Waldorf School Awards

Merkling Scholarships

The Housatonic Valley Waldorf School announced the award of two scholarships for the 2007-08 school year. Thanks to an anonymous donor who made the largest single gift to date, $523,000, two grade school students have been chosen to receive the Erica and Frank Merkling Scholarship.

The scholarship fund was set up last year enabling one student to attend the Waldorf School on scholarship. This year a second scholarship was awarded. The donor’s goal was to reach new students and families who desire a Waldorf grade school education but are hindered by their current economic situation. 

The annual interest generated by the endowment is used to fund scholarships of up to 90 percent of tuition costs. The guidelines state the scholarship will follow the student throughout his or her career at the Housatonic Valley Waldorf School, as long as s/he qualifies annually according to the guidelines.

The faculty and Board of Directors of the Housatonic Valley Waldorf School chose to honor the founder of the school, Melissa Merkling, by naming the fund after her late parents: the Erica and Frank Merkling Memorial Scholarship Fund.

It was Erica and Frank Merkling who provided the space in their renovated barn for the initial Waldorf-inspired playgroup in 1989. The school moved to Bridgewater in 1991 and then to Brookfield in 1996. In 2000 the school moved to its current location in Newtown where it plans to stay. The Housatonic Valley Waldorf School is now a pre-K through eighth grade school and will graduate its fourth eighth grade class this month.

The Housatonic Valley Waldorf School currently offers tuition assistance. The gift of this endowment strengthens the school’s ability to fulfill the vision of making Waldorf Education available to all who desire it regardless of economic status.