In a class of its own: Whidbey Island Waldorf School turns 40
Published 1:30 am Friday, March 20, 2026
By KATE POSS
Special to The Record
As an alternative, holistic approach to learning, the Whidbey Island Waldorf School in Clinton celebrates 40 years of educating and creating community.
A gala fundraiser is planned today, March 21, at Freeland Hall.
Cheryl “Cherub” Zimmermann, board president of the school since last August, is a parent whose family attended the school. Involved with the Waldorf School the past 27 years, she has seen the school’s benefit on her three children, two now grown, and one who is 17.
“When I think about the Spring Gala, I think about all that went on with the history,” Zimmermann said. “The school was created by the visionary people who wanted a progressive education.”
She likens the school’s lifespan to that of a person’s stages of life.
“I always looked at the school as a being, and still do,” Zimmermann said. “At 13 — when we joined — it was like an inquisitive teenager trying to find its voice. At 20, it’s hey I’m going into the world, at 30, I’m feeling more confident. Here at 40 years, the school is in the prime of its life. We are confident. We’ve set roots down. It’s kind of beautiful to think of it.”
Anne Zontine, one of the gala’s keynote speakers, is one of the founders of Whidbey Island Waldorf School, known as WIWS. She recalled how she and others — dedicated to an education which cultivates academic learning combined with creativity, spirituality and connection to the natural world — brought Waldorf education to Whidbey Island. Zontine and her family moved to Whidbey in 1978. Her children and grandchildren have attended the school.
Waldorf education, originated with visionary Rudolf Steiner in 1919, and was created to educate children whose parents worked at the Waldorf-Astoria cigarette factory in Stuttgart, Germany. The school was open to all social classes and focused on a holistic approach to teaching. It is now one of the world’s largest private school movements, with more than 1,200 schools worldwide, along with 60 charter schools and 150 private schools in the U.S.
Zontine recalled the early days of the school’s formation with a kindergarten held in the back of Island Senior Resources. She worked as an assistant kindergarten teacher with Jerene (who goes by one name). Jerene had been trained and previously taught at the Seattle Waldorf School. Later, Zontine continued teaching kindergarten, while Jerene added more grades, eventually expanding to a portable classroom to accommodate the expanding student population. As Zontine continued with the school, she started a business, “Dolly Mama,” making soft Waldorf dolls.
“During our early years we did teaching, parent education, administration, cleaning,” Zontine said. “We worked about 90 hours a week. We stood out in the parking lot talking with parents. We built it up by going to every possible event — the Island County Fair with water colors and displays, the Maxwelton Parade, Choochokum (a former Langley street festival and art fair held in July). One of the highlights in our early days was celebrating seasonal festivals together.”
Festivals are an important part of Waldorf education, which connect students and families with the natural rhythms of the seasons, celebrated with a sense of reverence and joy. Festivals, such as Michaelmas, Advent and May Faire, highlight transitions from darkness to light, planting to harvest. Music, storytelling and crafts are part of the festival experience as well.
Over the years Zontine has remained friends with the early families of WIWS.
“When it comes right down to it, it’s our relationships with others that allowed us to create something,” Zontine said. “To have that trust and vision, to have love flowing between each other and work with each other under that umbrella really does the trick.”
Arriving on Whidbey Island in 1987 with her husband and young son Aubrey, Gretchen Lawlor soon met Zontine and other early Waldorf families, including the Cabots. Penny Cabot and her husband Robert, an author and international advocate for social justice, have a son, Arian, who became best friends with Aubrey, and they remain so to this day. The boys learned to knit at the school. Knitting and handwork are part of the Waldorf curriculum.
“I will never forget the image of Aubrey and Arian curled up together knitting their power animals,” Lawlor said. “Aubrey’s was a buffalo.”
After the early days as a kindergarten, a first and second grade followed. Parents began thinking about having their own building. Fritz and Vivienne Hull, who founded the Chinook Learning Community, now known as the Whidbey Institute in Clinton, wanted part of their land to be used for a school.
Architect Ross Chapin was part of the Chinook Learning Community and moved to Langley with his wife, artist Deborah Koff-Chapin, some 40 years ago. Their daughter Aleah, who attended WIWS, was born in 1982, and has since gained renown as a painter of the human form. When he was asked to design the school, Ross visited Waldorf schools around the country. He knew the school would be influenced by the tall forest surrounding it and incorporated timbers inside the building as an homage to the outdoors. The school was completed in the late 1980s.
“It was a based on a feeling of creating space for families,” Chapin said.
He recalled climbing scaffolding with his little daughter Aleah in a backpack, who held a copper cap which was affixed to the school’s bell tower.
Lawlor’s late husband Bennett White was among those who helped in construction of the Waldorf School.
“Bennett was a builder on the team — quite a team of carpenters and they made a strong connection together,” Lawlor said. “I was very pregnant with our daughter Morgana, and we were invited to a dedication ceremony to place wishes and crystals in the foundation holes. I was lumbering — wearing a big green dress like a tent. I stuck fern fronds in my hair and was part of a procession in the dedication of seeding the foundation.”
Nowadays Natalia Lyubimova — who was born in Poland and moved to Whidbey from where her family lived in Bend, Oregon — is the school’s current administrator since August, 2025. Natalia had worked as an administrator at the Waldorf School of Bend before accepting the post on Whidbey.
“We are deeply invested in the cultural and economic fabric of South Whidbey,” Lyubimova said. “Our presence is felt not only through our graduates, who work across the island, but also through our diverse community offerings — including parent enrichment events, festivals, and summer camps open to all local families.”
Five children in the Jenkins family attended the Waldorf School, all taught at one point by former WIWS teacher Natasha Zimmerman. Their mom, Marli Jenkins was impressed by the Waldorf curriculum and founded an alternative high school named Woodhaven.
“Yes, Woodhaven definitely has taken inspiration from Waldorf,” Jenkins wrote in an email. “Kelvin’s — my second son and Woodhaven’s first graduate — experience working with a mentor in his eighth grade year at WIWS was so impressive. I wanted a high school where he and other youth could experience learning and have opportunities to be mentored.”
Former WIWS alumnae include Keegan Harshman, who co-owns Blue Sound Music and co-produces the LittleBIGFest; Francisca Coenen-Winer, owner of the Taproom at Bayview Corner; and Jachen Mackner, a singer/songwriter/producer/performer whose debut album, “Lucky Fortune” will be released this summer. Jachen is Cherub Zimmermann’s daughter.
The upcoming gala’s proceeds are earmarked for literacy and behavioral support, facilities (a woodworking shop) and professional development.
Zimmermann said the team also works to support teachers’ well being.
“Teachers are like holy people to us,” she said. “The teachers can bring the stellar curriculum to the children. This year we’ve set up dinners/lunches for teachers once a month. We raised funds for tuition assistance to make it affordable to people.”
One of the kindergarten teachers at WIWS is Cordula Hetland. Her father was taught at a school directed by Rudolf Steiner himself. Both of her parents were Waldorf teachers. She has taught for decades and believes early childhood creates a foundation that sets one’s direction for life.
“For me, being a teacher is not a job,” Hetland said in an earlier interview. “It’s more a life choice I made.”
The school has hosted a number of administrators over the past 40 years, including Lori Barian, who moved to Whidbey Island from Wisconsin and served for seven years until retiring in 2024.
Her view on Waldorf education: “An education that gives young people experiences, stories and opportunities to come to know and develop themselves and their unique capacities and gifts while learning at the same time to be in community. In other words, Waldorf students learn how to bring their best selves into a caring and compassionate relationship with the world.”
For those who value beauty, creativity, nature, an appreciation of the spiritual life, and an education that embraces these values, Waldorf is a place for children and their families.
“Nothing, there’s not one thing that would make me move from the school,” Zimmermann said. “I have such a dedication to Waldorf and Rudolf Steiner’s work. Now as a woman in my 60s and studying Steiner, it all makes sense. What legacy can we create to draw success for the next 40 years? I am working with powerful people who are thinking about the health of the school. We’re at a mature state and are setting the path for the next 40 years.”
The school has experienced high and low tides of enrollment and has faced some challenges over the years.
“Challenges are part of the process and we need to be open to having connections with each other; our relationships need to be strong so we can work through issues,” Zontine noted. “The Waldorf system has a process, a program brought to schools to help people interact in a positive way when difficult issues come up.”
Zontine’s daughter Maria, who attended WIWS, says that her creative way of problem solving helps her tackle issues that come up at work. Maria is now the HR director for the University of Washington School of Pediatric Medicine.
“One of the fears we had parent-wise was that our children wouldn’t get their academic learning, but they did easily. They excel because their minds are flexible enough to sort out and think clearly,” Zontine added.
The 40 Years of Stories Gala is planned for 4-7 p.m., Saturday, March 21 at Freeland Hall. Front Street Grill of Coupeville is catering the event. Musician/singer/songwriter Kevin Fristad — whose wife Terri was a part of the early days of WIWS — will lead a sing-along. Auction items include a private flight and sailboat tour. A documentary by school parent Ru Mahoney, founder of Project Impact, will showcase the school’s history at the gala. Ticket sales closed March 11.
To learn more about the Whidbey Island Waldorf School, visit wiws.org.
