Waldorf aims high

Michael Miller

Eight years after its inception, Waldorf School of Orange County

still hasn’t expanded past the eighth grade. Starting today, however,

that goal is on the horizon.

This evening at the Sutton Place Hotel in Newport Beach, the

private school will host a dinner, auction and musical theater

production to raise funds for a proposed Waldorf High School. Kathy

Paladino, the Waldorf theater director, said the school had gathered

$30,000 in ticket sales.

“We’ve always wanted a high school,” Paladino said. “It’s been a

dream since the start of the school because Waldorf curriculum covers

kindergarten through 12th grade.”

Paladino estimated that Waldorf administrators would need about

$200,000 to begin work on a high school. The show at the Sutton Place

Hotel marks the first official fundraiser for the project. Catherine

Sharbaugh, the school’s development and outreach coordinator, said

the $30,000 would go into developing a high school, while

administrators seek additional funds to purchase a new school site.

Today’s sell-out event includes a silent auction, dinner and a

theater production of Robert Fulghum’s “All I Really Need to Know I

Learned in Kindergarten,” with parents and teachers playing the lead

roles. Many of the tickets, which ran as high as $5,000, were

purchased by families and corporations.

“It’s what we hoped for, but more than we expected,” Sharbaugh

said. “There were many families that bought full tables and filled

them with friends.”

Sharbaugh added that while the school did not have any fundraising

events scheduled for the near future, it expected to begin holding

high school classes within two years. Waldorf School currently serves

approximately 260 students in kindergarten through eighth grade.