The History of Orchard Valley

During each of the two biggest snowstorms of this 2022 winter, folks gathered around their glowing zoom screens for a recollection of the history of Orchard Valley Waldorf School.

These conversations ignited from a requirement by the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America, and set Orchard Valley on a path to begin composing a substantial self-study document. This includes a written history of our school that will be shared with our mentor school later this spring.

On January 17, 2022, founders of the original Child's Garden kindergarten - Susan Darrah, the original teacher; Susan Ritz, the first Board Chair; Carley Claghorn and Kim Tulucke some of the early parents - celebrated the wondrous beginnings of this program when a group of families formed a “community group” creating festivals in their yards and in local parks. 

This group blossomed into the first classroom above the woodshop of a local carpenter on Main Street in Montpelier and then moved to 155 Northfield St in 1990 over 30 years ago. The early families worked side by side to renovate the rented space that was in poor condition and engaged in fundraising for a companion school in Nicaragua at the time. In those early days, they offered marionette puppetry in the local library, hosted a Waldorf Expo in the City Center and provided a hand washing station at the 4th of July parade to help get the word out. National Life, long-time landlord of the Child's Garden donated this building and land to us in 2019 which has been substantially renovated during the pandemic.

On February 4, 2022, a much larger group of over 15 enthusiastic founders came together to recall the arduous and exciting birth of Orchard Valley in the newly renovated classroom building of the Grace Farm campus. In 2000, a determined group of Child's Garden parents started a grade school initiative, the Three Rivers School. Soon after, the Child's Garden initiated a nursery program in the Flanders Building of Goddard College. There was disagreement and uncertainty in those years about when to start a school, where to start it and on what lands. The Child's Garden actually purchased a property on Town Hill Rd for a site that now is the home of an Orchard Valley family. 

Community members toured other properties, engaged in many meetings and even created a “Third Board” (The Montpelier River Garden Initiative) to help navigate the many decisions that extended beyond the work of the existing Board members of both the Child's Garden and Three Rivers School. Then, on August 15, 2003, with the support of a group of community-minded investors who forged the Montpelier Waldorf Investment Community Corporation (later reformed as the Grace Farm Community Partners), Grace Farm was finally purchased from the former Winooski Valley Orchards at auction by Ron Koss on behalf of the future Orchard Valley Waldorf School.

We plan to continue these conversations and to reflect on the birth of our first middle school, to remember the birth of the 4-year high school program called the Initiative (a Vermont Waldorf High School at the Stokes Building at Goddard College from 2013 to 2017) and to remember the birth of Sweet Clover Nursery in 2016.

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Thoughts From Our Participants:

“Through our work on governance, we are getting our Waldorf education.” - Pamela Van Deursen – former Orchard Valley Board Chair, former Initiative Board Chair

“Building community and culture...we have to appreciate each other for what we are doing. By doing this we build a culture of joyful activity.” - Johannes Otter – former Child's Garden Board member, former Orchard Valley Board member

“generosity of time and talent, a resource I had never seen lived with such activity before or since.” - Deb Reed – first school administrator

“Nothing short of a miracle...there were many miraculous turns, sometimes felt like a dead-end, we kept going, kept trying, things resolved.” - Tom Kavet- first Orchard Valley Treasurer

“One of the best experiences of my life....spiritual world was helping in our practical hard work.” - Jacqueline Gabe – first Grades teacher

We Remember:

Peter Fischer (1954-2013) - Built the first Child's Garden classroom above his woodshop on Main Street.

Jim Grundy (1968-2011) - Installed the solar panels on the Orchard Valley Farmhouse; beloved spouse of Nancy Bruce and father of Esme and Ava. Jim also worked on the installation of the radiant floors in the Grades Building.

Christiane Horvath (1979-2009) - Our first Music and German teacher

Stratton C. “Tony” French (1959-2019) - Long-time member of the Grace Farm Committee which hosted pruning workshops each spring in the orchards, Tony was a hydrologist dedicated to the testing and care of the water of Orchard Valley for many years. Beloved spouse of Julie Henderson, father of two alums, Piper and Eli French.

Kathryn Seaver “Kathy” Clark (1960-2019) - Served as the first office manager and remained in service to the Orchard Valley administration until her passing. Kathy substantially contributed to the initiation of the Sweet Clover nursery program. She was the beloved spouse of Keith Clark and mother of alum, Molly Clark.

Alumni Reflections

by Julie Henderson

Julie Henderson was one of the early founders of Orchard Valley Waldorf School and had such a passionate vision for the land and what could be made manifest for the children of our community. We are so blessed to have her presence still resonating in our school community even though her children have long since graduated. Her sharp intellect and commitment to the school are both inspiring and deeply comforting. We invited Julie to share her story and journey with Waldorf Education and Orchard Valley.

My introduction to Waldorf education came at a talk given at the Child's Garden by a former kindergarten teacher. What I heard that autumn evening changed, in an instant, how I thought about my three-year-old daughter’s developing mind, about parenting, about school. Through the many years that followed, my commitment to Waldorf education never wavered. Even when it was delivered imperfectly, I held fast to my understanding of Waldorf principles: that this form of education strives to meet the child where they are, developmentally; that it values each child for the gifts they bring and helps the other children see and appreciate these; that a child is a being not just of mind, but of soul and spirit; and that they have capacities for thinking, feeling and willing, that can be nurtured and cultivated at the right time and in the right way. I came to recognize that the teachers were acting with intentionality, borne of an understanding of the true human being. Every lesson, every activity, arose out of this shared perception. The purpose? To educate children with love, that they might go forth, in freedom, to meet their particular destiny in their full potential. 

Pictured above: my daughter, Piper French, was in the first graduating class of Orchard Valley in 2008. She went on to Lake Champlain Waldorf High School and then Brown University. My son Eli French graduated Orchard Valley in 2012 and went to U32 and then Colby College.

My daughter first attended Morning Garden, then two years of mixed-age kindergarten. At the time there was no Waldorf grades school in central Vermont. The nearest option was the Green Mountain Waldorf School, in Wolcott – a 45-minute bus ride away. Many previous parents had utilized this option, but for a small group of us, we could not imagine taking that step. 

The Child’s Garden had a single classroom of twenty children and did not have the capacity to start a grades school. Our parent group forged ahead on its own, advertising – the old-fashioned, pre-internet way – with posters that read: "Seeking A Waldorf Teacher, Interested Families, and A Space." This impulse had surfaced a few times previously in the central Vermont community, with no success, and I was told later that some thought our poster naïve, even audacious! 

But the cosmos aligned, the time was right, and the year was 2000 – a time for many new beginnings. The wonderful Miss Jacqueline Gabe appeared to teach a first grade with seven students, in a rented house on land in Berlin. So much excitement for this first class! Parents contributed incredible amounts of energy and resources to bring this dream to fruition; it was a time of awe, gratitude, great fun, and goodwill. 

Three Rivers School co-existed peacefully with the Child’s Garden for several years, only adding another first grade three years later. There was both interest, and resistance, in uniting the schools. Each school was growing and needed more space, and it became clear that the best way to bring the two together would be to find a property with room for both. A third entity took up this effort, looking for properties and financial support. After an intense, brief fundraising effort, the group successfully purchased the amazing Grace Farm campus at auction in August 2003. These were heady times, both exhilarating and exhausting, as renovations were made to the farmhouse and the former dairy barn. Countless hours were spent in meetings and workdays, with parents and community members working so hard to create this new school. Nine months after beginning co-habitation, the Child’s Garden and Three Rivers School merged, and The Orchard Valley Waldorf School was born. Those of us present experienced the profound privilege of being part of a truly creative act.  

Still, there were more years ahead of monumental effort at continuing renovations as well as developing the school’s infrastructure. Support continued to flow from the spiritual worlds in manifest ways - how else could seven families and one teacher have started a school that grew, at one point, to 120 grades students? I learned that this support is ever-present if only we seek it. 

Over the years, I have seen the number of students and families expand and contract. I am continually grateful for - and delighted by - those who find their way to this education, this community, this place. I am in awe of the sacrifices families make that their children might be here. I know they must understand, or at least sense, what is being offered to their children. So much more than academics! The artistic and practical activities foster strong soul forces in the growing child. Love and reverence for the world and each other develops strong social intelligence. There is much at work in the world against our higher human impulses, and helping the child develop their whole being enables them to meet these obstacles and distractions. I continue to support Orchard Valley because it is so important to me that children – all children – have the opportunity for this education. 

I have witnessed the school’s transitions and challenges, the arrivals and departures. It is not the same school we started twenty years ago. It is being re-created, over and over, by new groups of parents, teachers and staff. It is an evolving, living entity grown from seeds planted decades earlier. I always understood that Three Rivers, and then Orchard Valley, stood on the foundation laid by the Child’s Garden. But only after years in the grade school did I come to deeply appreciate that Orchard Valley would not have come fully into being without the Green Mountain Waldorf School having gone before. After it closed, teachers and families flowed to Orchard Valley, strengthening the faculty and expanding the base of committed Waldorf families. I began to recognize that there is, indeed, a time for all things, and what we do today will bear fruit in the future, even if at present we cannot imagine what form that will take. The school today is a moment in this flow, evolving to meet the needs of the times. My hope is that the impulse at the heart remains, while the vessel of the school forms and reforms through time. 

I knew nothing about Rudolf Steiner, or anthroposophy, (the foundation for Waldorf pedagogy) when our family began its 15-year journey with Waldorf education. I only knew that what I heard at that very first parent talk I attended was true. Those truths were augmented and reinforced over the years through the wise guidance of teachers and the thoughtful reflection of other parents. I have witnessed our two children grow into caring, responsible, confident and capable young adults. I am forever grateful for what they received through Waldorf education, and for the way it shaped our family’s life.”