Waldorf School May Be Facing Biggest Test

When Diane Kastner’s son was born 10 years ago, she paid a $100 deposit to enroll him in the private Waldorf School in Newport Beach.

“I’d heard there was a waiting list and I didn’t want to take a chance,” Kastner said.

Akiko Suzuki’s 5-year-old daughter endured taunts of “stupid kid” from other youngsters because, though she speaks English and Japanese, she was having speech problems. Suzuki wrote me that she enrolled her in kindergarten at Waldorf because “Waldorf said to me, ‘We can’t demand to bloom spring flowers in winter; let’s give her some time.’ ” Suzuki said her daughter has, indeed, blossomed at Waldorf.

But the parents committed to Waldorf face some serious troubles. Waldorf is the unfortunate victim of forces perhaps too powerful--and moving too quickly--for these parents to do much about them.

The Newport-Mesa Unified School District board must figure out how to handle the influx of new students that will come with a new Irvine Co. housing development in Bonita Canyon. At its 5 p.m. meeting today, the board will hear about 30 options its staff has developed to phase in those students. Almost every option would require reopening the old Eastbluff Elementary School near Upper Newport Bay next year.

The old Eastbluff site is where Waldorf, with 204 students, is thriving right now.

“If we have to move, we’re going to be in a panic,” said Kastner, now one of the school’s leaders. “Right now, we don’t have anywhere to move to.”

I’m not writing this to take Waldorf’s side. Newport-Mesa Supt. Mac Bernd makes some compelling arguments why reopening Eastbluff is necessary. But I can identify with parents making every effort to do what they see as best for their children. And Waldorf’s dilemma is one it simply didn’t anticipate.

Eastbluff Elementary’s student population was diminishing when it was finally closed by the school district about 10 years ago. In many cases, area homeowners had settled in and weren’t moving. Their children had grown beyond elementary age.

The district eventually leased the property to Coastline Community College. Coastline used part of the school for its own classes, but subleased part to the YMCA, and, five years ago, most of it to Waldorf. Coastline officials told me they anticipated a new five-year sublease for Waldorf until the school district exercised its right to put any new subleases on hold after June 1998.

That’s because other forces were in motion. The Irvine Co.’s Bonita Canyon development--more than 1,200 homes and apartments--is actually in the city of Irvine. But plans are in the works for it to be annexed by the city of Newport Beach.

One reason is that the Newport-Mesa school district badly wants Bonita Canyon on its turf. The influx of students--some estimates are there will be 650 or more--would mean more state money for Newport-Mesa schools. Also, the Irvine Co. is paying an impact fee that would fatten the district’s wallet. So far, that fee is at $5.8 million and could go higher as negotiations continue.

Where to put these new students at the elementary level? The new Newport Coast school, still under construction, would take many of them; so would Lincoln Elementary. But most of the plans for juggling boundaries would require the reopening of Eastbluff to make it all work.

“Forcing Waldorf to close is not a desired consequence of all this,” Bernd said. “But keep this in mind: With Eastbluff closed, we’ve had to bus a lot of Eastbluff students over to Lincoln. Those children would be able to go to their own neighborhood school for the first time.”

Another factor: Eastbluff has been on a demographics roller coaster. Some projections indicate it will eventually have enough new families to once again support its own school--even without the Bonita Canyon influx.

“If I were in Waldorf’s shoes,” Bernd said, “I would certainly be thinking about another facility.”

Waldorf parents haven’t given up. They hope to convince someone to at least let them remain open during the 1998-1999 school year, while they try to find another site.

Short of that, Kastner told me, “We’re just hoping to get a little sympathy from someone who might find a way to help us out of all this.”

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Wrap-Up: The name Waldorf conjures up images of Waldorf-Astoria, known for hotels and other ventures. That’s exactly where the school name comes from. Founder Rudolph Steiner in the late 1800s was asked to set up a school for the children of Waldorf-Astoria cigarette manufacturing plant workers in Germany. Steiner’s unique approach emphasized student participation in lessons instead of grades. More than 600 Waldorf schools now exist internationally.

Waldorf has no textbooks and no grades. The emphasis is on students getting involved. One parent, Jane Ballback, told me: “If the students are studying flowers, they grow them, pick them, feel them and smell them. Everything is hands on.”

I was fascinated watching third-graders do their multiplication tables in group rhythm fashion. Some parents told me the students even helped with the building of their own desks and some of the playground equipment.

Whatever its good qualities, one educator suggested to me that Waldorf may face an added burden in trying to remain open: Smaller classes mandated by the state are forcing public school districts to reopen old schools that might otherwise have been available to Waldorf.

But with the commitment I’ve seen in these parents’ faces, I venture that Waldorf will open next fall somewhere, someway.

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Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling the Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823 or by fax to (714) 966-7711, or e-mail to jerry.hicks@latimes.com