88R1012 MLH-D
By: Schwertner S.B. No. 995
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
relating to a ballot proposition on the manner of election for
members of the board of trustees of a school district.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
SECTION 1. Section 11.052, Education Code, is amended by
amending Subsections (a), (b), (d), and (e) and adding Subsections
(e-1) and (e-2) to read as follows:
(a) Except as provided by Subsection (b), the board of
trustees of an independent school district, on its own motion, may
order that a proposition be placed on the ballot at the next regular
election of trustees on the question of electing:
(1) all trustees of the district [are to be elected]
from single-member trustee districts; or
(2) [that] not fewer than 70 percent of the [members of
the board of] trustees [are to be elected] from single-member
trustee districts with the remaining trustees to be elected from
the district at large.
(b) If a majority of the area of an independent school
district is located in a county with a population of less than
10,000, the board of trustees of the district, on its own motion,
may order that a proposition be placed on the ballot at the next
regular election of trustees on the question of electing:
(1) all trustees of the district [are to be elected]
from single-member trustee districts; or
(2) [that] not fewer than 50 percent of the [members of
the board of] trustees [are to be elected] from single-member
trustee districts with the remaining trustees to be elected from
the district at large.
(d) An order of the board adopted under Subsection (a) or
(b) must be entered not later than the 120th day before the date of
the [first] election at which the ballot proposition to elect some
or all [all or some] of the trustees [are elected] from
single-member trustee districts is to be submitted to the voters
[authorized by the order].
(e) If at least 15 percent or 15,000 of the registered
voters of the school district, whichever is less, sign and present
to the board of trustees a petition requesting submission to the
voters of the proposition that trustees of the district be elected
in a specific manner, which must be generally described on the
petition and which must be a manner of election that the board could
have proposed [ordered] on its own motion under Subsection (a) or
(b), the board shall order that the appropriate proposition be
placed on the ballot at the first regular election of trustees held
after the 120th day after the date the petition is submitted to the
board.
(e-1) A [The] proposition submitted under this section must
specify the number of trustees to be elected from single-member
districts.
(e-2) Beginning with the first regular election of trustees
held after an election at which a majority of the registered voters
voting approve a [the] proposition submitted under this section,
trustees of the district shall be elected in the manner prescribed
by the approved proposition.
SECTION 2. This Act takes effect September 1, 2023.