By Yarbrough H.B. No. 406
75R2340 CAS-D
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
1-1 AN ACT
1-2 relating to the membership and election of the board of trustees of
1-3 certain independent school districts.
1-4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-5 SECTION 1. Sections 1 and 2, Chapter 339, Acts of the 52nd
1-6 Legislature, Regular Session, 1951 (Article 2774b, Vernon's Texas
1-7 Civil Statutes), are amended to read as follows:
1-8 Sec. 1. An Independent School District [Beginning with the
1-9 trustee election held in November, 1981, all Independent School
1-10 Districts, whether created under the General Laws or by Special Act
1-11 of the Legislature,] having one hundred eighty thousand (180,000)
1-12 or more students in membership on the date membership is determined
1-13 for the school year [one hundred forty thousand (140,000) or more
1-14 students in average daily attendance] and wherein there is situated
1-15 a city having a population of one million six hundred thirty
1-16 thousand (1,630,000) [one million five hundred and ninety thousand
1-17 (1,590,000)] or more inhabitants [according to the last Federal
1-18 Census] shall be governed by a board of eleven (11) [nine (9)]
1-19 Trustees, and the term of office of the Trustees shall be four (4)
1-20 years.
1-21 Sec. 2. Candidates [At trustee elections held in 1977 and
1-22 thereafter, all candidates] for School Trustee in any such
1-23 Independent School District, notwithstanding any contrary or
1-24 inconsistent provisions in any other General or Special Law, shall
2-1 be voted upon and elected so that nine (9) Trustees are elected
2-2 from separately numbered single-member trustee districts and the
2-3 president and vice president of the Board of Trustees are elected
2-4 from the School District at large, and all candidates shall be
2-5 designated on the official ballots according to the number of the
2-6 trustee district that they seek to represent or according to the
2-7 title of the at-large position they seek, as applicable. Such
2-8 official ballot shall have printed on it the following: 'Official
2-9 Ballot for the Purpose of Electing Trustees,' giving the name of
2-10 the School District together with the designating number of each
2-11 trustee district position to be filled and the designating title of
2-12 each at-large position to be filled, with the list of candidates
2-13 under the position to which they respectively seek election. The
2-14 names of the candidates for each position shall be arranged by lot
2-15 by the Board of Trustees of such Independent School District. No
2-16 language used in any part of this Act shall be interpreted to
2-17 preclude the use of mechanical devices in voting.
2-18 SECTION 2. Sections 3(a) and (b), Chapter 339, Acts of the
2-19 52nd Legislature, Regular Session, 1951 (Article 2774b, Vernon's
2-20 Texas Civil Statutes), are amended to read as follows:
2-21 (a) At the election of trustees in November 1997, a
2-22 president and vice president of the Board of Trustees shall be
2-23 elected from the School District at large, and five trustees shall
2-24 be elected from those trustee districts as to which the term of
2-25 office under this subsection, as amended by Chapter 345, Acts of
2-26 the 67th Legislature, Regular Session, 1981, is to expire January
2-27 1, 1998. The president and the five trustees then elected shall
3-1 serve four-year terms. The vice president then elected shall serve
3-2 a two-year term. Thereafter, five or six trustees shall be elected
3-3 biennially for four-year terms. [Before October 1, 1981, the Board
3-4 of Trustees shall divide the school district into nine compact
3-5 trustee districts.] Each trustee district shall contain as nearly
3-6 as possible the same number of residents as determined by the last
3-7 [preceding] federal census. The board shall redivide the district
3-8 into nine trustee districts within six months following the
3-9 publication of each succeeding federal census. [At the 1981
3-10 election, trustees shall be elected from the four numbered trustee
3-11 districts scheduled for election that year under prior law and from
3-12 two new districts created by the expansion from seven to nine
3-13 members. Prior to that election, the board of trustees shall draw
3-14 lots so that one trustee elected from a new district shall serve
3-15 for a term of four years and the other trustee elected from a new
3-16 district shall serve for a term of two years. Thereafter, four or
3-17 five members shall be chosen biennially for terms of four years.]
3-18 Except as provided by Subsection (b) of this section, a change in
3-19 district boundaries occurring as a result of redistricting[,
3-20 including redistricting for 1981,] does not affect the term of
3-21 office of trustees serving on the date of the election for which
3-22 the change is effective, and each trustee is entitled to serve for
3-23 the remainder of the four-year term to which the trustee [he] was
3-24 elected [in 1979 or in a subsequent election].
3-25 (b) Residence within the trustee district that a candidate
3-26 seeks to represent is a prerequisite to filing for the office. If
3-27 a trustee fails to establish [his] residence within the district
4-1 that the trustee [he] represents, or if a trustee moves the
4-2 trustee's [his] residence out of the district that the trustee [he]
4-3 represents during the trustee's [his] term of office, the office
4-4 shall be declared vacant. The remaining members of the board shall
4-5 select a suitable person residing in the applicable district to
4-6 fill the vacancy until the next regular trustee election. The
4-7 trustee elected shall serve for the unexpired term of the vacating
4-8 trustee or for a full term if the vacating trustee's term has
4-9 expired. If a change in district boundaries occurring as a result
4-10 of redistricting places the residence of a trustee whose office is
4-11 not next up for election outside the numbered district for which
4-12 the trustee [he] was elected and the trustee fails to move the
4-13 trustee's [his] residence within the new boundaries of that
4-14 numbered district before the 45th day preceding the date of the
4-15 first election for which the boundary changes are effective, the
4-16 office shall be declared vacant and shall be filled at that
4-17 election. A candidate for president or vice president of the board
4-18 must be a resident of the School District. If a trustee serving as
4-19 the president or vice president moves the trustee's residence out
4-20 of the School District, the office shall be declared vacant.
4-21 SECTION 3. Sections 4 and 5, Chapter 339, Acts of the 52nd
4-22 Legislature, Regular Session, 1951 (Article 2774b, Vernon's Texas
4-23 Civil Statutes), are amended to read as follows:
4-24 Sec. 4. Any person desiring election for a position on any
4-25 such Board of Trustees shall, not less than thirty (30) days prior
4-26 to the date of said election, file with the Board of Trustees
4-27 ordering such election written notice announcing his or her
5-1 candidacy, designating in such written notice and request to have
5-2 his or her name placed on the official ballot the number of the
5-3 trustee district position or the title of the at-large position, as
5-4 applicable, on such Board of Trustees for which he or she, as the
5-5 case may be, desires to become a candidate, and all candidates so
5-6 requesting shall have their names printed on the official ballot
5-7 beneath the trustee district number or at-large title of the
5-8 position so designated. No person who does not so file said notice
5-9 and request within the time aforesaid shall be entitled to have his
5-10 or her name printed upon said official ballot to be used at any
5-11 such election. No candidate shall be eligible to have his or her
5-12 name placed on the official ballot under more than one (1) position
5-13 to be filled at any such election.
5-14 Sec. 5. The said Board of Trustees shall organize by
5-15 electing the officers of the Board, other than the president and
5-16 the vice president, at the first regular meeting of the said Board
5-17 in January following the elections herein provided for.
5-18 SECTION 4. Notwithstanding the dates specified by Chapter
5-19 339, Acts of the 52nd Legislature, Regular Session, 1951 (Article
5-20 2774b, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), as amended by this Act, if
5-21 this Act may not be given effect under Section 5, Voting Rights Act
5-22 of 1965 (42 U.S.C. Section 1973c), in time to elect school district
5-23 trustees in accordance with that chapter as amended by this Act at
5-24 the election of trustees to be held in November 1997, school
5-25 district trustees shall be elected in accordance with that chapter
5-26 as amended by this Act at the election of trustees in November
5-27 1999, except as otherwise provided by this section. In that event,
6-1 at the election in November 1999, a president and vice president of
6-2 the board shall be elected from the school district at-large, and
6-3 four trustees shall be elected from trustee districts. The
6-4 president and the four trustees then elected shall serve four-year
6-5 terms. The vice president then elected shall serve a two-year
6-6 term.
6-7 SECTION 5. The importance of this legislation and the
6-8 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
6-9 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
6-10 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
6-11 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
6-12 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
6-13 passage, and it is so enacted.