By:  Carona                                   S.B. No. 232

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

                                       AN ACT

 1-1     relating to an optional majority vote requirement for election of

 1-2     trustees in certain independent school districts.

 1-3           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-4           SECTION 1.  Section 11.057, Education Code, is amended to

 1-5     read as follows:

 1-6           Sec. 11.057.  DETERMINATION OF RESULTS; OPTIONAL MAJORITY

 1-7     VOTE REQUIREMENT.  (a)  Except as provided by Subsection (c), in

 1-8     [In] an independent school district in which the positions of

 1-9     trustees are designated by number as provided by Section 11.058 or

1-10     in which the trustees are elected from single-member trustee

1-11     districts as provided by Section 11.052, the candidate receiving

1-12     the highest number of votes for each respective position voted on

1-13     is elected [entitled to serve as trustee].

1-14           (b)  In a district in which the positions of trustees are not

1-15     designated by number or in which the trustees are not elected from

1-16     single-member trustee districts, the candidates receiving the

1-17     highest number of votes shall fill the positions the terms of which

1-18     are normally expiring.

1-19           (c)  The board of trustees of an independent school district

1-20     in which the positions of trustees are designated by number or in

1-21     which the trustees are elected from single-member trustee districts

1-22     as provided by Section 11.052 may provide by resolution, not later

1-23     than the 120th day before the date of an election, that a candidate

 2-1     must receive a majority of the votes cast for a position or in a

 2-2     trustee district, as applicable, to be elected.  A resolution

 2-3     adopted under this subsection is effective until rescinded by a

 2-4     subsequent resolution adopted not later than the 120th day before

 2-5     the date of the first election to which the rescission applies.

 2-6           SECTION 2.  Section 11.057, Education Code, as amended by

 2-7     this Act, does not require a school district to elect trustees in a

 2-8     manner other than the manner the district was using to elect

 2-9     trustees on June 1, 1997.

2-10           SECTION 3.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.

2-11           SECTION 4.  The importance of this legislation and the

2-12     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

2-13     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

2-14     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-15     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.