1. In addition to the manner of election provided in NRS 386.205, 386.215 and 386.225, the trustees of a county school district may be elected from school trustee election areas in the alternate manner provided in this section.

2. Within 30 days before May 1 of any year in which a general election is to be held in the State, 10 percent or more of the registered voters of a county school district in which 25,000 or fewer pupils are enrolled may file a written petition with the board of county commissioners of the county praying for the creation of school trustee election areas within the county school district in the manner provided in this section. The petition must specify with particularity the school trustee election areas proposed to be created, the number of trustees to be elected from each area, and the manner of their nomination and election. The number of school trustee election areas proposed must not exceed the number of trustees authorized by law for the particular county school district. The description of the proposed school trustee election areas need not be given by metes and bounds or by legal subdivisions, but must be sufficient to enable a person to ascertain what territory is proposed to be included within a particular school trustee election area. The signatures to the petition need not all be appended to one paper, but each signer must add to his or her name his or her place of residence, giving the street and number whenever practicable. One of the signers of each paper shall swear or affirm, before a person competent to administer oaths, that each signature to the paper appended is the genuine signature of the person whose name it purports to be.

3. Immediately after the receipt of the petition, the board of county commissioners shall fix a date for a public hearing to be held during the month of May, and shall give notice thereof by publication at least once in a newspaper published in the county, or if no such newspaper is published therein then in a newspaper published in the State of Nevada and having a general circulation in the county. The costs of publication of the notice is a proper charge against the county school district fund.

4. If, as a result of the public hearing, the board of county commissioners finds that the creation of school trustee election areas within the county school district is desirable, the board of county commissioners shall, by resolution regularly adopted before June 1, divide the county school district into the number of school trustee election areas specified in the petition, designate them by number and define their boundaries. The territory comprising each school trustee election area must be contiguous. The resolution must further set forth the number of trustees to be elected from each school trustee election area and the manner of their nomination and election.

5. Before June 1 and immediately following the adoption of the resolution creating school trustee election areas within a county school district, the clerk of the board of county commissioners shall transmit a certified copy of the resolution to the Superintendent of Public Instruction.

6. Upon the creation of school trustee election areas within a county school district the terms of office of all trustees then in office expire on the 1st Monday of January thereafter next following a general election. At the general election held following the creation of school trustee election areas within a county school district, school trustees to represent the odd-numbered school trustee election areas must be elected for terms of 4 years and school trustees to represent the even-numbered school trustee election areas must be elected for terms of 2 years. Thereafter, at each general election, the offices of school trustees must be filled for terms of 4 years in the order in which the terms of office expire.

7. A candidate for the office of trustee of a county school district in which school trustee election areas have been created must be a qualified elector and a resident of the school trustee election area which he or she seeks to represent.

8. The board of county commissioners may by resolution change the boundaries of school trustee election areas or the manner of nomination or election of school trustees after:

(a) Holding a public hearing of which notice must be given as provided in subsection 3; and

(b) Receiving, at the hearing or by resolution, the consent of the board of trustees of the school district.

9. If the Superintendent of Public Instruction certifies to the county clerk that the enrollment of pupils during the preceding school year in a county school district was less than 1,000, or was 1,000 or more but less than 1,500 in a district in which the board of trustees has adopted a resolution in accordance with NRS 386.120 specifying that the board will consist of five members, and the board of trustees of the county school district is composed of seven elected members based upon a previous enrollment of 1,000 or more, the board of county commissioners shall alter the school trustee election areas or change the number of trustees to be elected from the areas, or the manner of their nomination and election, as may be necessary to provide for reduction of the membership of the board of trustees of the county school board from seven to five members, and only five school trustees may thereafter be nominated and elected at the forthcoming elections.

10. If the Superintendent of Public Instruction certifies to the county clerk that the enrollment of pupils during the preceding school year in a county school district was 1,000 or more, and the board of trustees of the county school district is composed of five elected members, the board of county commissioners shall alter the school trustee election areas or change the number of trustees to be elected from the areas, or the manner of their nomination and election, as may be necessary to provide for increasing the membership of the board of trustees of the county school district from five to seven members, and two additional school trustees must thereafter be nominated and elected at the forthcoming elections.

11. The provisions of subsection 10 do not apply in a school district in which the pupil enrollment during the preceding school year was 1,000 or more but less than 1,500, and in which the board of trustees of the school district has adopted a resolution specifying that the board will consist of five members.

[65.1:32:1956] — (NRS A 1967, 933; 1979, 1577; 1981, 723; 1987, 181; 1995, 5)