Sun Valley private school builds a new middle school building

With the addition of 100 students since 2010, the private, college preparatory Community School in Sun Valley is more than doubling the size of the building that once housed its middle school.

The pre-kindergarten to 12^th grade private school expects to finish construction in April on its Creative Arts and Middle School building. The 20,250-square-foot structure replaces the 9,700-square-foot Dumke Middle School that was built in the 1980s and demolished to make way for the new building.

“The day after graduation (June 1), we started the demolition process,” Head of School David Holmes said.

The new building will house the middle school on its second floor and have facilities for all grades on the ground floor. These will include a Makers Lab with the school’s first 3D printer and an expanded robotics lab, and rooms for fine arts and music.

Community School has set record attendance in recent years after bottoming out at 294 students in 2010-11. The school now has 395 students.

“We’ve probably had 35 to 40 families moving from Sun Valley from places like Santa Monica, Chicago and San Francisco,” Holmes said. “Many said they would not have moved here if this school was not here.”

The school has raised about $6.7 million of the $8.5 million needed for the middle school building as well as a greenhouse and outdoor amphitheater class space. Donors have included long-time Wood River Valley residents and the recent arrivals, Holmes said.

The main campus has six buildings.