S.B. No. 2824 amends Section 11.1542 of the Education Code to establish new procedures for the sale, lease, or use of unused or underused school district facilities. The bill requires the board of trustees of an independent school district to provide any public school district, open-enrollment charter school, or private school approved to operate in Texas the opportunity to make an offer on the facility before it is offered to other entities. Additionally, the board must obtain an appraisal report for the facility within 12 months prior to offering it for sale or lease. During the first 90 days of the offering, only offers from qualifying educational institutions will be accepted, and the board must accept the best offer that meets or exceeds the appraised value.

If no qualifying offers are received within the initial 90 days, the board may then offer the facility to the general public. Should the board accept an offer from the general public, it is required to give the educational institutions that submitted offers during the initial period 14 days to submit revised offers that match or exceed the selected offer's financial terms. The bill also clarifies that the board is not obligated to accept offers from open-enrollment charter schools, which is a deletion from the previous law. This act is set to take effect on September 1, 2025.

Statutes affected:
Introduced: Education Code 11.1542 (Education Code 11)