This Director Loves Greeting Students at the Door with a Huge Smile Every Morning
Ms. Sarah Kreger
Whether you were at Mountain Song Community School back in 2013 or now in 2023, you will without a doubt recognize Ms. Sarah Kreger, our Director of School Performance. Sarah oversees enrollment, assessments, school improvement planning, data submissions and also greets our students at the door with a huge smile each morning. Sarah heard about what would soon become Mountain Song Community School from a friend who invited her to a Meetup group back in 2012. An avid beekeeper and environmentalist from a long line of artists and musicians, Sarah was instantly intrigued.
“I loved the idea that kids would learn how to grow and cook their own food and make their own things,” said Sarah. “I loved that art would be infused in everything we did. I was so enamored with the concept.”
The initial Meetup group met at Old Colorado City Library, listened to lectures about a Waldorf-inspired education, and a steering committee took the necessary steps to make this dream a reality. At that time, Sarah had no aspirations of working at Mountain Song. She just knew in her heart that this school needed to exist here in Colorado Springs. Then, a registrar position became available during the summer of 2013, just two months before the school would open its doors for the first time. Sarah got to work enrolling students and coordinating a small army of dedicated volunteers to transform the former Bijou Alternative High School into a setting fit to call itself the only tuition-free Waldorf-inspired school in the Pikes Peak region.
Sarah was expecting a small “village school,” but to her surprise, 250 students enrolled that first 2013-2014 year, confirming that the dreams she had for children were shared by many. Of course, the fanfare subsided, and the growing pains began. Mountain Song found itself without the founding director, a major hit to our young school, and facing financial difficulties that threatened the school’s very survival. Sarah, along with many founding families and dedicated staff members, refused to give up on what they knew Mountain Song could become.
Sarah’s own kids, now 17 and 19 years old, spent their middle school years at Mountain Song. As you might imagine, they were not thrilled to come to a school where they would see their mom each day, but now they see things differently.
“Waldorf teaches you how to learn, not what to learn,” Dylan, Sarah’s youngest child, reflected recently.
Her son also noted the depth and thoroughness of the lessons taught at Mountain Song.
When asked what has kept Sarah coming back each day for ten years, she doesn't hesitate.
“The kids, always the kids,” she said. “I want to see them graduate 8th grade, and that always keeps me going.”
When asked about her favorite “Mountain Song moment,” Sarah couldn’t pick just one. From musical gatherings, May Faires and Winter Faires, to an infamous questionable science experiment, there were many moments that made her smile and laugh. One event, however, will forever be etched in her heart, and that’s the eighth-grade graduation in May of 2022, that of the first class to go all the way from kindergarten to 8th Grade at Mountain Song. Many of them even had the same teacher, Ms. Alisia McCabe, for eight of their nine years.
“When the kids spoke about their experience, they were so articulate and so heartfelt and there was not a dry eye in the room. I just felt like they were partly my children. That was a really tender moment.”
Now, Sarah looks to the future, to the next ten years, especially now that Mountain Song owns the historic Whittier building. Shortly after the purchase, Mountain Song applied for and secured $10.8M in BEST (Building Excellent Schools Today) grant funding and matching contributions in bond proceeds and other grant funds to renovate the school.
