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The Santa Fe Waldorf School, a private school known for its hands-on curriculum and outdoor learning program, will not be opening its doors to teach students in the 2023-’24 school year. The school’s Board of Trustees announced the decision via email Friday afternoon, stunning parents and teachers.
“We are all very saddened by this event, but hope that a regrouping can happen in the future,” Jill McCormick, a teacher with the school’s Parent & Child program who has taught in the Waldorf kindergarten since 1988, tells SFR via email. “I always have hope. I love Waldorf education and this community.”
The news comes only a few weeks before the school year was planned to begin Aug. 23.
“We sincerely regret to announce that, due to unexpectedly low enrollment and because tuition is our main revenue source, we have determined that we do not have sufficient revenue to sustain our operations and will not open for the 2023-2024 school year,” reads the message sent to parents of Waldorf students.
According to its website, a group of Santa Fe parents founded the school in 1983 to provide an accredited Waldorf education, which balances academic, artistic and practical activities to create well-rounded students. The school’s campus is southeast of the Santa Fe city limits, off Old Santa Fe Trail.
In the past, the email says, tuition coupled with annual donations from parents and alumni were sufficient to operate with a balanced budget. The school has served between 200 and 240 students per year over the last decade. However, as of Aug. 4, less than 140 students had signed contracts, which the Board of Trustees’ email says translates into an inability to pay staff, despite having recently reduced the personnel budget.
“As recently as June, enrollment numbers were roughly on track. As the summer progressed, it became clear that we were not meeting our goals, which is to say we did not anticipate this precipitous drop in enrollment,” The Board of Trustees’ email says.
Kevin and Bonnie Taylor, parents who planned to register their child for kindergarten at Waldorf this year, say they didn’t receive the email, despite saying they received multiple emails from the school throughout the summer to inform them of tuition and paperwork deadlines.
“My wife read something this morning [on Facebook], and she showed it to me, and I was like, ‘Oh my god, that must be some crazy rumor,’” Kevin Taylor tells SFR.
It was only when they got confirmation of the school’s closure from other parents that the Taylors realized they would need to get their son registered for a new school.
“I wish they could’ve given us a heads-up on this…you know, just give us an opportunity to rally behind them, which I really would’ve, because I do love Waldorf,” he says. “But, this is really disappointing, and it makes me wonder.”
The couple has begun researching other schools, but the deadline is tight. The official start date for kindergarteners at Santa Fe Public Schools is Aug. 17, and other private and charter schools in the area are slated to begin soon as well.
However, many Waldorf parents have already paid tuition to the school. In their email, the Board of Trustees says they are committed to refunding tuition and fees that have been paid for thus far, but that this will “take time.”
“All of us gravitate towards Waldorf because we feel that there’s this integrity and community, and I’m just shocked,” Bonnie Taylor says. “But then, there’s other layers of people that it’s far worse for.”
For example, she says, two international students who have visas that allow them to attend the Waldorf School will now need to pivot to applying for visas to other schools quickly, or they might have to return home.
Another 41-year-old parent to a Waldorf kindergarten student who asked to remain anonymous for his child’s privacy also shared his frustration with the sudden announcement.
“I feel bad for the teachers and for the faculty there, because it’s not their fault,” he tells SFR. “But the president and the board did not handle this properly whatsoever, and they left 140 children totally high and dry.”
Waldorf’s curriculum and teaching style worked well for his son, who has special needs, and the father worries that adjusting to a new environment could be difficult for his son.
“He loves school, and that’s the other sad thing about it too, we haven’t told him yet, because we want to figure out what’s going on first. He’s been doing nothing but talking about going back to school and seeing his friends,” he continues.
This parent also shared an email with SFR that the Waldorf School sent July 28, where the Board of Trustees acknowledged the significant decline in enrollment, but did not indicate that they plan to close.
“Over the past few years,” reads the message, “we have faced challenges in balancing our budget due to enrollment shortfalls, rising costs, and an increase in tuition assistance…While these circumstances are challenging, we believe they offer us an opportunity for growth and positive change…Please be assured that any changes we make, including consolidating classes with low enrollment and reducing faculty and staff, are made with careful consideration to maintain the integrity of our programs and provide the best learning environment for our students.”
The email also encouraged parents to participate in fundraising events, volunteer opportunities and advocacy efforts to promote the value of Waldorf education.
But for now, parents are in the lurch.
“I work three jobs to save up for this, I’m not really well-off,” the father tells SFR. “Now, we need that money to sign them up for another school, and now we have thousands of dollars tied up in this Waldorf educational system, that I don’t even know we’ll get back.”
Waldorf’s College of Teachers and faculty will meet on Aug. 7 to discuss “how to support families and students of the Waldorf community at this time,” but parents and other members of the public were not invited to attend.
In the meantime, the Board of Trustees sent out another email August 5, which says, “We urge the community to have patience with us and the staff—both faculty and administration—this weekend and into this upcoming week, as we work hard to reorient the school.”
SFR attempted to contact multiple school officials and members of the Board of Trustees by both phone and email, but none replied as of publication time. The school’s Instagram and Facebook accounts have been deleted.
Communications Director Janine Pearson tells SFR on Monday the board has now met with faculty to discuss next steps, but that there are no updates on when families who paid tuition would receive refunds for the time being. She says the board will inform families when this timeline is more clear.
