School IPM 2020 Steering Committee Conference Call Notes—DRAFT

Monday, December 7, 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM CST

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  1. Roll
  • Dawn Gouge, Russ Noratel, Sherry Glick, Tom Green, Juliann Barta, Janet Hurley, Fudd Graham, Lynn Braband, Shaku Nair, Carrie Foss, Lucy Li, Gary King, Joe LaForest, Matt Neff
  1. Juliann Barta (EPA Region 10) Joins Us for a Brief Presentation on Her Intern Project
  • Juliann described the School IPM project of her EPA student interns from Indiana State University, who are Marc Lame’s grad students. She described the need for research on whether states are developing SIPM legislation, and had wondered what would be useful info for them.
  • The interns were limited in time, but interviewed a lot of people across the country, finding states that had SIPM laws in place (such as ME, UT, and CA) and asked sets of questions about state law: what was the original intent, how has it been enforced, how has progress been measured, what are consequences of the law, how could it be improved in their opinion, etc.
  • Get a sense of what to consider when looking at state SIPM legislation.
  • Students weren’t focused in on pesticide safety component, more focused on states that required an IPM coordinator, IPM policy, etc.
  • Students compiled this information into an informational document, which is currently going through an EPA product review process – when the document is out, Juliann will share it with the group. It is not a comprehensive summary of all state laws, but still a good document and resource. She’s hoping to be done with it by the end of the year.
  1. IPM STAR Certification for TX Schools (Janet)
  • Janetdescribed how she wishes for TX to follow the WA state model, with Janet playing a role similar to Carrie Foss’. Janet wishes to reward TIPMAPS (the group for TX SIPM coordinators) members in good standing who are making a real effort, to really make that membership of value to them.
  • Carrie said that she’d be very curious to hear how 2016 STAR certifications go. She suggests linking from school homepages to IPM Institute media releases.
  1. School IPM newsletter digest mockup (Matt N)
  • Matt discussed the SIPM newsletter digest mockup and content creation map he created. Dawn asked whether this should include Home IPM, since they had been covering it in their publication, and asked in general if the digest should be more broadly inclusive?
  • Tom asked what the options were for promoting it in schools, and sending it home to parents. Do schools have opt-in email lists? Dawn said they haven’t had much luck with that, as districts have refused to send even basic stuff home. She suggested routing content through PTO and PTA groups.
  • Tom asked Matt to find out what kind of tracking options are available through Constant Contact or other programs.
  1. Individual updates (Regions, EPA, others)
  • Sherry:
  • Shanda Bennett says the EPA listserv should be ready within 3-4 days.
  • Upcoming webinar on bed bugs in schools on Dec 15 – thank you everyone for distributing the marketing.
  • The National Environmental Health Association is having a conference April 13-14, and has asked EPA to help market the materials, you’ll be receiving some marketing materials from me or from Shanda.
  • For the March 2016 roundtable: meeting next week with a number of people, including Claire Barnett, but details have not been finalized yet.
  • Tom:
  • A grant proposal was submitted to the North Central IPM Center, a decision about it should be given by shortly after the new year on whether it’s funded—the focus is on getting Stop School Pests launched in the region.
  • Dawn:
  • A proposal was not submitted for the Western Region IPM Center. There were two significant undertakings that were possible (Rodent focus and pest ID handbook expansion), but it would be impossible to cover the projectcosts with $30K, so decided not to submit a proposal. The decision was to wait and submit an ARDP multi-state grant application for the same objectives instead.
  • A letter of support was not obtained from EPAR9 we have discontinued pursuing an EPA letter.
  • Tom asked, would it be possible to get a regional EPA support letter? Sherry answered that it’s unclear where the letter will go if it is written. Every region has its own pathway for getting things done. Region 1 or 2 would be easy, region 4 and 6 would likely be impossible. The EPA Center for Expertise is not affiliated with a region, it is under HQ. Sherry said she understands the concern and will continue to bring it up to my management.
  • Carrie:
  • Juliann and Carrie finished the WA SIPM enhancement project on 11/30. There was a webinar on the project and lessons learned. If anyone has any questions about what we did or results, please get in touch with us. (The webinar PowerPoint has been attached to the call notes.)
  • Gary King:
  • IPM in Schools committee for ASPCRO update: ASPCRO has been asked to put together a guidelines document, which started as a model contract, then went back to the drawing board as a guideline doc. Gary used a model from Janet, reviewed, and shared with the group.
  • During a conference call last week, Gary told the group more changes were needed to make document more generic, obtained the group’s permission.
  • The president of ASPRCO got a letter from Bob McNally about the document, and Gary was not sure of the nature of the letter, but said we would respond.
  • Gary requested Janet send him a Microsoft Word version of North Carolina’s guidelines document.
  • Joe:
  • The enhancement grant program has closed, but anyone can still use the tools for next year’s application.
  • Lynn:
  • We have applied for a WG grant to refund it for two years – it will focus around promoting resources which already exist, also Stop School Pests, and measuring rates of adoption. Dec 17, still having bi-monthly conference calls for WG, various members.
  • Goose IPM efforts have been successful – two approaches, motorized goose harasser, and “dancing man” outdoor balloon.
  • Janet:
  • Folks from OSU will be here and we’ll meet with EPA on Monday about ischoolpestmanager website and app.
  • Dawn:
  • So far, Arizonahas had a comprehensive approach to help school districts fix everything inside and out. Dawn believes her group can do more good by solving big ticket issues for more people instead of fixing everything for a few. She emphasizes that she’s more convinced than ever that a broader firefighting approach will have a greater impact.
  • A triage quiz was mentioned as being an effective starting place to determine immediate priorities and those who could indeed take on a fully comprehensive program..
  1. Any suggested agenda items for next month’s call? (group)

Next call: Monday, January 4th at 11:30am CT