The Rock School for Dance Education

"We didn't want to lose any steps...."

Founded in 1963, The Rock School for Dance Education has rapidly grown in reputation and reach into an internationally acclaimed center for excellence in dance education. One of the top independent facilities in the country, The Rock School trains almost 900 students at two locations each year, auditions 1,500 students across the country for its summer program, and offers outreach programs for almost 10,000 underserved children. In 2001, The Rock School began an accredited online high school and boarding program for students selected primarily for their talent in ballet; all graduates to date have gone on to dance companies, colleges and other dance programs. The recently renovated five-story ballet center at Broad and Washington Streets anchors the south end of Philadelphia’s Avenue of the Arts, while The Rock School West in West Chester serves the suburbs.

As The School’s programs have expanded to include the high school, residential boarding facilities, coaching, private classes, choreography, and international competition preparation, its financial, accounting and controller needs have likewise grown. “With a $5 million budget and outreach to thousands of students, our accounting has become much more complex,” says Caro U. Rock, Chairman Emeritus, Chairman of the Board. “We have tuition payments, scholarships, payroll, contributions from supporters, and various funds that must be accounted for. We needed to expand our internal controls as our organization has grown.

“We weren’t specifically looking to outsource these functions, but during this past year we needed a new controller and a new auditing firm. Because we’re always running programs serving thousands of kids, we didn’t want to lose any steps. Your Part-Time Controller came to us highly recommended. They helped us maintain and strengthen our financial controls and accounting systems as we expanded.”

YPTC set up new accounting programs and streamlined The School’s payroll and tuition processing. Currently, YPTC is handling The Rock School’s Accounts Payable and senior level executives provide consulting services on a monthly basis.

“We have been extremely pleased with YPTC’s results and how they provided materials that helped us make a seamless transition to the new auditing firm. They’ve been very professional and have done additional work to address problems immediately when they came up,” says Rock. “We have been very impressed with the personnel and capabilities of Your Part-Time Controller and we recommend them heartily.”