Interview with Merit School of Music - Active Net user

School Standout: Merit School of Music

Sarah S. Wright, Director of Student Services

The Merit School of Music was founded in 1979 on the desire to provide life-changing experiences for children through music. This year, the school will reach 7,000 young people, in ages ranging from newborn to 18 years, at nearly 90 locations throughout metropolitan Chicago. Merit offers a sequential continuum of music education for children, from early childhood classes and vocal group instruction, to private lessons, theory classes, musical theater and jazz studies.



With a growing student population, Merit selected Active Network’s ActiveNet registration software to integrate the work of three separate systems into one centralized, Web-based system. “We aim to eliminate duplicate efforts and better utilize the talents of our admissions staff, affording us more time to spend with families and less time correcting or proofing data entry errors. So far we have the full admissions team on the system producing all work related to enrollment, our front desk operations staff using it daily to assist families making payments and inquiring about class availability, and our programming staff using it to produce reports, attendance, faculty and student schedules, and soon, payroll. Using the ActiveNet system, we expect to have better information, consolidated efforts surrounding workload, and trusted information for our families, faculty and staff.”