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Florida School Board Member Term Limits Amendment (2020)
| Florida School Board Member Term Limits Amendment | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Election date November 3, 2020 | |
| Topic Term limits | |
| Status Not on the ballot | |
| Type Constitutional amendment | Origin State legislature |
The Florida School Board Member Term Limits Amendment was not on the ballot in Florida as a legislatively referred constitutional amendment on November 3, 2020.[1]
This amendment would have prevented any school board member from running for re-election if they had served or if they will have had served by the end of their current term for eight consecutive years. The amendment would not have retroactively counted terms that started prior to November 3, 2020. Rather, the amendment would have counted any time serving as a school board member in terms that start following November 3, 2020, towards the eight-year limit.[2]
Text of the measure
Ballot title
The following ballot title was proposed for this constitutional amendment:[2]
| “ |
CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT LIMITATION ON TERMS OF OFFICE FOR MEMBERS OF A DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD.—Proposing an amendment to the State Constitution to limit terms for school board members by prohibiting incumbent members who have held the office for the preceding eight years from appearing on a ballot for reelection to that office and to specify that the amendment only applies to terms of office beginning on or after November 3, 2020.[3] |
” |
Constitutional changes
- See also: Article IX, Florida Constitution
The measure would have amended section 4 of Article IX and Article XII of the state constitution. The following underlined text would have been added, and struck-through text would have been deleted:[2]
(a) Each county shall constitute a school district; provided, two or more contiguous counties, upon vote of the electors of each county pursuant to law, may be combined into one school district. In each school district there shall be a school board composed of five or more members chosen by vote of the electors in a nonpartisan election for appropriately staggered terms of four years, as provided by law.
(b) The school board shall operate, control and supervise all free public schools within the school district and determine the rate of school district taxes within the limits prescribed herein. Two or more school districts may operate and finance joint educational programs.
(c) A person may not appear on the ballot for reelection to the office of school board member if, by the end of his or her current term of office, the person will have served, or but for resignation would have served, in that office for eight consecutive years.
ARTICLE XII
SCHEDULE
Limitation on terms of office for members of a district school board.—This section and the amendment to Section 4 of Article IX imposing limits on the terms of office for members of a district school board shall take effect on the date they are approved by the electorate, but no service in a term of office which commenced before November 3, 2020, will be counted toward the limitation imposed by this amendment.[3]
Path to the ballot
- See also: Amending the Florida Constitution
To put a legislatively referred constitutional amendment before voters, a three-fifths (60%) vote is required in both the Florida State Senate and the Florida House of Representatives.
This amendment was filed in September 2019 and introduced as House Joint Resolution 157 on January 14, 2020. The state House approved the amendment 79-39 on February 20, 2020.[1]
The measure did not pass in the second chamber before the legislature adjourned on March 13, 2020.
