Final South Dakota Assessment

South Dakota is freezing right now :-) Welcome to winter! And I thought the weather in Nebraska was getting cold. Last Thursday and Friday the South Dakota IPM team bundled up like snowmen (and women!) to do the final visit to our 4 schools. Jerry Jochim from Indiana also joined us, as he had on the first visit.

First we took a look around the perimeter, than visited all the inside areas that we had noted during the previous visits to see how the schools were doing. Although we still found some areas of concern, the school districts had both made progress.


Some things of note in individual schools:

• a severe moth fly problem in a kitchen was solved
• wooden pallets had been moved out of another kitchen area
• outdoor pesticides were locked up in the shed (last time they had been in the open)
• a school district had created an IPM written policy

We wish our South Dakota colleagues Darrell,Jim, and Jon the best in continuing to work with the schools as they move toward IPM implementation throughout their districts.

In the near future, the team hopes to have a "Demonstration Day" where other SD schools can attend an event where they get a tour of the schools we worked with, some educational information, and encouragement to consider doing IPM themselves.

Here in Nebraska, the SD experience has been a great one in helping us as we proceed through our own IPM demonstration projects! We've learned a lot, although I sure will miss Backyard Grille BBQ and Bravos, two of the best restaurants in South Dakota!