The residents of Bainbridge Island learned the hard way about how devastating the effects of toxic chemicals can be on children's health. In 1993, during the renovation of an elementary school, the use of a toxic solvent to remove tiles led to widespread illness among the students. Many students and teachers became ill, with symptoms including nosebleeds, rashes, increased asthma, and headache.  Some students and teachers are still experiencing some of these symptoms.

Since that time, the Bainbridge Island School District, parents, and community members have made environmental health a priority when designing, building, and maintaining schools and school grounds. In 1994, the Association of Bainbridge Communities asked the school board to provide them with information on pesticide use in the school district, and discovered that pesticides were being used with few protections for children's health or the environment. For example, pesticides were used while children were present. Kären Ahern, a parent, said, "Most parents assume that poisonous things wouldn't be used in schools. There were no rules for less-toxic materials, and no laws related to keeping dangerous pesticides away from children, so we had take action locally to protect our own backyard.

Turf and other outdoor areas at Woodward Middle School are maintained without pesticides to protect a nearby salmon stream.

To address this problem, the school district agreed to join the Washington Toxics Coalition's Model Schools Program in 1996. School district administrators, groundskeepers, maintenance staff, parents, and representatives of the Association of Bainbridge Communities, EPA, and the Washington Toxics Coalition formed an IPM Committee that worked together to develop an IPM policy. Through a series of regular meetings, the committee agreed on a policy that was adopted by the school board in 1996. The committee also collected information on the most-serious pest problems the district was facing, and researched least-toxic solutions. Throughout the process, the parents and community members involved built community support by informing the media, doing presentations at schools and elsewhere, and publishing newsletter articles.

Making the Transition

One of the first things that the grounds staff did was to load up a truck with nearly all of the pesticides in the inventory and dispose of them through the state Department of Agriculture's pesticide disposal program. Since the policy was passed, the district has stepped up its efforts to prevent pest problems, and when they occur it relies almost exclusively on physical methods or least-toxic products. For example, when wasp or yellowjacket nests become problematic, staff remove them manually if it's cool enough that the insects are not active, or they use a mint-oil product. These strategies eliminate the need to use neurotoxic insecticides to kill stinging insects.

To deal with indoor insect problems, the district contracts with a biologically-based company called Extermination Services. They focus on finding the root of the problem and creating long-term solutions such as blocking entry points. They have also used biological controls as well as least-toxic chemicals, such as using nematodes to address termites and applying a mixture of boric acid and diatomaceous earth to control carpenter ants. The use of these products prevents students from being exposed to hazardous insecticides used inside the schools.

Protecting Streams and Salmon

Bainbridge's first pesticide-free school was Woodward Middle School, which was designated pesticide-free when it was built because of its proximity to a salmon stream that bears coho.  The biggest challenge that grounds staff has faced at Woodward is maintaining the track, which tends to develop weeds when the it isn't used heavily enough to prevent them. To address this problem, the district purchased new equipment that uproots the weeds without the use of pesticides.

Stubborn Challenges

The ongoing challenge for the grounds staff is to maintain school grounds in an aesthetically appealing condition with limited resources for manual labor. The staff is working toward a long-term solution that includes using native plantings and making sure new landscapes are designed with an eye toward reduced maintenance need. At Sakai Elementary School, a new school that is also pesticide-free because it is near a salmon stream, high-maintenance areas such as thinly planted shrub beds were minimized.

Sustaining Over the Long Term

Jack Evans, the district's maintenance foreman, cites community support as the number-one reason that their program has been successful over the long term. "When word got out on what we were doing, there was more support from the community than most people had imagined," he said. He also advises other districts not to try to make the switch without help, but to use organizations like the Toxics Coalition and resources within the community to develop a committee. Today, the district's IPM committee continues to meet to serve as a forum for identifying problems and developing long-term solutions so that the district will be able to maintain its policy of very low pesticide use over the long haul.