Tennessee § 49-2-201 - Election or appointment.

§ 49-2-201. Election or appointment.

Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, there shall be a board of education elected by the people. Except in counties with a county charter or metropolitan government charter, the board shall consist of no more members than the number of members authorized by general law or private act for boards of education in existence on January 1, 1992, or the number of members actually serving on a board on January 1, 1993, except during transition periods following district reapportionment. In addition to the membership existing on boards as of January 1, 1992, or January 1, 1993, the general assembly may authorize by private act any number of school board members that is no less than three (3) nor more than eleven (11). The members of the board shall be elected for a term of four (4) years, and may succeed themselves. For the first election held pursuant to this section, in order to establish staggered terms of office, the members from even-numbered districts shall be elected for a term of two (2) years, and the members of odd-numbered districts shall be elected for four (4) years. Members of county boards of education shall be residents of and elected from districts of substantially equal population established by resolution of the local legislative body. Members of special school district boards of education shall be elected according to special or private act, but shall be popularly elected on a staggered term basis. Vacancies occurring on the board shall be filled by the local legislative body. In special school districts, vacancies on the board arising from death or resignation shall be filled by the special school district school board. Any person so appointed shall serve until a successor is elected and qualifies according to law. The successor shall be elected at the next general election for which candidates have a sufficient time to qualify under the law. All elections for school board members shall be conducted on a nonpartisan basis, and no person seeking a position on a board shall campaign as the nominee or representative of any political party. Notwithstanding the four-year term set out in this section for school boards, any special school district with a different term established by private act shall retain the existing board term. To implement subdivision (a)(1), the general assembly by private act, or the local legislative body by resolution, may adopt a plan to accomplish a transition from a method of selecting school board members authorized under prior law to an elected school board that is in compliance with subdivision (a)(1). Nothing in this section shall be construed to require simultaneous election of board members, nor to prevent board members selected under prior law or during a transition period from serving the full term for which they were selected. As part of the implementation process under subdivision (a)(1), the local legislative body may renumber existing school districts. During the transition period, the number of school board members may exceed the number authorized under subdivision (a)(1). A transition plan may not be validly enacted or adopted under this section after September 1, 1996. A private act enacted by the general assembly or a resolution adopted by a local legislative body prior to March 27, 1995, that established a transition plan as described in subdivision (a)(3), is declared to be in full compliance with the laws of this state. Any and all otherwise valid actions taken by a school board composed of members selected pursuant to such private acts or resolutions are ratified and confirmed. For any LEA that has failed to implement this section, the general assembly by private act, or the local legislative body by resolution, may adopt a plan to implement four-year staggered terms of election for a local board of education by July 31, 2005. Any plan for staggered terms of election implemented pursuant to this subdivision (a)(5) shall otherwise comply with the requirements of this section, but may vary the staggered sequence provided for in subdivision (a)(1). Any municipal board of education that, as authorized by private act, implemented a transition plan to bring the election of the board members into compliance with subdivision (a)(1), but that failed to comply with the election cycle established by the private act, may, by private act enacted by the general assembly and approved by the municipal legislative body, adopt a plan to restore the election of the board to compliance with subdivision (a)(1); provided, that the plan is adopted and implementation begun prior to January 1, 2009. Any plan for staggered four-year terms of election implemented pursuant to this subdivision (a)(6) shall otherwise comply with the requirements of this section, but may vary the staggered sequence provided for in subdivision (a)(1). Any and all otherwise valid actions taken by the school board during the period of noncompliance with the election cycle required by the private act are ratified and confirmed. Any municipal board of education that, as authorized by private act, implemented a transition plan to bring the election of the board members into compliance with subdivision (a)(1), but currently has an election cycle in June, may, by private act enacted by the general assembly and approved by the municipal legislative body, adopt a plan to elect board members in the August general elections by extending the terms of the current school board members; provided, that the plan is adopted and implementation begun prior to January 1, 2015. Any plan implemented pursuant to this subdivision (a)(7) may extend the terms of any current board of education members, but shall otherwise comply with the requirements of this section. Only persons who are residents of the area served by an LEA are eligible to serve on the school board in counties with populations of seven hundred thousand (700,000) or more, according to the 1990 federal census or any subsequent federal census. Except as provided in subdivision (c)(2), members of municipal boards of education may be elected in the same manner, either from districts or at large, or a combination of both, used to elect members of the municipality's governing body, except that municipal school districts whose current board members have been elected from districts as of June 6, 1995, shall continue that method of election. Subdivision (c)(1) does not apply in counties having a population of not less than five hundred thousand (500,000) nor more than five hundred fifty thousand (550,000), or in counties having a population of not less than eight hundred twenty-five thousand (825,000) nor more than eight hundred thirty thousand (830,000), according to the 1990 federal census or any subsequent federal census. Beginning with the election for members of boards of education to be held in the year 2000, a local governing body in a county that would otherwise conduct a county primary election may elect, by a two-thirds (2/3) vote, to have a nonpartisan primary election for members of the school board at that primary election. If one (1) candidate for a board of education election receives a majority of votes cast in the nonpartisan primary, then that candidate's name shall appear on the ballot in the general election. If no candidate for a board of education election receives a majority of votes cast in the nonpartisan primary, then the two (2) candidates receiving the two (2) highest vote totals shall run against one another in the regular election. This subsection (d) shall apply only to counties having a unified school system and a charter form of government. This subsection (d) shall not apply in any county having a population of not less than eight hundred twenty-five thousand (825,000) nor more than eight hundred thirty thousand (830,000), according to the 1990 federal census or any subsequent federal census. Acts 1925, ch. 115, § 6; Shan. Supp., § 1487a26; mod. Code 1932, § 2317; Acts 1961, ch. 262, §§ 1-4; 1970, ch. 508, § 1; 1972, ch. 697, §§ 1, 2; 1972, ch. 784, § 1; 1973, ch. 170, § 1; impl. am. Acts 1978, ch. 934, §§ 7, 36; Acts 1981, ch. 175, §§ 1, 2; 1983, ch. 424, §§ 1, 2; T.C.A. (orig. ed.), § 49-208; Acts 1986, ch. 830, § 1; 1992, ch. 535, § 39; 1995, ch. 40, §§ 1, 2; 1995, ch. 404, §§ 1-6; 1995, ch. 435, §§ 1, 2; 1998, ch. 620, § 1; 1998, ch. 1012, §§ 1, 2; 2000, ch. 753, § 1; 2002, ch. 496, § 1; 2005, ch. 320, § 1; 2008, ch. 772, § 1; 2014, ch. 716, § 1. Code Commission Notes. Former subsection (b), regarding board of education elections in certain counties, was deleted as obsolete by the code commission in 2002. Compiler's Notes. For tables of U.S. decennial populations of Tennessee counties, see Volume 13 and its supplement. Law Reviews. Judicial Review and the Uniform Administrative Procedures Act (Toxey H. Sewell), 6 Mem. St. U.L. Rev. 253. Symposium – Memphis in the Law: A Memphis Dilemma: A Half-Century of Public Education Reform in Memphis and Shelby County From Desegregation to Consolidation (Daniel Kiel), 41 U. Mem. L. Rev. 787 (2011). The Sixth Circuit Year in Review — Leading Cases of 1997 (Judge Alice M. Batchelder, J. Clegg Ivey III, Rebecca C. Lutzko), 28 U. Mem. L. Rev. 345 (1998). Attorney General Opinions. Tie vote in election, OAG 96-150, 1996 Tenn. AG LEXIS 173 (12/31/96). Unification charter authority to place term limits, OAG 97-041, 1997 Tenn. AG LEXIS 40 (4/7/97). Conflict between county charter and general law, OAG 97-132, 1997 Tenn. AG LEXIS 165 (9/23/97). A proposed private act for Loudon County Board of Education, which would reconfigure its membership in order to mirror the membership of the county commission, met the requirements of T.C.A. § 49-2-201 relative to the election of school board members, OAG 02-057, 2002 Tenn. AG LEXIS 58 (4/30/02). If a municipality was in the process of converting to a board of education elected entirely by districts as of June 6, 1995, but had not fully converted to that method of election on that date, it may elect its board of education in the same manner as it elects its governing body, OAG 03-113, 2003 Tenn. AG LEXIS 129 (9/9/03). Vacancies on local boards of education. OAG 10-26, 2010 Tenn. AG LEXIS 21 (3/8/10). Citizen school board member conflicts of interest. OAG 10-46, 2010 Tenn. AG LEXIS 46 (4/12/10). A member of a county board of education holds a county office within the meaning of Article VII, Section 2 of the Tennessee Constitution so that, upon the occurrence of a vacancy on a county board of education, such vacancy may only be filled by the county legislative body until a successor can be elected and qualified. Vacancies on boards of education for municipalities and special school districts are subject to the statutory provisions governing such vacancies according to Article VII, Section 4 of the Tennessee Constitution. HB 2759/SB 3066 would have amended Tenn. Code Ann. §§ 49-2-201(a)(1) and 49-2-202(e) to permit local boards of education, whether county, city or special school district boards, to fill vacancies arising on such boards and therefore would have violated Article VII, Section 2 of the Tennessee Constitution with respect to county boards of education. OAG 10-88, 2010 Tenn. AG Lexis 94. The Education Improvement Act of 1992 supersedes the provisions of Chapter 44 of the 1973 Tennessee Private Acts, which sets the number of members for the Maury County Board of Education at ten members. OAG 12-08, 2012 Tenn. AG LEXIS 9 (1/18/12). A municipality may not cancel its board-of-education elections where only one candidate has successfully qualified for each of the positions. T.C.A. § 49-2-201 requires that the board be elected by the people and an election need not be contested. OAG 14-36, 2014 Tenn. AG LEXIS 37 (3/27/14). Article VII, Section 2, of the Tennessee Constitution requires local legislative bodies to make appointments to fill vacancies that occur on local school boards until the next election. Amending T.C.A. §§ 49-2-201(a)(1) and -202(e) to allow the members of a county school board to appoint new members to fill vacancies would violate Article VII, Section 2, of the Tennessee Constitution. OAG 15-25, 2015 Tenn. AG LEXIS 25 (3/19/15). The General Assembly has authorized the state Board of Education to establish policies, guidelines, and minimum standards that govern Tennessee’s system of public education, and the General Assembly has required local boards of education to comply with the state Board’s policies, guidelines, and standards in managing the public school systems in their respective jurisdictions. OAG 18-34, 2018 Tenn. AG LEXIS 33 (7/30/2018).