North Central School IPM Working Group Conference Call Agenda
Monday, March 3rd at 10am CDT
1. Roll: Ruth Kerzee, Anastasia Becker, Erin Bauer, Mariel Snyder, Tom Green, Katie
Howard, Seth Dibblee
Additional agenda items: 8th International IPM Symposium, was anyone interested in
presenting during the School IPM Session? If you would like to propose a session or
presentation regarding school IPM, please email Mariel Snyder at
msndyer@ipminstittue.org. A list of proposed topic ideas will be shared with the group
on next month’s call.
2. Educational Component: PRI Evaluator
Our guest speaker, Dr. Susan Kegley has expertise in environmental, organic, inorganic
and analytical chemistry, with an emphasis on pesticides and heavy metals and their fate
and transport in the environment. She earned her Master’s in Chemistry from the
University of Richmond and her Doctorate in Organic/Inorganic Chemistry from the
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is the Pesticide Research Institute’s
Principal and CEO and will be talking with us today about their new evaluator. She will
be joined by Emily Morse, a program assistant at the Institute. Emily has experience with
program support, website administration, research, data analysis, and communication.
The Evaluator grew out of PRI’s work with the City of San Francisco as the reviewer of
pesticide products for San Francisco’s list of approved pesticides, following the San
Francisco Hazard Tier guidelines. PRI saw an opportunity to automate much of the work,
using their databases on the chemical properties, toxicology and water pollution potential
of active ingredients, and also invested in staff time to do the necessary label and MSDS
reviews. The Hazard Tier system denotes the level of hazard: Tier I = greatest hazard and
Tier III = least hazard. Having the Hazard Tier rankings for multiple products allows for
comparison of one product against another to find the one that best suits the IPM
program.
The Product Evaluator also solves the problem of pesticide product cancellations or
transfers that remove products on an “approved list” from the market. The PRI Product
Evaluator is designed as a central resource for IPM professionals, LEED Accredited
Professionals, facility managers, pest control operators, nurseries, golf courses, retailers
and others to find low-hazard products. PRI’s initial priority has been to ensure that
comprehensive reviews are available for products used in structural pest control,
landscape maintenance, invasive weed management, and turf pest management. The
initial set of reviews is due to be complete by April 1, 2014.
Question: What does organic approved imply?
Answer: It means that particular chemical is approved for use on organic crops
Question: Would the phone application provide enough information for schools to
adequately use the tool?
Answer: It depends on the requirement needed for documentation purposes. For most
cases the app would be enough. California Healthy Schools Act requires the notification
of parents when pesticide (that is not on their exempt list) is applied. PRI is going to add
an icon which will show which products are California Healthy Schools Approved.
Comment: Listing the tier and linking to the guidelines would be sufficient for most
school documentation. More school districts are building LEED certified buildings, but
LEED requirement only apply to existing buildings. To see the LEED guidelines for
schools for new construction and major renovations, visit: http://www.usgbc.org/leed/v4/
Question: How is a group member defined?
Answer: A school district with multiple members, multiple schools districts would not
be eligible to be categorized as a group
3. North Central Renewal Grant Update
a. IPM Standard Training and Certification
The 2013-2014 grant period has come to a close and we achieved all of our
deliverables. I am currently working on the final report, if you would like a copy of
the final report once it is complete, please let me know. The grant period for our
2014-2015 has just started and we have a lot of new and exciting projects coming up.
We will continue to work on the Standardized IPM Training Material and well as a
Business Case for sustainability of the project moving forward. The Illinois IPM
Association will be presenting at the Lake County Facility Manager meeting later this
month. Other projects include evaluation of Wisconsin’s CESA model, identifying
opportunities to expand the use of IPM information tools, continue to support
ongoing coalition work, as well as continue to host the North Central monthly calls
and steering committee calls. We will also update our strategic plan to reflect the
priority survey results.
b. 2015 Strategic Plan
The priority survey has been sent out to all four working groups and so far 74 people
have participated. I will share the completed results with the group on our next call.
4. State updates
a. Nebraska (Erin)
The Urban Pest Management Conference was held and 12 IPM coalition members
attended. In March the University of Nebraska—Lincoln is visiting four different day
care centers conducting pest assessments.
b. Missouri (Anastasia)
Anastasia signed up for Dr. Robert Corrigan’s Advanced Rodent Control. The event is
March 13th and cost $99. Please see a PDF flyer attached.
c. Illinois (Ruth)
Midwest Pesticide Action Center is hosting an upcoming event for Natural Lawn Care on
April 8th in Lake County. They are also working on an EPA grant to move daycares off
the non compliance list with Illinois law. Currently this process has little meaning
because it is so easy. Their goal is to get 100 childcares off the list of 600..
d. Indiana & Ohio (Margaret)
IKE is currently coming to the end of the their EPA grant and moving in the direction of
making the program more holistic, introducing schools to the concept of healthy schools
(not just IPM). The idea would be to incorporate IPM into the healthy school movement
and working with an established facility manager association to incorporate IPM into
their current training. The survey to gauge what working group members would like out
of the program has been completed in Indiana and will be distributed in Ohio this week.
e. US EPA (Seth)
Seth and Ruth are working on the Illinois Healthy and High Performing Schools
Symposium on April 18th. Every year the governor’s office in Illinois co-sponsors a
symposium for green schools (co-sponsored with the Green Building Council). The
symposium is modeled after the Green Ribbons rubric. There are three different pillars
(1) energy efficiency and reducing footprint, (2) indoor air quality, IPM, diet and exercise
(3) environmental stewardship and education. The symposium has received 50 proposals
for all three pillars. A draft schedule will be completed by the end of the week.
Next call: Monday, April 7th at 10:00am CDT