program!
Name Witheld On Request.
