1-1           By:  Carona                                      S.B. No. 232

 1-2           (In the Senate - Filed January 16, 1997; January 21, 1997,

 1-3     read first time and referred to Committee on Education;

 1-4     February 6, 1997, reported favorably by the following vote:  Yeas

 1-5     10, Nays 1; February 6, 1997, sent to printer.)

 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

 1-7                                   AN ACT

 1-8     relating to an optional majority vote requirement for election of

 1-9     trustees in certain independent school districts.

1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

1-11           SECTION 1.  Section 11.057, Education Code, is amended to

1-12     read as follows:

1-13           Sec. 11.057.  DETERMINATION OF RESULTS; OPTIONAL MAJORITY

1-14     VOTE REQUIREMENT.  (a)  Except as provided by Subsection (c), in

1-15     [In] an independent school district in which the positions of

1-16     trustees are designated by number as provided by Section 11.058 or

1-17     in which the trustees are elected from single-member trustee

1-18     districts as provided by Section 11.052, the candidate receiving

1-19     the highest number of votes for each respective position voted on

1-20     is elected [entitled to serve as trustee].

1-21           (b)  In a district in which the positions of trustees are not

1-22     designated by number or in which the trustees are not elected from

1-23     single-member trustee districts, the candidates receiving the

1-24     highest number of votes shall fill the positions the terms of which

1-25     are normally expiring.

1-26           (c)  The board of trustees of an independent school district

1-27     in which the positions of trustees are designated by number or in

1-28     which the trustees are elected from single-member trustee districts

1-29     as provided by Section 11.052 may provide by resolution, not later

1-30     than the 120th day before the date of an election, that a candidate

1-31     must receive a majority of the votes cast for a position or in a

1-32     trustee district, as applicable, to be elected.  A resolution

1-33     adopted under this subsection is effective until rescinded by a

1-34     subsequent resolution adopted not later than the 120th day before

1-35     the date of the first election to which the rescission applies.

1-36           SECTION 2.  This Act takes effect September 1, 1997.

1-37           SECTION 3.  The importance of this legislation and the

1-38     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an

1-39     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the

1-40     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several

1-41     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended.

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