School IPM Coalitions: Best Practices
The purpose of a coalition is to support the innovation of IPM by expanding into
surrounding areas with support from experienced districts. Building a coalition allows for
easy sharing of information, so that each district doesn’t have to “reinvent the wheel”
when they start to implement IPM practices!
Coalitions can catalyze large-scale IPM adoption. According to the principle of
communication network analysis, adoption of an innovation (in this case, school IPM) is
an individual's prerogative, whereas diffusion or large-scale adoption takes place within
social networks. That is to say, the initial decision to embrace a concept may be an
administrative one, but the practical operation of technology clusters requires a network
of supporters able to communicate and coordinate.
Most coalitions start with a few people, the “movers and shakers” who are excited about
IPM (University Extension, applicable state agencies or experienced school district
personnel can be a good place to initiate coalition meetings). A pilot program is usually
started in one school district, and this program’s publicity (and hopefully, success!) helps
to draw more attention to IPM among schools in the area. From there, more participants
are continually recruited and peer partnerships and mentoring occurs. It’s important to
reach out to personnel from all levels of school decision-making, so that IPM knowledge
and support can diffuse through each district.
Incentives also help bring in more participants to coalition meetings. Here are some
ways to make coalition meetings more appealing to people who may not otherwise
attend:
 Practical trainings on topical issues (e.g. mosquito management, bat inspections,
Africanized bees, etc.)
 Legislation updates relevant to stakeholders
 Continuing Education Units provided for registered sanitarians and pesticide
applicators
 Lunch/snacks provided
 Attendance certificates for professional improvement
 Access to state agency representatives (enforcement agencies, etc.)
 Networking opportunity allows peers to share stories, frustrations, solutions, etc.
Leadership is needed to support and enable members of the school community working
together to achieve common goals. Ideally, enthusiastic leadership is provided by an instate coordinator. Implementation teams may be formed across state lines in whatever
way works best.
Close relationships are fostered between local school districts and leaders, while other
expertise is called in for specific training and evaluation tasks. Since most of the
coalition members are from the same area, this model allows for a different approach to
be implemented for each region’s unique situation.
Below is a list of people who may be receptive to involvement in coalitions. Some will
participate regularly and some only if they are asked to address a specific issue (like
state zoonotic disease experts or Game and Fish Departments). They are all informed
when meetings are held and used as resources.
 School Districts (facilities managers, pest management specialists, risk managers,
food/nutrition managers, superintendents, nurse manager, special-ed
coordinator, custodial coordinator, grounds/maintenance coordinator, PTA/PTO
rep.)
 University Faculty
 Local extension (family consumer science or agricultural agents)
 US EPA (local Region)
 US EPA Washington DC
 Tribal EPA, public works and/or counsel representatives
 IPM Institute of North America
 Advocacy agencies, national and local
 Department of Health Services
 Pest management professionals
 Department of Environmental Quality
 Department of Education
 Department of Agriculture and/or Office of Pest Management (structural pesticide
enforcement agency)
 Centers for Disease Control
 State Vet.
 State Vector Borne and Zoonotic Disease experts
 Game and Fish Department
 County Vector Control
Summary:
Step-By-Step Guide to Starting School IPM Coalitions:
1. Recruit a committed and funded state agency/university change
agent AND model school change agent (facility manager of a
school in the process of implementing a verifiable IPM program).
2. Each change agent (above) will then recruit “peer” members (other
public agency/university reps, industry reps and school facility
managers)– ideally with some decision making capabilities
3. Invite member school districts to designate one pilot school to
emulate the current model school - a funded coalition would then
provide change agent resources to demonstrate IPM in each pilot
school (agency IPM specialist and school IPM coordinator)
4. Develop statewide newsletters on state appropriate IPM topics
5. Conduct quarterly meetings
 “updates” from each member
 report on school programs
 advertised IPM topic speaker
 food
 pass out tools (sample pest presses, etc.)
 develop tasks for the next meeting (bring another peer,
report on monitoring program, develop new resources, etc.)
6. Conduct annual progress report (numbers of schools, children, risk
reduction, etc.)
7. Develop press releases for the coalition and individual school
districts
8. Conduct annual “open house” meeting to include non-member
districts, agencies, NGOs and the press
9. Leverage for more support