News & Announcements

Expansion Plan Quietly Progresses

Posted on November 15, 2017

By Mike Sekel, President, Board of Trustees

In August, it was announced that AWS would move forward on a school expansion project. Since then nothing has been shared. What is happening?

Since August, work has been occurring in the background leading towards the development of the plan that allows for enrollment expansion while maintaining those traits that make a Waldorf education so important to every one of us.
First and foremost, over 25 people have offered their services in support of the expansion. Some have a specific skill that seamlessly plugs into the effort. Others indicated a willingness to do whatever needs to be done. There is still room for more on this journey.

Since September, we have been supplying Mell Lawrence Architects with information as they work to assess our current campus’ ability to handle increased enrollment. Additionally, we have contracted to have a fresh site survey and an analysis of the planning constraints such as impervious cover, Barton Creek recharge zone, Austin ETJ, etc. It will be early next year before the architects complete their analysis of our campus. Their report will identify the possibilities and from there a decision on how best to proceed will be pursued. This analysis brings us to one of the critical decision points; what can we accommodate on this campus? Once this decision is made, the image of the expanded school becomes much clearer.

In the meantime, the faculty and staff have started a needs assessment to envision how to best offer this education to more students. They are assessing the current facilities and spaces and imagining the best options to meet the children’s future needs. We are exploring avenues for the community to also participate in this process.

A core group has been working on the Expansion Committee structure. Currently, the structure looks like a flower with a nucleus that has a representative from the various functional areas (communication, development, campus, design, program analysis, facility design, financing, marketing, staffing, etc.). This format provides an effective way of sharing information, questions, and concerns across the entire project by everyone. There has also been work on developing a prototype timeline and ordering the steps. Additionally, recognizing that we live in a collaborative world, we are looking at tools that will facilitate working together without necessarily being physically together.

Stay tuned for more updates! Please direct any questions or comments to me or Kathy McElveen, General School Leader.

Mike Sekel
President, Board of Trustees

“I enjoy the Austin Waldorf School events: the plays, the concerts, the fairs, and other special days. Grandparents Day is wonderful for getting acquainted with other grandparents and special friends, the seniors, as well as the classrooms.”