CS economic impact
impact
ABOVE: Main Street Market owner Karen Holzman takes a shift behind the counter at her store’s coffee and juice bar. Karen and her husband, Steve, are Community School parents and supporters. OPPOSITE: Chip and Whit Atkinson are Community School alumni as well as parents of Community School alumni and owners of three grocery stores in the Wood River Valley. The pair have been ardent supporters of the school over four decades, and their mother, Judy, helped found the school in 1973.
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photography: christina carlson
CS
BY KATE WUTZ
photography: christina carlson
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It’s a given that Community School
The town has a vibrancy. Part of that just comes from the history of Ketchum and Sun Valley, but it’s undeniable that part of that is also Community School.
impacts the quality of students’ lives,
—Bill Griffin Community School board member
sending graduates forth with drive, maturity, confidence, and the skills to succeed. But one expert told the Community School Board of Directors in May that Community School has a positive economic impact on the Wood River Valley as well.
Harry Griffith is the executive director of Sustain Blaine, an organization that works for economic development in Blaine County. The group has conducted economic profiles of each city in the county and made a concerted effort over the past three years to determine the economic makeup of the Wood River Valley. Led by Harry, the group has launched studies on everything from the economic impacts of various events to the necessity of commercial air service.
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Last year, Harry turned his focus to Community School. Community School’s board of directors hired Harry to determine what, if any, economic impact the school has on Blaine County. The results, said board member Bill Griffin, brought to light the incredible economic and cultural benefits Community School brings to the Wood River Valley. “This study shows that Community School truly contributes to the health of the local economy,” he said. “It’s incredible.” co m m u n it ys ch o o l.o r g
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CS economic impact Overview “It’s a fun project,” Harry said of the study, adding that he learned a lot about the school from which his son, Eric, graduated in 2011. The data is split into two major subsections: economic impact, or the hard numbers involving the economy in any given year, and economic statistics, the softer, “more human” numbers that provide information, but do not necessarily reflect the wider economy. In other words, Harry said, economic impact is the “hole in the economy” that would exist if the school weren’t here, while economic statistics — such as the estimated value of community service hours donated by students, for example — can demonstrate an estimated value of more nebulous economic factors. Harry calculated the economic impact of Community School by combining direct impacts such as tuition, payroll, expenses for supplies, and even school lunches with indirect impacts such as visits from family and friends of students, estimated relocations due to Community School, and expenses associated with outdoor trips. Harry then used a multiplier of 1.17, obtained from the Bureau of Economic Affairs and specific to the education sector in Blaine County. When he applied that multiplier, he discovered that the economic impact of Community School was far larger than perhaps expected—$15.4 million annually, significantly more than the entire operating budget of the City of Sun Valley. “It could be more,” Harry told the board. He hasn’t completed a study of the property owned by Community School parents and the taxes paid, so there is room for growth. Bill said that even with that conservative number in mind, the study makes clear that Community School is to Sun Valley what many universities are to the towns they are located in—a vital economic contributor and an integral part of the fabric of the community. “This is the tip of the iceberg,” he said.
CONTEXT More than $15 million is a large number, but without context, it’s relatively meaningless. Harry provided a set of data that compared Community School to other industries and events in the Wood River Valley. To some extent, comparing a school to events and industries is like comparing apples and oranges, but it does result in an interesting thought
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This is just the tip of the iceberg.
—Bill Griffin Community School board member
exercise. For example, Community School’s direct impact on the economy, roughly $5 million, is larger than the direct impacts of Nordic skiing, the Sun Valley Summer Symphony, and the Allen & Co. tech conference held in Sun Valley. The school’s total impact, including associated spending, is on par with the Sun Valley Summer Symphony and is three times the amount of Allen & Co. Community School is a nonprofit organization, and any excess revenue is poured back into improving the school. Overall, the school manages $8.5 million in revenue — less than the amount of the City of Ketchum’s 2012 operating budget, $11 million, but greater than the City of Sun Valley’s operating budget, $7 million. “I was shocked when I saw that number,” Bill said. “It was incredible to see that Community School has essentially the economic impact of city government.”
JOBS Community School is also one of the valley’s largest employers. Last year, Community School employed an average of 100 staff members, including part-time coaches. That’s higher than Mountain Rides, the City of Ketchum, Smith Sport Optics, and even the Blaine County School District in Ketchum. It’s only slightly below Webb Landscaping’s branch in Ketchum (100 employees, many part-time and seasonal) and the Wood River YMCA (130 employees, many part-time and seasonal). “If you count full-time equivalents, we’d be the second- or third-largest employer in the north valley,” said board member Jake Peters. But job impacts don’t stop there. Community School and its associated parents, many of whom own businesses in the Wood River Valley, provide 14 percent of the jobs in the north valley, a total of 826 jobs. Harry estimated that Blaine County has about 11,500 total jobs, about 8,100 of which are full-time. As a result, about 1 percent of employed people in Blaine County work for Community School or are employed by companies associated with Community School.
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Harry said future studies would include a deeper look at businesses that relocated to Sun Valley or the Wood River Valley because parent-owners wanted their children to go to Community School. While he did not have that data as of press time, he said a detailed look at this factor would be enlightening. “You have a lot of new families coming in, and they are bringing businesses with them,” he said. And, as Bill pointed out, the jobs brought by Community School tend to be full-time, yearround (or at least nine-month) jobs, rather than part-time seasonal jobs. “They are really valuable jobs to the texture of the community,” he said. “It’s a history teacher, a science teacher, or a Mandarin teacher. These jobs bring people with a certain level of education, experience, and commitment to the area.”
good neighbors Community School has an impact on the county financially, but it offers other benefits that are harder to put a monetary value on. Students, parents, and teachers donated a total of 23,500 hours in volunteer time to school-related activities last year. Students donated 5,800 hours helping organizations such as the Hunger Coalition and the Animal Shelter of the Wood River Valley, some of which were conducted in conjunction with the Wood River Foundation’s Project WOW. Project WOW encourages philanthropy in students by giving each student in Blaine County $25 to donate to a cause of their choice. Students at Community School donated the money, but also chose to donate time to organizations such as the Silver Creek Preserve and the Wood River Land Trust. Participating in Project WOW came naturally to the students, who already participate in class-based community service and take trips centered around giving back. Ninth grade students travelled to Salt Lake City in April for their annual service trip to work in a garden and a soup kitchen that help feed refugees and other homeless or distressed people. Parents, meanwhile, donated time to organizing
school events, especially in the Elementary School. The Board of Directors alone donated 3,360 hours in meeting and committee time, while parents and teachers served 15,400 hours to ensure events and other projects ran smoothly.
future studies Though the current study has provided a lot of useful information, Harry said there is more data to gather. He said he hopes to find out how the Sun Valley Ski Academy has boosted the local economy — perhaps through gear purchases and travel expenses, but also through the families and students who have moved here specifically for the academy. Even if the entire family doesn’t move, family members may visit for weeks at a time. Studies of how much Community School parents give to other nonprofit organizations are forthcoming as well. No matter what those studies show, Bill said, the impact of Community School on the valley goes much deeper than just numbers. The school is embedded in every aspect of the area, even the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference. Former Head of School Jon Maksik, former Elementary School Head Leslie Maksik, and Community School alumni parent Reva Tooley founded the Sun Valley Writers’ Conference in 1995, creating an iconic event that draws authors and bibliophiles alike from around the world to the Sun Valley Resort every year. Former Board Director Gordon Russell provided the initial financial support, and the conference was held on Community School’s campus for several years before moving to its current location at the resort. Head of School David Holmes is also involved in the valley’s nonprofit organizations, sitting on the board of the Wood River YMCA and on the advisory council of the Blaine County Education Foundation. Community School parents serve as directors of many nonprofit organizations, such as the Sun Valley Center for the Arts, the Wood River Land Trust, and the Environmental Resource Center (ERC). Even businesses and organizations not directly associated with the school benefit from it. “Lunches for our students fill the entire Johnny G’s van,” Bill said. “Contributions from Community School parents fill the Sun Valley Center for the Arts annual report, both grocery stores in the north valley are owned by Community School parents. The town has a vibrancy. Part of that just comes from the history of Ketchum and Sun Valley, but it’s undeniable that part of that is also Community School.”
By the numbers
the graphs below place Community School’s impact in context with the rest of the valley. Data Courtesy of Sustain Blaine. ECONOMIC IMPACT ($m) $20.0
$15.0
$10.0
$5.0
$0.0
COMMUNITY SCHOOL(‘12)
SYMPHONY (‘11)
DIRECT EL ($M)
INDIRECT EL ($M)
ALLEN & CO. (‘12) MULTIPLIER ($1M)
2012 REVENUE ($m)
COMMUNITY SCHOOL
CITY OF SUN VALLEY
CITY OF KETCHUM
$0
$2
$4
$6
$8
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$10
$12
If you count full-time equivalents, we’d be the second- or third-largest employer in the north valley.
—Jake Peters Community School board member
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