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2-3 adopted under this subsection is effective until rescinded by a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.
2-16 COMMITTEE AMENDMENT NO. 1
2-17 Amend SB 232 by adding the following appropriately numbered
2-18 section to the bill and renumbering subsequent sections of the bill
2-19 appropriately:
2-20 SECTION ___. Section 11.056(b), Education Code, is amended
2-21 to read as follows:
2-22 (b) A declaration of write-in candidacy must be filed not
2-23 later than 5 p.m. of the 45th [30th] day before the date of the
2-24 election. However, if a candidate whose name is to appear on the
2-25 ballot dies or is declared ineligible after the 48th [33rd] day
3-1 before the date of the election, a declaration of write-in
3-2 candidacy for the office sought by the deceased or ineligible
3-3 candidate may be filed not later than 5 p.m. of the 42nd [27th] day
3-4 before the date of the election.
3-5 Culberson
3-6 COMMITTEE AMENDMENT NO. 2
3-7 Amend S.B. No. 232 as follows:
3-8 In Section 1 of the bill, strike proposed Section 11.057(c),
3-9 Education Code, and substitute:
3-10 "(c) The board of trustees of an independent school district
3-11 in which the positions of trustees are designated by number or in
3-12 which the trustees are elected from single-member trustee districts
3-13 as provided by Section 11.052 may provide by resolution, not later
3-14 than the 120th day before the date of an election, that a candidate
3-15 must receive a majority of the votes cast for a position or in a
3-16 trustee district, as applicable, to be elected. Once the board of
3-17 trustees of an independent school district has adopted the
3-18 provisions of this section, neither the board of trustees nor their
3-19 successors may rescind the action."
3-20 Culberson