New Policies at Headwaters Outdoor School for the 2023 season
Headwaters has always placed a strong emphasis on personal hygiene and illness prevention, and in our current, global pandemic the importance of this emphasis will be elevated.
Headwaters Outdoor School will be adhering to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) guidelines as well state health department advisories, and our local Siskiyou County Health guidelines specifically for this COVID-19 Virus. We continue to monitor updates from these sources.
Headwaters Outdoor School Staff will be instructed on extra safety precautions in relation to this virus.
We ask that anyone who will be arriving on the Headwaters land to please be responsible and practice being as socially safe as possible prior to coming, even if you are just dropping someone off and checking them in.
If you have been exposed to someone who is Covid positive within 10 days of your scheduled arrival at Headwaters, please do the right thing and transfer your class choice to another class later in the summer or for next year.
We are not only opening up our land for the use of the school to our students, but it is also our private home and affects every aspect of our lives. We are putting our trust in you to respect and honor these requests to continue to make Headwaters a safe place to be.
We are not requiring participants to be vaccinated for COVID-19 prior to coming to Headwaters at this point, but we strongly encourage this as a safety precaution for everyone. ***We are REQUIRING participants, and people who come to the land, to have a COVID-19 test with a negative result, the morning of their arrival at Headwaters.
Yes, we know not everything is 100% accurate, but we are going to always give our best to make sure everyone is as safe as we can make it here for them, as we do with any contagious illness.
People are encouraged to space farther apart from each other whenever possible as a precaution.
Students and staff must have their own mask when needed, for example when traveling in vehicles to off-site class locations, or other situations where close proximity is unavoidable. Masks should be solidly constructed and of thick enough material to minimize the vapor cloud of the wearer. Masks should fit snugly over the nose and mouth, with no gaps around the edges.
Students and staff must bring their own dishes, cups, silverware and water bottles. Students will need to wash their own dishes and store them in their shelters between meals. Please do not leave your personal gear laying around camp.
Summer class Students must bring their own tents. No sharing tents, unless it is a family member or friend you have already been sheltering with for over a week. Staff and apprentices/work interns can have their own bark shelter if they are in camp 3 or more consecutive weeks, provided there are enough shelters available. Staff will mark out tent sites for students. When available, staff and interns will help students set up their tents if help is needed. ** Private schools attending in the spring and fall sessions will make their own requirements around this based on their current socially grouped pods. The teachers will decide if they need tents or if they can use our bark shelters.
Tent Cabins: When reserving a tent cabin, students and staff will need to bring their own sleeping pad for cots. Headwaters does not provide sleeping pads or bedding.
Staff and apprentices will need to limit their trips to town. When they do have to leave the Headwater’s land they must do their best to practice social distancing.
Please Limit the number of people (1-2 people maximum) dropping off and picking up students.
Health screening questions will be asked upon arrival.
Please have all paperwork and payments already mailed in and processed BEFORE arriving to Headwaters so the check in line is quick and there will not be a big line of people gathered. We will ask people to space themselves out at the check in area.
No staff or students or persons dropping off or picking up students, can come to Headwaters Outdoor School within 10 days of a fever or being exposed to another person who has tested positive for COVID -19. *Please see our revised Illness Policy for the 2023 season.
We will have a designated space available to isolate anyone who is showing symptoms of being ill until they can be picked up by a parent or guardian. We ask that each student have an adult available to pick them up immediately if they are showing symptoms of any illness.
Steps Headwaters will take as extra precautions for the safety of our staff and students:
- Extra hand washing stations will be available around camp.
- Hand sanitizer will be available at various locations in camp.
- Hand washing will be required at meals and encouraged often throughout the day.
- Our kitchen staff will be serving all food. There will be no self-service at mealtimes.
- We will have a safety shield in place in the kitchen where food is being served.
- Extra frequency of cleaning and disinfecting high traffic use areas will be implemented.
*Please be mindful of the small size and vulnerability of our town and surrounding communities, and use safe, social distancing practices if you go into town.
***We ask that you respect these policies and requests so that we will be able to keep everyone as safe as we can and so that we will be able to remain open for our program. Thank you for your cooperation.
There are quite a few new policies, but we are willing to stretch to do whatever we can to make sure Headwaters will be a safe place to come to and will be able to remain open all year.
We are excited about this year and the positive changes that are to come, and more than ever grateful for our Headwaters community.
-Tim Corcoran and the Headwaters Staff
