The Basics of Board Officer Elections

When Do Texas School Boards Need To Hold Board Officer Elections?

If your district recently held your board elections—or would have, but canceled them due to no contested elections—it’s time to hold officer elections. In Texas, school boards are required by law to hold elections of officers at the first meeting after the election and qualification of board members.

Your school board can also reorganize at other times, too, if a majority of the board agrees to it. You can see more detail about this in policy BDAA (LEGAL).*

Which School Board Officer Roles Are Required?

In Texas, only two board officer positions are required:

• President
• Secretary

The president must be a member of the board and the secretary may or may not be a member of the board. Most boards choose a board member as secretary.

Common but not required officer positions include:

• Vice president
• Treasurer
• Parliamentarian

Refer to your district’s policy BDAA (LOCAL)* for details on the specific duties of your local board officers. This policy will detail the specific terms and requirements for your local board officers.

What Are Some Best Practices for School Board Officer Nominations?

Electing board officers is different from other types of board business.

• Any member of the board can nominate another member of the board for an officer role, including nominating themselves.
• Nominations for officer roles don’t require a second.
• More than one person can be nominated for an officer role.

Best practice in school board officer elections is to keep the nominations open long enough for members to make other nominations if they’d like. The presiding officer should ask something like, “Are there other nominations?” and pause. If there are none, the presiding officer may say, “Hearing no additional nominations; if there is no objection, then we’ll close nominations.”

It’s also best practice to take nominations for each office separately and vote on them before proceeding to the nominations and voting for the subsequent offices. This allows board members to be nominated for other officer roles.

For more answers to questions about officer elections and how to handle unusual or sensitive situations, review this Q&A on Electing Board Officers.

* To access any policies referenced in this section, see your district’s website for a link to your district’s localized policy manual through Policy On Line®.