By Carona                                        S.B. No. 232

      75R2179 KKA-D                           

                                A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-1                                   AN ACT

 1-2     relating to an optional majority vote requirement for election of

 1-3     trustees in certain independent school districts.

 1-4           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

 1-5           SECTION 1.  Section 11.057, Education Code, is amended to

 1-6     read as follows:

 1-7           Sec. 11.057.  DETERMINATION OF RESULTS; OPTIONAL MAJORITY

 1-8     VOTE REQUIREMENT.  (a) Except as provided by Subsection (c), in

 1-9     [In] an independent school district in which the positions of

1-10     trustees are designated by number as provided by Section 11.058 or

1-11     in which the trustees are elected from single-member trustee

1-12     districts as provided by Section 11.052, the candidate receiving

1-13     the highest number of votes for each respective position voted on

1-14     is elected [entitled to serve as trustee].

1-15           (b)  In a district in which the positions of trustees are not

1-16     designated by number or in which the trustees are not elected from

1-17     single-member trustee districts, the candidates receiving the

1-18     highest number of votes shall fill the positions the terms of which

1-19     are normally expiring.

1-20           (c)  The board of trustees of an independent school district

1-21     in which the positions of trustees are designated by number or in

1-22     which the trustees are elected from single-member trustee districts

1-23     as provided by Section 11.052 may provide by resolution, not later

1-24     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 2-3     adopted under this subsection is effective until rescinded by a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.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.

 2-7           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

 2-8     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

 2-9     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

2-10     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

2-11     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.