The Board of TrusteesThe Board of Trustees is responsible for oversight of the financial and legal matters of the school. The Board is comprised of a Faculty Representative and community members, with each member serving a three-year term. Board members are elected by vote as the terms of their predecessors expire.
Meetings are open to the community, though parts of meetings may require confidentiality and may be closed to non-Trustees. The Board holds monthly meetings and also convenes All-School Meetings twice a year, in October and May. |
Board Officers
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Meaghan Anderson - Board President
[email protected] Meaghan grew up in Maine, and fell in love with the west coast and its trees as a freshman at Pomona College. She studied French and Spanish at Pomona and abroad, met her husband, and then traveled north to Santa Barbara, where she completed a masters and doctorate in French and Comparative Literature. As she finished her graduate work and realized the only component of academia she found enjoyable was teaching, she made a pivot into Teach For America, and taught elementary school in San Francisco for two years. Meaghan continued to inch her way up the coast, stopping in Seattle for four years to teach upper elementary school at an independent school in Bellevue, and middle school English at a charter school in Southeast Seattle. Her family moved to Olympia at the beginning of the pandemic, and she let her kids paint her face with chalk and all kinds of other weird things for a year and a half of “homeschool.” When Meaghan re-entered the paid workforce to manage the formal education department at Hands On Children’s Museum in 2021, she knew that her two children would need something very different from the educational settings she had taught in. Ruby is a first grader at OWS who lives for main lesson (seriously, and it doesn’t matter which block they are in) and jump roping, and Ada is in her second year as a Little Violet in the Kinderhaus, although she may believe herself to be a teacher. Meaghan is also a member of the Parent Association, and is hoping to institute a consistent and ongoing research project into grant funding for the school’s various projects and goals. |
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Shannon Kapp - Faculty Representative
[email protected] Shannon was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. A dreamy child, she grew up wandering and wondering about the world around her. In 2008, Shannon began working with children as a nanny and spent her off hours composing music and traveling the United States. In 2012, Shannon moved to the Pacific Northwest where she would meet her husband, a fellow musician and teacher. Ever deepening her knowledge in various early childhood pedagogies, she found Waldorf and felt an instant kinship. With over 11 years worth of early childhood experience, Shannon came to OWS in the spring of 2022 as the Hearthcare program coordinator and for the past two years she worked as an assistant in the Sunflower kindergarten led by Susan Palmer. Shannon is over the moon to lead the Dandelion kindergarten class, nurturing their sense of wonder through music, story, movement and reverence for the world around us. |
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Shanna Taylor - Board Member
[email protected] Shanna grew up just outside the North Cascade mountains. Her love for all things mountainous and green eventually led her to Olympia, where her family has lived for ten years. She is a proud parent of an alumni student, Summer (class of 2021), Noah (7th grader) , and Sequoia (Sunflower). Aside from serving as board secretary, Shanna helps run the school's facilities committee, as well as serving on the PA and Festivals and Fundraising Committee and our recently formed Anthroposophy study group. Outside of OWS life, Shanna is a real estate agent, yoga teacher, and professional tarot reader. |
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Brandon Bazemore - Board Member
[email protected] Brandon grew up in Carnation, Washington where he spent his childhood roaming through the woods with his brother, developing an immunity to mosquito bites, nettles, and soap. After a stint in the Marine Corps (Semper Fi!) and a degree in Biochemistry at the University of Washington, he realized he wasn’t in to getting yelled at, college sports, or fixing people, so he ended up starting a business fixing technology instead. Brandon, his wife Sandi, and three kids: Isla (9), Noelle (5) and Eli (4), moved from Kirkland to Olympia in 2019 for a change of pace, and were fortunate enough to stumble upon the wonderful Olympia Waldorf School and community. Brandon joined the board in 2022 and is thrilled to work with the board and faculty on the current facilities projects that are underway. |
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Robb St. Lawrence - Board Member
[email protected] Robb grew up spending time between Athens, OH and Wheeling, WV, and didn't encounter the Pacific Northwest until moving to Bellingham, WA for a Master's degree at Western Washington University. It was a short two years, and although Robb fell in love with Western Washington and his wife Carrie in Bellingham, the couple moved to the DC metro area in 2006. After completing a Master of Fine Arts in 2009, Robb moved to Minnesota to pursue a doctorate and an academic career path until 2016, when Carrie's work brought them back to Washington. While looking for an early childhood option for their daughter Alma, then about 3 and half, the whole family was overwhelmed by the good fortune that brought them to Olympia Waldorf School that winter. Since 2016, Robb has been working for the state of Washington in various policy capacities at DSHS, where he is currently the Compliance Manager for the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, with oversight of program and operational areas impacted by complex Federal and state legal requirements. He joined the OWS Board in the Spring of 2022. |
