Stockbridge — Twenty-one years ago, the Berkshire Waldorf High School was founded at 14 Pine Street. Today, the small high school has approximately 40 students and has classes from ninth through 12th grade from 10 school districts and 25 towns in Berkshire County; Columbia County, N.Y.; and Litchfield County, Conn.
The school held its annual open house event on Friday, November 3 to celebrate the school’s students and classes, as well as its future with a new building on the horizon. “We help to stand behind every student we have here,” Executive Director and co-founder Stephen Sagarin told The Berkshire Edge. “We help our students to get a great education and find what’s next for them in life after they graduate from here, whether it is attending an elite college, or learning a trade.”
Sagarin said that Berkshire Waldorf’s teachers all share a unity of purpose when it comes to teaching the students. “We all work together so that we can make sure that we help our students all be true to themselves as they learn here,” Sagarin said. “There is no school out there that is perfect for everyone. But our feeling is that we are as good as we can be for our students.”
“We’re a small school, and we have a low student-to-teacher ratio,” Biology and art teacher Elizabeth Orenstein said. “We are engaged with our students, and we’re really invested in giving them both freedom and responsibility. We really value hearing their voices and engaging them in seminar-style classes as opposed to lecture-style classes.”
Orenstein said that both freedom and responsibility are important when it comes to a high school education. “Our students all come from middle school, which in itself is sort of its own growing experience,” Orenstein said. “Then they come here, and they can walk into town for lunch with their friends as long as they obey the rules that the students wrote. At our school, students can help craft electives, plan foreign exchange trips, and help put on many of our events. Our classes and student projects are all very hands-on. We encourage interdisciplinary study as part of our classes. Our education is creative, flexible, and grounded in classical pursuits, while still responsive to the times.”
“The biggest and most noticeable difference from other high schools is that we are much smaller in size,” English, history, and philosophy teacher Samantha Eliot Steir said. “With our student-to-teacher ratio, students can get a lot of individualized attention and no one can fall through the cracks. We meet every student where they are when it comes to learning. If a student has different learning needs, our teachers find ways to tune in with each student’s particular learning style.”
Student Owen Lamond, 17, said he likes the challenging classes that the school has to offer. “I like the challenges, but I also like the forgiveness if you do not meet up to the challenges,” Owen said. “If you have a challenge, you get a lot of help from the school’s teachers. There’s a lot of more flexibility when it comes to classes as opposed to other schools. I think that Berkshire Waldorf High School is a welcoming place.”
During the open house event, Sagarin spoke about plans for the school to relocate to the Old Town Hall in 2025. “We’ve signed the purchase and sale agreement with the town,” Sagarin said. “We’re confident that the sale will go through. We have also raised $4 million for the project, but we still need $6 million in funds. We’re confident and optimistic that we will be able to raise the rest of the funds to complete the project to move to Old Town Hall.”
Sagarin said that he hopes the school will be able to open in its new location in September 2025. “For our new location, we’re going to have more than double our square footage that we currently have,” Sagarin said. “We will have dedicated classrooms for all subjects, which we currently don’t have as we use our classrooms for multiple subjects. We will also have a teacher’s room and a commercial kitchen.”
For more information about Berkshire Waldorf High School, visit its website.
Students from the school will be performing William Shakespeare’s “Henry IV, Part 1,” on Friday, November 10 and Saturday, November 11, at 7 p.m., at Shakespeare & Company’s Elayne P. Bernstein Theater in Lenox. Students will also perform as part of the Fall Festival of Shakespeare on Thursday, November 16 at 8:30 p.m.
The following is a preview of the performance:
