The Committee on School Finance and Permanent School Fund approved lists of nominees to submit to the governor for appointments to the School Land Board and the Teacher Retirement System (TRS) Board of Trustees.

John McGaty, director of governmental relations for the Texas Permanent School Fund Corporation, told the committee the statute requires the State Board of Education to submit six nominees for each School Land Board position and that one nominee for each seat must be a resident of a county with fewer than 200,000 people. McGaty said the corporation performed a third-party review of candidates and that the committee’s submitted lists include current School Land Board members David Eiler and Brad Curley as re-nominees.

McGaty said staff consults with the governor’s appointments office and Commissioner Buckingham during the process. He said committee members were provided documentation — resumes and applications — on the Diligent platform, which staff emailed to the committee the day before the meeting.

A motion that the committee recommend the School Land Board nominee lists be submitted to the governor was made and seconded; a further amendment to add Aaron Kinsey alongside David Eiler and Tom Maynard alongside Brad Curley in the committee’s SPOA-member columns was proposed, seconded and adopted without recorded objection. Committee members discussed statutory timelines: terms for the current School Land Board seats formally expire Aug. 31 of the year noted in the meeting, although appointees remain until their replacements are named.

On the TRS nomination list, McGaty said the statutory requirements focus on candidates with demonstrated financial expertise and broad investment experience, preferably with pension-fund investing. Committee members noted that the Permanent School Fund’s investment staff helped vet nominees. A motion recommending the TRS nominee list was moved and seconded. Dr. Ellis requested a roll-call vote; the roll call recorded the votes as yes from Dr. Ellis, Aaron Kinsey, Mr. Hickman and Mr. Perez Diaz, and the chair cast his vote in the affirmative. McGaty said the motion passed unanimously.

The committee’s actions were recommendations to the full State Board of Education to forward the lists to the governor; the governor’s office makes the official appointments. Committee members were told the lists, and the supporting documentation on Diligent, will be transmitted to the governor’s appointments office within the procedural timelines.