Enrollment Form

tcschools

Enrollment Form

Enrollment

Since the year 2000…High Trails might just be the longest running outdoor education program in the San Bernardino mountains of Southern California. A sincere THANK YOU to all of our schools, teachers, administrators, parents, students, and supporters. This will mark our 25th year of helping students experience nature in the mountains of Southern California.

 

 

How Open Enrollment Works:

Open Enrollment at High Trails runs from ________, with date assignments and contracts going out starting on ___. When you submit your Enrollment form during this three-week window does not matter; we will take all the requests and begin putting together the schedule once this Open Enrollment window ends. See below for more details about Enrollment Preference. Once this window closes and contracts are returned, openings are available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Notes for this next School Year:

  • Tuition prices have gone up again. However, we strive to still be the most low-cost option for residential outdoor ed in the Southern California region, with our prices being 60-90% of other programs! The increase in cost will help our staff be some of the highest-paid staff in the outdoor education world of Southern California. We need good quality staff ready for you and your students every single week, happy and positive and ready to make a difference. This means we can’t just be competitive with the other outdoor education employers; we must be better, from pay and compensation to leadership and support. This distinction is what sets us apart from other programs. This year while other outdoor ed programs, unfortunately, struggled to find and retain staff, forcing them to cancel schools, we have had stellar staff and have not had to adjust or cancel any of our programs due to staffing issues.
  • If you’re looking for a very budget-friendly option, look for the weeks with 3-day programs. There are specific weeks that are set for 3-day programs only. This allows us to put two programs in one week, lowering the cost for everyone that week!
  • There has been an overall trend toward a preference for 4-day programs over 5-day programs from schools, parents, and staff. Additionally, we are looking for ways to aid in the retention and longevity of energy for staff; therefore, we would like to push this trend further toward 4-day programs, giving staff more consistent schedules and 3-day weekends in which to recharge from the longish hours and demands of a residential outdoor education program (sleeping overnight in cabins with students! Waking up in the middle of the night with students!). We are still offering 5-day programs; however, they are at a higher price point proportionally to the 4-day programs.
  • We know the number of students attending may change between when you Enroll and when you actually arrive at High Trails; this is why we have a clause in our contract that allows you to adjust your numbers to 90% of what you originally enrolled. However, we have seen bigger drops in student numbers attending than contracted recently, leaving big gaps in our schedule where we still have financial obligations – site, food, staff etc. Therefore, if the number of students attending drops more than 90%, the traditional scholarship of 1 for every 25 students attending will not be offered.

MORE NOTES

Enrollment Preferences for Schools:

We are still asking schools to give us their top choices of dates, but along with this we are going to give more preference to schools as we work the schedule. Preference goes to 1) longevity of your relationship with us; the longer you’ve been attending High Trails, the more we will weigh your enrollment form, 2) schools that pay their invoices on time and fill out their program and student forms on time, and 3) join us as respectful and constructive partners as we all work together to give your students a great outdoor experience.

Pricing Details

What you see is the basic cost for program at High Trails, which includes food, lodging, and instruction for students. As noted on the Program Form, there are options that your school can choose, based on your specific needs. T-Shirts cost $10 per student, Last Day Hot Lunch costs $6 per student, and Last Day Sack Lunch costs $5 per student.  If you would like us to provide Infirmary Supervision, this costs $10 per student.

We always provide two medics that take care of illnesses, medications, etc. With the basic cost, schools provide short-term supervision for students that can’t take part in program due to illness or discipline during the daytime hours (8am-5pm), so our medic is still ready to respond to health calls. If you would like High Trails staff to cover this daytime period of supervision, is it an additional $10/student. Included in the basic cost for program, High Trails will have staff on call to cover any Infirmary Supervision needed in the evening til the morning (5pm-8am). Our medical team consists of WFRs (Wilderness First Responders or EMTs (Emergency Medical Technicians), and an RN or LVN (Registered Nurse or Licensed Vocational Nurse). If you have questions about these, please check out the Program Form or email us for more details.

You Should Know…

  • Last year, we were able to give 95% of our schools one of their top 3 choices; though this isn’t a promise for the future it is a good indication that we do our best to make our schools happy, both in scheduling and in their experience up here in the mountains.
  • It is possible, especially if you choose dates in a popular time frame (March, April and May), that none of the dates you request will be available. If this happens, we will contact you with other options.
  • We structure our prices based on the time of year and traditional demand. Higher demand weeks have higher prices. This lets us have a full schedule and run program for the entire school year, which in turn allows us to hire quality staff.
  • If you are a new school considering High Trails, sign up early during Open Enrollment and please tell us what you’re looking for in an outdoor education provider. Unless we have an existing relationship with you or your school district, we may request a deposit before scheduling your school.
  • Every year we have schools that sign up for dates and then realize, once we have them scheduled, that the dates won’t work. To prevent this, please talk with all of your teachers and check your school calendar for Holidays, Test Dates, and other conflicts before submitting this form
  • We know the number of students attending may change between when you Enroll and when you actually arrive at High Trails. Contractually, if that number changes by more than 10%, we reserve the right to ask you to pay at least the 90% contracted amount. If you are unsure of how many students to put on this form, shoot us an email, and let’s talk about it!

High Trails communicates primarily via email. – hello@dirtyclassroom.com. Please notify us if you would prefer a different method of communication.

The Schools section of our website has complete information for visiting schools and teachers. If this is your first year at High Trails or if you have all new teachers coming to program, we would be happy to come down to your school and give a presentation to your parents. Our “Welcome to High Trails” letter will be emailed out to each school in early September…this will have complete details to help you prepare for your program visit.

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