Help Create a Transformative School

Help Create a Transformative School for Our Community!

We are EXCITED to announce that Morning Meadow Preschool and Kindergarten and Heart Pine Waldorf School (Grades 1-8) are undertaking the effort of purchasing the Highlands Presbyterian Church property (currently rented by Heart Pine) at 1001 Northeast 16th Avenue for our permanent home. The church building and grounds would be modified to better serve both schools and our community. If we are successful in this challenging endeavor, we will have satisfied a fourteen year dream of a campus for Waldorf education in Gainesville. 

While our goal for online fundraising is 50,000, our BIG goal is to raise the $1,115,000 needed to purchase the property. We have just a three-month window for securing financing! Our success depends on broad community commitment.  We ask that each of you explore opportunities for donations large and small from you, family, friends, and community. Share this campaign widely, and help us secure our home.   

All funds will be entrusted to The Waldorf Initiative of Gainesville (tWIG), and will be used toward the purchase of a campus for the two schools. 

Our Story

Twenty-five years ago Sylvia Paluzzi founded Morning Meadow Preschool & Kindergarten.  Over the decades, Morning Meadow has flourished, and is now one of the most valued early childhood programs in the region, nurturing over 200 children since its inception. Morning Meadow is a fully recognized member of the Waldorf Early Childhood Association(WECAN).  This membership signifies a program that has fulfilled the standards set by the national accreditation of Waldorf programs, confirming that Morning Meadow offers a curriculum that fully integrates the development of the the intellect, the emotional , and the active participation of work for the young child.  Eight years ago, a number of Morning Meadow families and teachers recognized the need for continuing Waldorf education for their children, hence the founding of the Heart Pine School.  

Heart Pine School hosts Grades 1-8, and currently has a student body of 60 children.  We have a great capacity for growth, and are focused on sustaining and improving our efforts toward providing Waldorf education by cultivating academic knowledge, artistic and physical activity, connection with nature, and practical skills.  One of our greatest goals is to offer an inclusive and compassionate environment that is interdisciplinary, experiential, and embraces diversity. In working toward this, we offer a number of scholarships and work to ensure that our education is accessible.  Our program is rich and grounded in our social and regional context, celebrating our natural world and what is unique about Florida. This year we are proud to celebrate the graduation of Heart Pine’s first 8th grade class, a distinct milestone for a young school. 

Our two schools, and all the families that are a part of then, are a collaborative community that regard each individual with compassion and reverence to support the expression of their highest potential. We strive to develop integrity, empathy, creativity, critical thinking, and world citizenship where graduates will take up active ways of creating a better world.