Pest Management Program
The Wake County Public School System has adopted an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Policy for managing insect and rodent intruders at our schools. IPM is a holistic, preventive approach to managing such pests. IPM minimizes pesticide use in our schools and on school grounds. For the last ten years WCPSS has concentrated on removing pest habitats from schools rather than using pesticides for pest management. For the purpose of this notification, pesticides fall into two (2) categories: "exempt" pesticides are relatively low risk/non-toxic and "non-exempt" pesticides are relatively higher risk/toxicity. As of July 1, 2007, "non-exempt" pesticides are NOT used inside any WCPSS building. We are the first school system in North Carolina to achieve this level of "green" pest management.
WCPSS is required under the recently adopted "School Children's Health Act" [(NCGS 115C - 47 (45) (a)] to notify all students' parents, guardians, and custodians as well as school staff of the schedule of "non-exempt" pesticide use in and on WCPSS property. Further, the statute requires WCPSS make available any updates to the schedule upon request.
The Environmental Health and Safety Department has prepared an annual "Notification" and "Request for Notification (of future updates)" documents to comply with statute-specific guidelines. These two documents have been combined into a single, convenient Acrobat Reader file, available at the link below.
Get the Request for Notification before Non-Exempt Pesticide Application Form
Questions about the IPM Policy and its implementation should be directed to the WCPSS IPM coordinator:
Dennis J. Osborne, Ph.D., J.D.
Supervisor, IPM and Water Quality
Phone: 919-856-8031
Email: dosborne2@wcpss.net
Environmental Health and Safety Department,
1551 Rock Quarry Road, Raleigh, NC, 27610