Summer School Pilot Program – $10,000 
At the Community Foundation, we are focused on elevating lives. We strive to identify ways we can help improve the quality of our residents’ lives, and the Summer School Pilot Program offers a solution for many working parents currently struggling with the challenge of reliable and affordable child care during the summer months.
Difficult realities exist for many working parents in Teton Valley that compromise their ability to earn a living wage and provide for their families. For instance, seventy-five percent of the population of Victor commutes over Teton Pass for work, reducing the hours they interface with their families after work. Thirty-eight percent of Teton County’s working population earn above the Federal Poverty Level, but not enough to afford a basic budget that encompasses household maintenance, child care, food, transportation and health care.
In Teton County, summer child care averages $40-85 per day, for a median total of $2,000 per month, or $6,000 for the summer as a whole. With school out of session for three months in the summer, some working parents are faced with the dilemma of choosing between working or being unemployed so that they can supervise their children. Many local businesses in Teton Valley are currently short staffed or forced to close, further complicating this issue.
Teton School District and Teton Science Schools came together to present a solution and provide safe, affordable child care for working parents. This six-week summer pilot program is a partnership between the two schools that will be run by a program director, lead instructors and assistants, serving local youth four days per week from 8:30-4:30. The program will operate on a sliding scale from $10-$20 per day, determined by parents’ ability to pay. Lunch and snacks will be provided to the children and some scholarships will be available. For the pilot program, fifty spots will be available to local youth from working families.
It is our hope that this program will ease the burden on working families, allowing them the peace of mind that their children are safe, fed and cared for while they are working to earn income for their families. This will foster the vibrant community we strive towards, with thriving individuals, where everyone has the opportunity to flourish.
