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Integrated Pest
Management
Level Three: Creating or Improving Policies
To receive the Level Three award for Integrated Pest Management,
your Green Flag Team must:
(If you have an existing IPM program in your school, skip
to #4)
1. Find out what needs to be done:
- Talk with the Green Flag Program Coordinator to review your level
two survey and discuss how you can implement a IPM Policy.
- Research Integrated Pest Management policies
already in place in some schools.
- Create a detailed plan, with the help of school administrators and
custodial staff to propose and create a IPM policy.
2. Present your ideas to decision makers:
- Make written recommendations to school decision makers, based on the
health risks of pesticide use, successful IPM policies in other schools,
the proposed cost savings, etc.
- Prepare to make a presentation to decision makers. Research alternatives
to pesticides and how they could be implemented in your school. Make
notes to help you explain the problem with pesticides clearly and the
alternatives you’ve found. Prepare materials to give to decision makers,
and a letter explaining the changes that you want to see in school policy
and purchasing to improve the situation.
- Make a presentation to decision makers, such as the principal, school
board, or PTA. In order to make sure your case is well heard, bring
along many people that support you and your team. At the end of the
meeting, present your policy change request letter, and thank the decision-makers
for meeting with you.
3. Develop an IPM Policy, and get it approved:
- With the school administration, facilities department and an experienced
IPM company or local expert, develop an Integrated Pest Management policy.
See the IPM Policies on this website for examples.
- Pass the policy and begin implementation, with the help of an Integrated
Pest Management expert.
- Submit your IPM Policy, and any monitoring tools that your school
uses (Pest Sighting Logs, documention of IPM strategies, etc.) to the
Green Flag Program
Coordinator.
- Complete one of the classroom
activities.
OR:
4. Improving existing IPM policies:
- If you already have an effective pest management policy in your school
you may improve your school’s IPM program by completing one of the following
activities and one of the classroom activities. Implement or improve
an existing Right-to-Know Policy. Ask if your school has a Right to
Know policy, so parents, students and staff will be notified when the
pesticides are applied at the school.
- Submit documentation of your school’s Right to Know policy on school
letterhead to the Green Flag Coordinator.
- Create a IPM handbook to assit the school staff implement the policy.
- With your school’s maintenance staff, begin using staff Pest Sighting
Logs in your school.
- Sign up other students to join the Green Flag Team and use the Pest
Sighting Log.
- Have a work party. Help with weeding, mulching, pruning and other
maintenance duties to eliminate herbicide use.
- Form an IPM school inspection team that identifies places where pests
could get into your school, and develop ways to block those entryways.
- Organize and/or participate in a neighborhood clean up day in or around
the school grounds. Clean school grounds mean less pests!
- Have at least twenty teachers or staff sign a pest management statement
where they agree to:
- Not bring pest management chemicals from home for use in school
- Bring food into classrooms only in tightly sealed containers
and clean them thoroughly after eating
- Use the Pest Sighting Log o Allow IPM presentations in their classrooms
if appropriate
5. Rewards for Level Three:
- The patch for Integrated Pest Management to add to your Flag.
- A certificate of acheivement from the CHEJ Green Flag School Program.
- A description of the activities of your Green Flag team will be posted
on the Green Flag website.
Track Your
Progress
The "Track Your Progress" charts are a new feature of the Green Flag
School Program. The progress sheet is an online tracking page which lists
each step in the program, and includes a space for the user to enter their
activity for that step. They may do this online, hit enter once they have
finished, and it is then sent to us to keep in your file. If you prefer,
you may print out the progress sheets, fill them in by hand, and send
them in to the Green Flag School Coordinator. We hope that this will help
you document your teams progress and see how many steps you have to go
until you win your Green Flag Patch. Check it out by clicking on Track
Your Progress!
Integrated
Pest Management Resources
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