With Earth Day coming up, local nonprofits and city departments are offering opportunities for residents to volunteer, learn and celebrate with their communities. 

Keep Austin Beautiful Day
As part of its annual Earth Day tradition, Keep Austin Beautiful is hosting over a hundred volunteer events focused on beautification and litter removal across the city. Volunteers can find opportunities across each of Austin’s City Council districts.

• April 18, 8 a.m.-2:30 p.m.
• Free
• Various locations

• April 26, 11 a.m.-4 p.m.
• Free (admission)
• Lakeline Park, 1510 Alexis Drive, Cedar Park

• April 22, 5-7 p.m.
• Admission $3-$8
• Zilker Botanical Garden, 2220 Barton Springs Road, Austin

Williamson County commissioners approved a tax abatement agreement April 14 with Taiwan-based electronics company Compal USA Technology for its server service center located in Georgetown.

What it means: The agreement between Compal and the county includes a 30% reduction in property taxes for 10 years in return for Compal’s $35 million capital investment in its facility and the creation of at least 100 full-time jobs.

The company will manufacture technological products, with a particular focus on artificial intelligence servers, at the Georgetown facility, People Operations Director Rick Ortiz said at the meeting.

Compal is still working to complete construction on the server service center and is aiming to begin manufacturing operations in June, Ortiz said.

In case you missed it: Georgetown City Council also approved economic incentive agreements with Compal in December. The agreements include payments and tax abatements in return for performance-based milestones.

The State Board of Education gave preliminary approval April 10 to roughly 200 literary works that all Texas public school students would be required to read beginning in 2030.

What happened: The SBOE trimmed about 100 titles from a list proposed by the Texas Education Agency, which board members and educators criticized as too long to be taught. The Republican-led board signed off on a revised list in a 9-5 party-line vote April 10.

The details: The draft list ranges from nursery rhymes and short stories in early grades to classical and 20th-century literature in high school. The list also includes about a dozen excerpts from the Bible. While students learn about world religions today, Texans testified that if the reading list is approved, it would be the first time in recent history that state leaders mandate religious readings in the classroom.  

Next steps: Board members are scheduled to take a final vote on the reading list in June. If approved, the list will be used in classrooms in the 2030-31 school year.