Do-Re-Mi School Adapts to Pandemic Restrictions

Livingston, NJ — The Do-Re-Mi School of Music and the Arts began nearly 20 years ago as a music school for local Russian-speaking families.

“I started doing it in my house,” Marina Goldin, the owner of the school said. “The group of five kids came, the next week it was 14 kids. I remember the day when someone came and I said ‘I’m sorry I cannot take you; I don’t have room in my house.’”

After about a year and a half of teaching music out of her house, Goldin started looking for a place to expand. During this process, she began gathering good, respected teachers to her to evolve what the Do-Re-Mi school was, from a music school to an enrichment center, with experts in the Russian language, chess and art.

A year later, Goldin moved her operation to Livingston where it began rapidly expanding beyond her initial base of Russian-speaking clients into a full-blown Enrichment Center. Before the pandemic began, the school had roughly 500 students and taught piano, guitar, violin, wind instruments, singing and theater, while also offering academic support in English and Math.

“When Covid came it all fell apart,” Goldin said. “We were a little bit in better position than everyone, first of all because the services we provide can be done online. Not to the degree of excellence like it would be in person, but still, it was doable.”

The school also had some experience with conducting virtual lessons pre-Covid, using Facetime and other video call applications when weather or other extenuating circumstances forced cancellations.

When news of the pandemic first started breaking, Goldin made the decision to train her teachers in Zoom and close the school, quickly converting to a remote learning model.

“I just completely shut down Friday, March 13, Saturday, March 14,” Goldin said. “On Monday, we were fully online. The parents and teachers wanted to keep some kind of normalcy for kids.”
This sense of normalcy and connection, Goldin says, provided the kids with a much-needed outlet during a difficult time.

“During quarantine, I understand completely that some teachers actually played the role of psychologist because some kids were really not in good shape, especially teenagers,” she said. “But when they have trusted adult, they help to somehow mitigate it. It was better than nothing.”

For Goldin, her biggest goal was to keep her teachers employed and earning their usual income with the school.

“My very major point was the teachers because some of them solely rely on my school,” Goldin said. “Some significantly rely on it.”

Only two of Goldin’s many teachers had reduced hours. The rest worked more hours than they had in the past with a great variety of smaller online classes.

In July, the school was allowed to start bringing students to in-person lessons which were held in outdoor spaces. As restrictions have lifted, allowing students to begin safely coming inside, Goldin restructured the school to ensure safe distancing practices for her students.

Sensing a need in the community, Goldin also was able to offer approximately 30 scholarships to local families to help keep kids involved and engaged.

“I gave every single teacher a week off, paid time off because it was such a tremendous pressure,” Goldin said. “We did give about 150 lessons free for students and paid for teachers because we wanted to support families. We gave a lot of free stuff to keep people engaged.”

With the school partially back in person and a year of the pandemic behind her, Goldin is preparing to re-assess the company’s strength in January. Until then, she is keeping her teachers working and her students engaged.

“I have a great team and really great support,” Goldin said. “No one can do anything alone.”