Information provided by Hollister School District. Lea este artÃculo en español aquÃ.
In an effort to keep sites clean and safe, the Hollister School District has undergone efforts to prevent animals from continuing to burrow under classrooms.Â
The District has experienced burrowing animals on some campuses and is prioritizing a humane approach to address them. The animals ‒ such as skunks, opossums and feral cats can lead to the presence of fleas, feces, odors and other potential health hazards.Â
The animals have been burrowing under classrooms at Rancho San Justo Middle School, Maze Middle School and Sunnyslope Elementary School ‒ living under the structures and creating potential health hazards for staff and students.Â
In response, the District hired Animal Damage Management (ADM) to help relocate the animals and install components to prevent their reentry under the buildings.
ADM trapped and relocated animals at Maze and Rancho, then installed retaining walls and subsurface wire mesh to prevent the animals from burrowing back under the buildings. Those components include one-way doors for any animals potentially left under the buildings to exit but not reenter.
At Sunnyslope, the consultant is handling the relocation now, with work scheduled to install the reentry prevention mechanisms in February when the school is on break.
Both the District and ADM noted that people feeding the animals and providing makeshift shelters ‒ even though they have good intentions ‒ can exacerbate the animals’ presence and associated health hazards.
Brian Hayden, Area Manager for ADM, handles the company’s ground crew efforts in San Benito, Santa Cruz, Monterey and parts of Santa Clara Counties. He said the company has done similar work for 65 school districts in varying counties while mentioning recent preventative measures in Morgan Hill, Gilroy and several districts in San Jose.Â