This month Fort Riley Child Development Centers became the latest facility to receive IPM STAR certification, verifying the centers adhere to the highest IPM standards. Fort Riley, located near Manhattan, Kansas, joins 17 other school systems receiving this distinction nationwide, and the third certified this year.
The IPM STAR program was created in 2003 to both increase adoption of IPM in schools and improve public awareness of an appreciation for IPM. The evaluation process is modeled after point-based IPM measurement systems developed for agriculture, including Massachusetts Partners with Nature and Cornell IPM Elements. Points are earned based on how many IPM or related Best Management Practices (BMPs) are implemented.
Schools are evaluated based on an on-site visit by an IPM professional, consisting of an interview and a walk-through of representative school facilities. Poor communication between administration and pest management professionals, landscape service contractors, school staff and others is a common problem, according to Dr. Thomas Green, president of the IPM Institute who has led many of the evaluations.
"During walk-throughs," said Green, "we found that administrators are often not as aware as they could be of pest problems and pesticide use practices." For these administrators, the process is often an eye-opener.
The walk throughs focus on pest-vulnerable areas such as kitchens, food storage areas, cafeterias, teacher lounges, custodial closets, mechanical rooms, locker rooms and concession stands at high school athletic fields. The building's "skin" including exterior surfaces, doorways and windows that can provide or block pest entry are also carefully inspected. "If a school has an agriculture or horticulture study program, we take a close look at that as well," Green reports. "We want to see that IPM is being implemented and taught in those programs, but that's typically not been the case."
Other common deficiencies include unauthorized use of pesticides, unchecked pest problems, calendar-based pesticide applications to athletic fields and haphazard selection of pesticides without regard to toxicity. Very few schools spray-apply of pesticides to exposed interior surfaces, and indication of success in education and marketing efforts focused on insecticidal baits for cockroaches and ants.
Within three to four weeks, the school system receives a set of "interim" reports, including the scored evaluation, a cover letter with prioritized recommendations and a pesticide hazard evaluation and ranking. These reports are finalized once the school system has an opportunity to review and note any improvements made since the evaluation. After the school system achieves a passing "grade", a joint press release is issued, the certification is presented at a public meeting, and a profile of the program is posted on the IPM Institute website.
"The program is one of the most rewarding and enjoyable that I've been involved with," says Green. "School professionals are overwhelmingly committed to the health and safety of their students and staff, and are very responsive to suggestions on how they might improve. On average, school systems have increased their scores by 13 points between the evaluation visit and the final reports."
To date, 26 school systems have been evaluated and 17 certified, impacting more than 2 million school children. The program received initial funding from the USDA IPM Program and the EPA Pesticide Environmental Stewardship Program. The program is being implemented throughout the Army with support of the Office of Assistant Chief for Installation Management and the US Army Environmental Center
For more about Fort Riley CDC and the other certified school systems, please visit the IPM STAR website.
Learn more about IPM STAR certification