A five-member board most Texans have never heard of meets Tuesday to decide how much money from state-owned land goes directly to public schools over the next two years. Anyone who wants to speak has to be in the room; the webcast is one-way.
The School Land Board manages the land and mineral rights inside the Permanent School Fund, the endowment Texas set up for its schools. Oil and gas royalties from about 13 million acres — including riverbeds and submerged coastal land — flow into an account the board controls. Every other year the board votes on how much of that account to release. It can send the money to the Available School Fund, where districts can spend it, or leave it invested. The board’s own rule requires that decision by September 1, and Tuesday’s meeting is the last one before the deadline.
There is a ceiling. The Texas Constitution caps what each entity managing school fund land can send to the spending account at $600 million a year — a limit voters doubled in 2019. The board hit that ceiling in recent biennia, adding $600 million a year on top of the much larger transfer the State Board of Education makes from the invested fund. How much it releases this time is not on the notice, and the agenda has no dollar figure attached to the item.
Most of the meeting is the business that generates the money. Twelve applications ask the board to combine state-owned tracts with neighboring acreage so a single long horizontal well can drain them, with royalties split by each tract’s share. Thirteen more set the formulas for dividing production among leases a well crosses. Companies including ConocoPhillips, EOG Resources, Continental Resources and Mewbourne Oil are on the list. Two items cover drilling under highway rights-of-way, and eight cover cabins, coastal leases and boat-related easements along the Gulf.
The board is chaired by Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham, who is joined by four appointees Governor Greg Abbott reappointed in April. Watch the resolution near the end of the agenda — it is the only item that moves real money.
Meeting at a glance
- When
- 10 a.m. CT Tuesday, August 18, 2026. Noticed as a special called meeting, as the board’s June and July meetings also were. The notice was filed August 10.
- Where
- Stephen F. Austin Building, 1700 N. Congress Ave., Room 170, Austin.
- Governing body & chair
- Texas School Land Board — the land commissioner plus four citizens the governor appoints to two-year terms, two of them from lists the State Board of Education submits. Dawn Buckingham chairs.
- Format
- In person. Speakers must sign the roster before the meeting and name the item they want to address; the chair may limit time. The webcast does not carry public comment.
- Live video
- Live stream on the land office’s webcast channel; a link is also posted the morning of the meeting.
- Full agenda
- Secretary of State Open Meeting Viewer · land office board page
Board members
- Dawn Buckingham — chairwoman; Texas land commissioner since January 2023; physician.
- Gilbert “Gil” Burciaga, Austin — co-founder, ARM Energy.
- Marcella Burke, Houston — energy lawyer; former federal environment and interior official.
- J. Brad Curlee, Round Rock — retired banking center president.
- David A. Eyler, Midland — petroleum geologist; oil and gas partnership owner.
The roster follows the land office’s own School Land Board page. The four appointed members were reappointed April 8, 2026, to terms ending August 29, 2027; the commissioner serves for her term in office. The board grew from three members to five in 2019, when lawmakers also removed the attorney general’s power to name a member. Staff contact for this meeting: Vicki Gonzales, vicki.gonzales@glo.texas.gov. General counsel Jeff Gordon signed the notice.