Featuring Mark Beaulieu (Hussey Seating), John Dufay (Albuquerque Public Schools, NM), William Kolster (Loudoun Public Schools, VA) and Jim McCain (Southern Bleacher).
Learn how to reduce injuries and risk by scheduling and performing regular bleacher inspections and maintenance.
The following information is provided by Janet Hurley of the Texas AgriLife Extension Service.
Here are a few facts that you can use and share with those in your educational institution about mosquitoes, mosquito control, and West Nile virus.
The most important single thing an organization can do is make sure the campus / school grounds are not contributing to your local mosquito populations. Check water catchment basins, storm drains, low areas, and equipment storage yards, athletic and playground equipment, especially, for places where water might be caught and held. Drain or treat with Bt dunks, or Altosid granules – both Green category insecticides.
Mosquitoes typically rest in vegetation or other shaded sites during the day. If you have areas of vegetation or doorways where mosquitoes are a noticeable problem, consider treating such sites with a residual pyrethroid spray. This would be a Yellow category treatment and should be limited to known problem areas. Insecticides like deltamethrin, cyfluthrin, bifenthrin, and lambda-cyhalothrin can provide up to six weeks control on vegetation or building surfaces. They can be applied via hand-held pump sprayer, backpack mist blower, or power sprayer to doorways and trees, shrubs and ornamental grass around buildings and entryways. Do not allow students or staff into treated areas until sprays have thoroughly dried. Remember students cannot enter an area that has been treated with a Yellow Category product for 4 hours. Read more…
Birds can be entertaining and fascinating to watch in the wild, but any facility or grounds manager is fully aware of the downsides of a campus heavily-populated by birds and geese. Recently, members of our Listserv shared helpful tips and proven solutions to help discourage birds or geese from flocking on or around vital campus and school facilities or areas. We have compiled some helpful tips for anyone looking to better manage bird populations on their grounds.
To read all the tips shared by our peers on the Listserv, view the full discussions:
Do you normally charge Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, etc. to use your facilities? How about religious groups?
Chesterfield Community Schools – Per our policy, if an activity (Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, faith-based, civic group, etc.) takes place Monday-Friday between the hours of 7:00 am to 10:00 pm on dates that school is in session (instructional days), then there is no fee to use the facility or for custodial charges. Should the organization decide to use the facility on a weekend or on a date that school is NOT in session (winter break, spring break, etc.) they are charged for the facility fee (according to our fee schedule – student rate for Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, etc. and adult rate for faith-based, civic groups, etc.) and for the custodial fee.
If you work with energy consumption in any way, you probably already know that commercial buildings and industrial facilities generate about 50 percent of carbon dioxide emissions nationwide. But did you know that 30 percent of consumed energy is actually wasted?
Energy expenses now account for $8 million of school spending, so you can’t afford to ignore the opportunity to reduce energy costs and save money that can be reallocated to fund jobs, new programs and technology. With the ENERGY STAR program from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), educational institutions have the opportunity to save as much as 10-percent of their wasted energy with little to no cost, potentially saving 20-50 percent of their energy budget. Read more…
