If all goes according to plan, twice the current number of students will be attending Squamish Waldorf School in a new, $5-million facility by 2021.
Officials at the independent school, formerly called Cedar Valley Waldorf School, aim to open a new 25,000-square-foot school on five acres, according to Adam Greenberg, president of the Squamish Waldorf School Association.
The new school would have enough space to accommodate a performing arts centre, a gym and approximately 227 students.
Lars Graefe, a parent of three boys who attend the school currently located in Valleycliffe, told The Chief that more parents in B.C. are looking for an alternative to public education.
“Waldorf attracts many because it has a successful track [record] that spans 100 years and the globe. As Squamish grows, it’s only natural that the Waldorf school grows with it,” he said.
The Squamish Waldorf School was founded in 2002 with a handful of students and moved to its current re-purposed church facility in Valleycliffe in 2008.
It has 110 students attending its preschool to Grade 8 classes.
The current facility is bursting at the seams, Greenberg said, adding the school has two possible locations for the new school.
Both developers of the Cheekye Fan and Cheema lands have expressed an interest in the Waldorf school being built on their lands, Greenberg said.
A housing community, planned by Cornerstone Developments on 81 hectares of the Cheekye Fan in the area of Ross and Government roads in Brackendale, has passed second reading of bylaws needed to move ahead; The Cheema family is hoping to develop on a portion of 400 acres in the Garibaldi Highlands.
Because of timing for both developments, Greenberg said the Cheema lands may be the best fit for the new school.
“Myself, as the board lead, and Bob Cheema are starting to work on a letter of intent – the first step to an agreement – should his plans get approved. That is where we would like our school to be located,” he said.
Mayor Patricia Heintzman noted that there is no application for a development on the Cheema lands currently.
The District of Squamish is still drafting the rewritten Official Community Plan that includes growth management of greenfield areas like the Cheema lands.
She said she wasn’t privy to negotiations around the Waldorf school, but said an independent school would not be considered a community amenity contribution by council.
“It might weigh in the overall benefit of the development or not, but it is not a pure amenity,” she said.
While the future location is still being hammered out, Squamish Waldorf continues to grow and plan for the new facility. This year, the school is hiring six new teachers, Greenberg said.
“We have a waiting list in certain grades.”
The next step is to launch a capital fundraising campaign.
“We are quietly working within our own networks to raise some funds to get seed capital going,” Greenberg said.
The Squamish Waldorf School Association had revenue of approximately $706,000 for the period from June 2015 to June 2016, according to the Canada Revenue Agency’s charity registry.
New principal to take over
That income is made up of fundraising, government funding and tuition of about $6,300 per full-time student.
The school registered expenses of $744,000 for June 2015- June 2016.
Moving forward, Squamish Waldorf will have a new principal who will help with the transition to a new facility, Greenberg said.
Current principal Christine Martin, a founder of the school and a teacher, has announced she is stepping away from the head role to focus more on teaching.
With more students in a bigger facility the current school’s sense of community and the connections between students and teachers will remain, she said.
“A new location will help manifest Waldorf education in a deeper way than we can currently achieve,” she said.
“A new property and building will help us achieve our mission to educate people to become creative independent thinkers who are conscious of the environment and their fellow humans, and who respond to the world with compassion, courage, creativity…. These attributes are greatly needed in our times.”
Waldorf education is based on the ideas of 19th century Austrian social reformer and scientist Rudolf Steiner.
Students receive the BC Ministry of Education curriculum a, but proponents say Waldorf education is more holistic and its students learn according to developmental milestones to be self-disciplined, imaginative, critical thinkers.
