A Whistler doctor’s call to action: Save the Whistler Waldorf School for our kids’ future

Like many of us, I arrived in Whistler on a whim 20 years ago. The usual trope was that I had signed up for a wilderness medicine conference, but my main goal was to ski and party with my friends for a week in Whistler. I was surprised and delighted by the town, the mountains, the sports, and the other party people.

Sign up for local news alerts from Whistler Daily Post

I was young and wandering, so I stayed for a while. It was easy for me to find work as a family physician in Pemberton, and so it goes; before you know it, I was married, with three little kids, juggling clinic work, emergency after-hours, and home life.

We were lucky to be able to navigate pre-Olympic housing and childcare struggles (we all know it’s one thing to start here but a whole other story to stay here), but when our first child entered kindergarten at Myrtle Philip Community School, we encountered a problem.

The kindergarten teacher, Susie Howe, was experienced and knowledgeable, and the principal, Jeff Maynard, was supportive and encouraging. No matter how hard we tried to make it work, my son was completely overwhelmed by the bustle of the school. He wasn’t able to transition rapidly from one task to another, nor follow along with multi-step directions. He came home anxious and tearful, and despite the school putting a lot of support in place for him to succeed, we decided to withdraw him from Myrtle Philip and enroll him in the Waldorf School.

I’ve always admired Waldorf kids when I’ve met them. When working in Australia, my office was next door to a Steiner school in Mornington, Victoria, and my colleagues had kids in the Mullumbimby and Byron Bay Steiner schools in northern New South Wales.

The Waldorf students always looked me in the eye, and without being precocious, were confident to speak to me as an adult. The bigger they got, the cooler they got—I wanted that for my three kids. They thrived in the early years and kindergarten program at Whistler Waldorf School. Ms. Graham, Ms. Orsa, Ms. Montigney, Ms. Akiho, and Mrs. Grimm all weaved their magic. The kids sang, dreamed, danced, and played, indoors and outdoors all day, and when the time was right, they learned their letters and used them to write beautiful poems and hear stories about knights and dragons until their little selves were ripe and ready for the next thing.
The kids, the parents, and the teachers worked together to build a community.

The principal was out every morning, greeting kids by name as they arrived at school. There were concerts, puppet plays, lantern walks, magical seasonal festivals, and the winter fair. We were happy to make space in our budget for school fees because it really was an amazing school. However, we were living a real life, so it wasn’t all sunshine and roses.

Over ten years, our province faced a critical shortage of family physicians. Whistler was hit particularly hard due to the extraordinarily high costs of running a business. Dr. Cathy Zeglinski was the first to call the alarm when her popular Northlands Clinic closed its doors at the end of a lease. I’m not sure how many patients were “orphaned” at that point, but there was a public outcry. I moved to the Whistler Medical Clinic and took over the care of Dr. Lauren Shaw’s patient panel when she retired. Soon enough, every doctor in town was working over capacity. Then the Coast Medical Clinic closed, the Town Plaza Medical Clinic closed, Bramley and Associates closed. It was a mess. There were five doctors left working as family physicians. We used to have 11.

Then it was 2020. We all remember how that went.

Throughout this, the school kept my family strong and balanced. The kids’ dad and I went through a divorce, which was hard on the kids, but they had consistency, routine, familiar teachers, and friends. We all survived and continued to thrive. My eldest is in high school now. He plans to continue at the Waldorf School and then head to university like most of the Waldorf alumni do. The Waldorf graduates are the sort of people that make the world a better place.

If my family wasn’t secure and well-supported, I can’t say I would have stayed. I’m not a skier or a biker. Sure, our family loves the outdoors; we love camping, hiking, and spending time in the mountains, but there are many beautiful places in this world where we can enjoy nature. Whistler Waldorf School has deepened our experience here. It is a place for creativity, music, art, culture, and learning, which I value for my children and crave for myself.

Last week, our elected councillors chose, in a closed-door meeting, to end the recurring lease for the Spruce Grove site. They are asking the school to find a new location in 12 months—in Whistler, with very little operating budget. The school is run as a not-for-profit independent school. It is not a private school. The teachers take a pay cut to make it work; they are committed to Waldorf education, committed to their students and the school. For the last 20 years, since the very beginning, experienced, clever, and resourceful parents and faculty have been exploring options to find a permanent home for the school. It’s not for lack of trying. It’s because this is a tough town to succeed in for permanent residents. Everyone knows that.

I was fortunate to be part of the success story of the Whistler 360 Health Collaborative, which saved the day for our family physician problem. That was formed by a community coming together to solve a problem. Dedicated people who were able, with grit and creative thinking, to form wide-ranging partnerships (including Mayor and Council and RMOW) to develop novel solutions to a challenging problem. Because Whistler desperately needed it.

I would suggest we do the same thing to support the Waldorf School. There are 45 faculty who might lose their jobs, 170 kids who will lose their dearly loved school, and 50 families who have kids in the Waldorf daycare centers in Spruce Grove and Spring Creek. We need cooperation and collaboration with the RMOW and the wider community to solve this problem, starting with a reasonable timeline to make changes.

I urge anyone who can to push back against this short-sighted decision. Many essential workers and other local families have their children enrolled in the school and daycare. Write a letter to Mayor and Council, attend the Council meeting at 5 pm on this coming Tuesday 9, and sign this petition. Make some noise, use your influence, develop creative solutions, and help solve the problem that we, as a wider community, will face if the Whistler Waldorf School needs to close its doors.

Dr. Danielle Patterson is a family doctor in Whistler and part of the Whistler 360 Health.