Officials at Merriconeag Waldorf School were working with a marketing firm last winter when they discovered the importance of what’s in a name.

The school on Desert Road – with its high school campus at Pineland Farms in New Gloucester – has been providing a Waldorf education in Freeport since 1984. But name recognition, school officials learned while working with the marketers on a fresh new look, was a problem.

“The marketing team that we hired was working with us, working with parents, alumni and colleagues. They came back to us and said that of the biggest obstacles to finding our school for people was the name. People were doing web searches that didn’t bring up our school,” said Christine Sloan, school administrator.

Last week, following through on a decision made in early May, school leaders announced a name change: It will henceforth be known as Maine Coast Waldorf School. It will maintain the same Waldorf educational principles, with an emphasis on independent thinking and creative problem solving, but with its new name, a new logo and, as of last Thursday, a new website, www.mainecoastwaldorf.org.

“We wanted to get our name out there,” Sloan said. “It was the first level of mystery. We wanted to be as available and accessible to our community as possible.”

Maine Coast Waldorf School has an enrollment of about 250 students, from early childhood through high school, which had 44 students last year. The school has enjoyed growth for three years running, Sloan said, and the new name reflects its role “as an educational and cultural hub within the wider Maine community.”

Sloan said that this is an exciting time for Maine Coast Waldorf School, as more families than ever are seeking educational options for their children.

“Maine Coast Waldorf School provides an education built upon a century-old approach, but we deliver that education with a clear sense of the here and now,” she said. “Our program takes full advantage of our Maine location to offer a contemporary expression of Waldorf principles.”