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Kelowna  

Waldorf still without funding

Several months after the Ministry of Education pulled its funding of the Kelowna Waldorf School due to concerns over its curriculum, a re-inspection has found the curriculum is still not satisfactory.

Government funding of the independent school, which totalled more than $500,000 in the 2016/2017 school year, was pulled in December, as a result of an inspection on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1.

At the time, the Ministry said the school was “not meeting legislated requirements around curricular compliance and delivery of the B.C. curriculum,” and the school was changed from a Group 1 school to a Group 3, making them ineligible for funding.

In its report, the Ministry said: “There was very little evidence of any assessment tools being used in the school,” but the staff were willing to "better understand and implement what is required of them."

In response to the the pulled funding, Rick Salsa, president of the Kelowna Waldorf School's Board of Trustees, said in November he anticipated the school would be reinstated as a Group 1 school following a re-inspection in early 2018.

That re-inspection occurred in February, and the Ministry recently determined “the school was unable to provide sufficient evidence that the B.C. curriculum was being delivered through the entire educational program.”

Because of this, the Kelowna Waldorf School, which has been in operation since 1981, will remain without government funding for the time being.

In November, several parents of former KWS students expressed concerns about the progress their children had made at the school, and said their report cards didn't reflect their progress accurately.

The previous school year, upwards of 40 of about 125 students left the school.

Salsa did not return requests for comment about what the recent result of the Ministry's re-inspection means for the future of the school.

The Ministry has not scheduled a subsequent re-inspection of the school at this time.



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