Public School Systems

[David ilvedson]

Avery,

I just took over a school district here in California.  He was 
getting $50.00 a piano.  I eventually agreed to $75.00/piano 
and extra for repairs although.  I tune and vacuum them out 
and regulate the pedals but I'm done in about an hour.  My 
normal rate here is 95.00 to 115.00 with a pitch raise so this a 
substantial discount but I have a pretty good volume of pianos, 
not 250 like your school district which is a lot of steady work.  
In the elementary schools the pianos are generally the school 
models/blonde oak Wurlitzers and Baldwins in great shape.  
What a durable piano especially the Wurlitzers.  

Consider just tuning/servicing them once a year and it might 
be more affordable for the school district.  If you did 10 a day it 
would still take you a month to do the work before school 
starts.  Say goodbye to August vacations.

David Ilvedson, RPT    

David Ilvedson, RPT

Date sent:      	Fri, 10 Sep 1999 18:57:20 -0500
To:             	pianotech@ptg.org
From:           	Avery Todd <avery@ev1.net>
Subject:        	Public School Systems
Send reply to:  	pianotech@ptg.org

> List,
> 
>     I was asked today about a school system in the Houston area that wanted
> to start a program to have their pianos tuned and "repaired", i.e. whatever was
> needed. They're not looking necessarily for "cheap". They just want to know
> what would be reasonable.
>     They have app. 250 pianos and they wanted to know if $12,000.00 a year was
> unreasonable. Of course, for that many pianos you can imagine what I said. 
> :-) Two
> tunings a year would be almost double that figure!
>     But what "would" be reasonable, both for them and for the tuner? As far 
> as I'm
> concerned, $40.00 per piano, twice a year, would be rock bottom. Plus extra
> tunings for Christmas concerts and end of year concerts. Plus the cost of
> repairs/rebuilding work. But what would be a reasonable way for them to budget
> the cost of this type of thing? To decide how "much" money to budget?
>     Any help/suggestions that I can pass on to them would be greatly 
> appreciated.
> I've tuned for school systems before, but never one of this magnitutude.
>     Thanks for any help you can give.
> 
> Avery
> 
> Avery Todd, RPT
> University of Houston
> Houston, TX 
> 


David Ilvedson, RPT
Pacifica, CA
ilvey@jps.net