Vacant Spaces: Waldorf School to Close Green Meadow Branch in Tarrytown

, operating a Waldorf early childhood education center in the two rooms they rented in the former Tappan Hill Elementary School building, will not sign on for another year here.

“It is with regret, but also with much gratitude and appreciation for your support, that we share the news that we are closing the Green Meadow Waldorf School Early Childhood Center at Tappan Hill School in Tarrytown on June 9, 2012,” said the letter that came from Administrator Tari Steinrueck to parents and staff.

“The governing bodies of our school made the difficult decision to close the Tarrytown school after a great deal of deliberation, because we do not believe, given the extensive analysis we have done over the past 10 months, that it can fulfill its mission as a significant source of applicants to our first grade," Steinrueck wrote.

The main campus in Chestnut Ridge, Rockland County, is already home to a nursery, kindergarten and first grade through high school. They opened Green Meadow in Tarrytown last year as a “nice gesture to reach over to Westchester and offer early childhood programs at the very least,” said head instructor Karen Atkinson, who we met when the school first opened, .

Currently Atkinson has a class of four, and there are nine students already enrolled for the fall, which was “looking a lot better,” she said, considering the class still had more time to enroll up to 14. The program also offers parent-child weekday programs and Japanese parent/child programs on weekends.

The issue, Atkinson said, was not getting enrollments for September but for the feasibility of the long haul. “So what we've come to discover is that while we can fill early childhood for fall 2012, we don't see it feeding long-term into our other programs in Rockland.”

“It was a really nice effort on our part, but we have a well respected school just over the bridge,” Atkinson said, adding that there's room there for anyone enrolled here who wants to continue with Waldorf and commute; there is bus service from Tarrytown and families carpooling from as far into Westchester as Rye.

“Let's just close the 15 mile gap and get everyone together,” Atkinson said.

Which leads us to our usual question: what would you like to see here? It's a whole school so the sky's the limit!

Rumor has it that the was looking at the soon-to-be-vacant Tappan Hill School. This has not been confirmed with officials at the Y as of today, but Atkinson did say they were among may groups inquiring to the landlord. Stay tuned!