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Keep Laredo Beautiful board backs LISD Earth Day school beautification judging
Summary
At its March 19 meeting the Keep Laredo Beautiful board voted to support a Laredo ISD Earth Day school beautification project, agreeing to serve as external judges and to make limited tool loans for participating schools. The district’s judging window runs in early April; details and schedules will be confirmed by staff.
Keep Laredo Beautiful members voted March 19 to support a Laredo Independent School District (LISD) Earth Day school-beautification project and to serve as judges of participating campuses.
Board members discussed practical limits and logistics before taking the action: the district contact told the board the program could include up to 29 LISD schools; the district set a judging window in April and provided a scoring rubric and Google Docs forms to collect results. Board members said judging would be limited to exterior areas visible from public perimeters and, for window projects, to views from the outside.
The project organizes participating campuses around multiple award categories, listed in the materials provided to the board as Immaculate Grounds, Environmental Stewardship and Litter-Free Legacy. The district contact indicated the schools have from announcement time until April to complete projects and that board members would use the rubric to score each entry. The district’s Google scoring sheets will compile results automatically when board members submit their evaluations.
Keep Laredo Beautiful staff said the organization’s existing tool-loan program is available to schools that request equipment for litter pickups or basic planting tasks. Staff also told the board the program coordinator plans to include the affiliate’s logo on generic banners for winners rather than printing individual school names.
Board members discussed practical approaches to fairness if multiple volunteers evaluate different sets of schools. Suggestions included splitting the schools into groups by level (elementary, middle and high) and averaging multiple reviewers’ scores or assembling photos and scoring together to standardize judgments.
The board made and seconded a motion to support the LISD initiative and to participate as judges and in a limited tool-loan capacity; the motion was moved and seconded during the meeting and taken as approved. Staff will circulate the scoring rubric and the Google Docs link and confirm the specific schedule and volunteer assignments with board members once LISD finalizes sign-ups.
The board did not adopt additional obligations or a formal budget commitment at the March 19 meeting; staff described the initial ask as logistical support (judging and tool loans) rather than a multi‑year program commitment.
