Campus Stewardship

2022–23 saw Sacramento Waldorf School improving our campus, weathering the storms, and shining our light in service to generations of students and families. Linden Hall saw a refresh with floor upgrades for our athletes, while the Farm Kitchen was completed (thanks in large part to donations from the Class of 2022), bringing our students into closer contact with the ecology of our land and the food they eat.

This was the first year since the COVID-19 pandemic that felt closer to normal from a Facilities perspective; however, new environmental and economic challenges did arise. All programs, apart from Parent–Child and Extended Day were entirely back indoors. While many COVID carports remained on campus, the majority were and are still used only as shade structures or ancillary outside learning areas. Moving back indoors allowed the Facilities Department to spend fewer resources in the form of time and money managing the maintenance of outdoor learning classrooms. However, intense wind on both New Year’s Eve 2022 and again one week later resulted in significant damage to the campus, resulting in two different insurance claims. First on the morning of 31 December 31 2022, a powerful storm caused a large co-dominant trunk of a redwood tree to crack away and fall onto our library, smashing a hole in the roof. Luckily, there was little to no water damage inside the library. During the same night, a large oak on the Kindergarten hill fell directly onto our power shed at the base of our driveway. Thankfully, there was not significant damage to our power switch gear. Then, only a week later, another powerful storm swept through the region, and another oak tree fell onto the White Rose Kindergarten building, causing legitimate but not severe damage. After immediate clean-up efforts, the real work on fixing these three damaged structures would not begin until the early summer of 2023, resulting in closure of our library until early 2024—a full year and two weeks after the redwood made contact with our building. Dealing with these claims took significant focus and energy through coordination with the restoration contractor and sub-contractors as well as shifts in programming with the library out of commission.

In addition to the environmental challenges, there were also economic challenges in the form of inflation. At every turn, it seemed costs were up 10, 20 or 50+% for different, important third-party services such as landscaping, floor refinishing, electrical, and plumbing needs. With costs up, the Facilities Department had to be more strategic and careful with spending. While a few non-essential projects were completed the focus was on safety, infrastructure emergencies and any projects critical to curriculum being delivered.

All the while, the Facilities Department strived to achieve the Annual Goals under the Campus Stewardship Strategic Pillar. While much work was done on the long list of deferred maintenance, not as much progress was achieved on ADA-compliance projects or a new energy efficiency project. The Cheryl Lane CUP work saw continued progress with the architects to help drive towards a vision of the new facility for the CUP application.