Judges

S/D Tab:  Room 207

Judges Holding:  Room 201

Hospitality: 105

Hired Judges - If you are interested in being a hired judge for this contest, please contact Melissa Witt at mwitt@ptisd.org. Hired judges are expected to stay at the school for the entire contest and be available to judge any event requested. 

School Judge Requirements - Schools will be expected to bring 1 judge for every 4 LDers or portion thereof, every 2 CX teams or portion thereof, and every 8 speakers or portion thereof. Missing judges will incur a fee of $150 each. If you need help meeting your judge requirements please contact us as soon as possible.  Each school will be required to have a judge serve on round beyond the last elimination round their team participates in. Coaches, parent volunteers, other school employees, and former speech/debate competitors beyond high school may serve as judges. Please note that the school the judge serves for will be held accountable for any behavior issues or violations committed by a judge. (Example, if a judge is caught smoking on school property, the judge will be removed from campus and the school for whom they were to judge will have to replace them or pay the missing judge fee.)

We ask that ALL JUDGES submit completed ballots within five (5) minutes after a round finishes to help keep the tournament on time.

Judging consistency and integrity is important; however, we know that some judges are new, volunteer, and are still learning, and we want to provide opportunities for judges to gain experience. We will provide training for our judges prior to the tournament and will make virtual attendance an option if you have inexperienced judges who would like to join us. If your inexperienced judges cannot join us, please cover the basics of writing a ballot with them - including speaker points, ranking, constructive/educational comments, implicit bias, and reasons for decisions. 

This tournament will use paper ballots. 

Student holding is in the cafeteria. It is important for students to remain in the cafeteria when not in competition rounds for security purposes. 

Round postings will be outside the cafeteria and outside 201.