Portland Waldorf School is poorly organized. Their admissions process is the worst I've ever experienced. We spent four months waiting to hear if our son could join the 7th grade class. We were referred to an educational psychologist, Nancy Long as a requirement by PWS to gain entrance to the school because our son had never attended a Waldorf School. We were prepared to do anything they asked so that he could attend. We liked the Waldorf philosophy and did our research about the Waldorf methodology.
The educational psychologist whom PWS referred us to, charged us a good amount of money and never produced a written report as she said she would. In the midst of this, the school said they would admit our son -provisionally. A few weeks later, after not hearing from anyone, I called the school to find out when our son could join the class. The administration didn't know what I was taking about. Then they said there would be no admittance without the written report from the educational psychologist. The educational psychologist won't return our calls, nor does she respond to PWS. They really put us on a roller coaster ride and then finally we received a letter stating that they would not be moving forward with our application. After 4 months, PWS didn't even give us any detailed reason why.
We were looking forward to our son attending PWS, but after the conundrum of a matriculation process, PWS demonstrated that it was not worth the $14,000.00 per year tuition, to us. Even as we were prepared to pay it!
Our son is very intelligent and fun. He would have made a lovely addition to the school. We are heartbroken and now looking for a different educational path, that is not Waldorf. I would not recommend anyone to apply for entrance to this school unless you're prepared for a long and haphazardly process with no promise of a good outcome.