Waldorf Charter Coming to Northeast L.A.

Should their currently under development charter be approved later this summer, El Rio Charter School will launch only the second public Waldorf charter school in all of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

El Rio is faced with the challenges of hiring a full stable of teachers and designing a curriculum that prepares students for the California State Standards Test, while at the same time staying true to the alternative principals of Waldorf education.

There are other challenges, as well. El Rio will need to create an environment that meets the needs of the culturally and socio-economically diverse residents of Northeast Los Angeles. Administrators and parents will also be responsible for raising about $250,000 per year to make the school financially viable.

The school is currently without a location, but the boards of directors are targeting the neighborhoods of Highland Park, Mount Washington, Eagle Rock, Montecito Heights and Cypress Park as potential homes. 

El Rio founding parent Jennifer Patton recently sat down with Highland Park-Mount Washington Patch to talk about some of the challenges of establishing a new charter school in Los Angeles and the educational opportunities she believes El Rio will be able to provide when they open their doors in the fall of 2012. 

Many residents have expressed concerns over the proliferation of charter schools in LAUSD. 

Jennifer Patton: We intend of being a part of LAUSD. LAUSD will be our charter authorizer. We’re thrilled that an opportunity like this exists within LAUSD. We have a charter writing committee made up of about mostly LAUSD teachers-- some of whom have Waldorf experience, some of whom don’t—and they are tailoring the curriculum to meet the needs of LAUSD students and to be very specific to the needs of the families in these neighborhoods.

How do you tailor the needs of Waldorf Education to the neighborhoods of Northeast L.A.?

JP: Our mission from day one has been to meet the needs of the neighborhood. Joan Jaekel, who helped start the Waldorf Ocean Charter School in Mar Vista, started putting the word out and said she wanted to do this in a diverse neighborhood, in an urban neighborhood. Anna Sarah Russell, a public school teacher with Waldorf training on our board, said “me too.”  It is absolutely key to what we are trying to do. There are two branches to that. One is cultural diversity and one is socio-economic diversity. We’ve been holding pubic meetings at the Audubon Center at Debs Park with bi-lingual opportunities and speakers.

How is Waldorf education different from traditional public school education?

JP: Teachers loops with the students through the grades; it’s called looping. That’s one way Waldorf is different from public schools. There are also the main lesson books. Basically we rely on the teachers to really teach rather than on the textbook to supply information. There’s a lot of professional development going on in a Waldorf school. So, the teachers get excited about the work and they pass that on to the kids and basically the kids make their own textbook. They have to write down or draw pictures, depending on the grade level, what the teacher is saying.  So, that way when they are writing things down, they are also adding in their own observations. That’s a piece of the puzzle, the development of critical thinking.

Do you feel some of Waldorf’s alternative approaches will be “watered down” by LAUSD’s parameters?

JP: The biggest parameter we have that shape the curriculum is the California State Standards Test, which we intend to meet. Through the network of 45 public Waldorf schools in the United States and the history of it … they have kind of already done all the hard work. There is data there that will be a resource for us to help us meet the California State Standards.

 The Waldorf meets all the state standards and more, we just do it at different times. We do it on a different schedule because our curriculum is based on child development and neurological development. The state standards are based on the state standards and a whole other set of criteria. The timing is different, so we just need to rely on the wisdom of those who came before us.

What kind of response have you received from the public?

JP: We get a lot of the same questions. Will Waldorf be able to meet the state standards? Isn’t working within LAUSD going to water it down? But, the community support has been amazing. People really seem to want this.