The full class
that loses money.
Enrollment is not margin. A class earns its place in the schedule only after you count what it consumes and what it prevents you from offering.
A waitlist can make a weak class look healthy. Full is a capacity measure, not a profitability measure.
Count the class you cannot see.
Start with collected tuition attributable to the class, not the catalog price. Discounts, family caps, scholarships, failed payments, and unlimited plans change what the enrollment actually produces.
Then count teaching time, prep, admin, music, assistants, and any class-specific cost. Finally ask what else the room and teacher could support in that slot. A full eight-student specialty class may be less valuable than a fourteen-student progression class it prevents you from scheduling.
A class can be full, beloved, and still be taking the season in the wrong direction.
Do not cancel from a spreadsheet alone.
Economics tells you where to investigate. It does not understand your training philosophy, feeder pathway, faculty development, or the promise you made to a dancer. A low-margin class may be strategically essential. Name that reason explicitly instead of letting it hide inside the schedule.
For every weak class, choose one move: raise realized revenue, reduce its direct cost, change the slot, combine the pathway, or keep it as a deliberate investment with a review date.