Developing and Delivering an Engaging IPM Curriculum for Public School Grounds Employees.

As of 2009 Oregon Statute requires Integrated Pest Management (IPM) in all schools.  This bill requires all schools to adopt an IPM plan, create a list of acceptable low-impact pesticides, designate an IPM coordinator, annual training for IPM coordinators and periodic training for other school employees.  Similar programs have been put into place in California, New Jersey, Texas, West Virgina and other states.  While other training options are available, none specific to the needs of the Oregon school grounds employees were available prior to this pilot project.  The objective of this project was to develop and deliver an engaging, needs-based IPM training curriculum for public school IPM Coordinators and grounds employees in the Portland-METRO area.  A focus group and survey was used to identify high priority training topics, which were 1) landscape rodent management, 2) landscape and turf weed management, 3) hardscape weed management, 4) building a low maintenance landscape, and 5) maximizing low impact pesticides.  Site visits were conducted to confirm the severity of these issues and determine if other IPM related topics need to be incorporated into the future training events.  Four separate training events were held in two different school districts, Portland and Beaverton, on September 23 and 24, 2013, and then March 25 and April 1, 2014, respectively.  Panel discussions and hands-on field demonstrations were used to facilitate the information and actively involve the trainees.  The four training events collectively reached sixty six employees from 15 of the 23 school districts in the Portland area.  Surveys were used to assess the quality of the training, and then a follow-up focus group was used to quantify the impacts of this training.  Survey analysis determined that the majority, 67%, of the participants felt that the information provided improved their knowledge of turf and landscape IPM.