Automotive News - October 17, 2016 - Supplement - S31

OCTOBER 17, 2016 ❙ 31 V I C T O R V I L L E M O T O R S , V I C T O R V I L L E , C A L I F. Big benefits of just showing up Students, teachers, schools reap rewards of Calif. store's efforts Printed in Automotive News May 23, 2016 Larry P. Vellequette lvellequette@crain.com C all it a testament to the power of compounded interest. In 2011, dealer Tim Watts and two of his employees at Victorville Motors - a Chrysler-Jeep-Dodge-Ram dealership about 90 miles northeast of Los Angeles - created Ⅲ Car giveaway a car-giveaway contest to enrewards courage perfect attendance students among students at local high with perfect schools. attendance The dealership's "It's a Gas to go to Class" contest had a double benefit: It not only motivated kids to stay in class and get an education but also enriched the schools, whose state funding is based in large part on student attendance. Now - five years and 16 free cars and trucks later - the financial impact of the idea on a vast area of inland Southern California has been nothing short of miraculous. More than $10 million in additional state funding has flowed into the coffers of participating school districts because of increased average daily attendance, Watts said. The program, which covers 18 high schools, has added raffles that reward teachers and certified support staffers for perfect attendance on the job, and those include elementary and junior high schools. That has resulted in districts saving more than $600,000 in absenteeism costs, according to estimates from local school officials. More than 100 local businesses now help sponsor and support "It's a Gas." 'Stopped counting' And at Victorville Motors? "Frankly, we've stopped counting how many vehicles we've sold as a result of it," Watts said. "We stopped counting at 300." Along with the 18 high schools, the teacher and support staff contests now involve nearly 80 elementary and junior high schools with almost 50,000 students, Watts said. Brandon Payan won a Ram 1500 in Victorville Motors' "It's a Gas to go to Class" contest. Because the student contest had grown so large, what began as a single school-yearlong contest has been split into two semesters, this time awarding a Ram 1500 pickup in December to a student with perfect attendance and another in April. The contest works like this: At the beginning of the academic year, the schools hold a rally where the prizes are shown and the rules explained. Tracking attendance is left to the districts. At midyear, students in the participating high schools who have maintained perfect attendance are eligible to win a vehicle or one of several supplemental prizes, such as gift cards, from a network of local businesses. The process repeats in April. Those with perfect attendance are awarded a golden ticket, allowing them to attend a daylong festival where the prizes are raffled off. Thousands show up at each event. Under California law, minors aren't allowed to win vehicles. So if the big prize winner is under 18, the car or truck is awarded to the parent, Watts said. The vehicle is wrapped in advertising for one year. The dealership covers the state and local taxes, as well as the registration costs for the winner, who must provide proof of a valid driver's license and insurance. "What it's meant for us this year was that we had 62 out of 350 high school students who didn't miss a day all year. We probably doubled our perfect attendance rate," said Jill Kemock, superintendent of Silver Valley Unified School District, a 2,150-student public school district in Southern California's High Desert between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. Kemock said that since California school funding is based on daily student attendance, the increased attendance added $100,000-$200,000 in state funding to Silver Valley's coffers just this school year. Savings on subs The district also participates in Victorville's contests for teachers and support staff, she said. "I have 140 teachers, and 35 of them didn't miss a day all year," Kemock said. The district pays substitutes $140 a day, and each of her teachers has 10 authorized sick days, she said. That's $49,000 in savings as well, "not to even mention the educational impact of having teachers in with their students every day." "It's a Gas" has a cost to Victorville Motors, which sold 2,100 new and 1,400 used cars in 2015. In addition to the cost of the vehicles given away, a half-dozen of the dealership's marketing employees spend a large amount of time coordinating the contests. Still, Watts says, the costs are minimal when stacked against the compounded benefits that the contests have earned over the past five years. "It's grown quite a bit," he said. "But it's a labor of love." c

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