About Us

Our Vision at Juniper Ridge Community School is to awaken children to the wonder and joy of learning through nature combined with the living arts, academics, and the role these elements play in the development of the whole child. Our school nurtures creativity, individuality, and independent thinking so children have vast opportunity to pursue educational excellence, thus entering their community and the world with confidence, competence and compassion.

Juniper Ridge Community School is a K-8 charter school that engages students with a curriculum that integrates art with the sciences and humanities through practical activity. The curriculum is rooted in the Waldorf tradition and offers a unique learning style new to the Grand Valley.  A great body of research suggests that the Waldorf approach, with its distinctive understanding of child development, helps all children, regardless of socio-economic status, to reach remarkable academic and personal success. Waldorf-inspired graduates love to learn and continue to seek knowledge far beyond the last day of school, becoming highly valuable leaders and community members.

Although Waldorf schools have been around for nearly 100 years, they are usually tuition-based and often inaccessible to all but a small tier of students. JRCS believes this outstanding educational model should be available to all children, regardless of finances, which is at the heart of the creation of this outstanding school.

Thoughtful, committed teachers and attentive, involved families join to inspire children to participate in their own education, by cultivating compassion and caring for themselves, each other, and the natural world.  Our children emerge from Juniper Ridge as confident, self-reliant individuals who mindfully enrich their own lives, preserve and protect the earth, and productively contribute to broad and diverse communities.