The 2025-26 school year marks the 40th anniversary of the Olympia Waldorf School — a non-profit private school established by a group of parents looking for an alternative education option.
“They were exploring everything,” said Marianne Guerin, a parent and former Olympia Waldorf School administrator.
After hearing a lecture from author and teacher Elana Freeland in 1983, the group settled on the Waldorf education style for its unique focus on supporting the whole child, rather than trying to achieve certain skill metrics.
“It’s all centered around the students and their development and what’s appropriate for them at each stage, and not pushing something too soon, when they’re not ready,” said Olympia Waldorf School Development Manager Ali Carras.
She related standard education, where students are pushed to meet certain grade standards at a certain time, to swimming upstream.
“It's really hard, but you can do it. You can push something at an age when they're not ready, they can do it, but they're going to burn out by the time that they're on the other side,” Carras said. “But if you do it with the current, it's so much more enjoyable, and there’s an ease to it, and you don't feel the burnout.”
Teacher Sweekriti Apple said she tells her students that it’s her job to open doors for them, but they have to do the work to step through when they’re ready.
“I can’t do that for you,” Apple said.
The founding parent group officially formed the Olympia Waldorf Education Association in 1985 and, after some intensive fundraising, gaining legal nonprofit status and adopting bylaws, the Olympia Waldorf School opened its doors to 17 preschool students that fall.
The school started out at the Unity Church building on Fern Street, adding new grades every year until it outgrew the space.
“The school has a life of its own, and it grew in spite of parents and faculty and staff,” said former Olympia Waldorf School teacher Migel Perez-Gibson, reflecting on his time as president of the school’s board of trustees.
The school faced resistance from parents and staff each time it faced a choice that required significant time or fiscal commitments, such as buying property or expanding grade levels, Perez-Gibson said.
“But every time, it sort of arose out of the small group of dedicated parents and faculty and staff to make the move forward,” Perez-Gibson said.
Staff spearheaded a capital campaign in 1986 to purchase an old school building on a five-acre lot at 8126 Normandy Street in Olympia.
That original building currently houses the Olympia Waldorf School’s main office and several elementary classrooms. The remaining grades are spread between other buildings on the five-acre campus, which also includes a learning garden, an activities field, and a wooded area for the younger kids to safely explore.
“We’re lucky. Most Waldorf schools have like a little postage stamp of a campus,” Guerin said.
The Olympia Waldorf School graduated its first eighth-grade class in 2000, and currently serves grades preschool through eight.
The classrooms are intentionally low-tech as part of the Waldorf philosophy of engaging with natural materials and fostering adaptability, critical thinking and creativity; and students stay with their same teacher from first through eighth grade.
In addition to standard skills like reading and math, Olympia Waldorf School also prioritizes art, music, cooking, woodworking, gardening, knitting and other life skills.
“It’s slow education, it’s deep education — not education-light, because it is so foundational to lifelong learning,” said teacher Kelly Horn.
Carras called the efforts of the school’s founders, and the efforts of the staff and parents keeping the school running today, a "labor of love.”
“When you’re kind of fighting against the mainstream culture, it is hard to keep going, but I think in an AI culture, we need this more than ever,” Carras said. “We want to be able to grow to make sure we can let more students have that sense of groundedness.”
Olympia Waldorf School currently has 155 students, but is looking to expand its enrollment in the coming years.
The school does run on a tuition model, but maintains a non-profit status and offers recurring tuition adjustment for families who need it.
Olympia Waldorf School also hosts a variety of community events throughout the year, including a fall Festival of Courage, a Winter Faire and Lantern Walk, and a spring May Faire.
For more information, visit https://www.olympiawaldorf.org/ or https://www.facebook.com/OlympiaWaldorfSchool.
