Substitute House Bill 1036 amends RCW 28B.50.100, 28B.35.100, and 28B.40.100 to change composition, appointment, term, and procedural rules for community and technical college district boards of trustees, regional university boards, and The Evergreen State College board. Boards are set to include specified members from business and labor; college district boards consist of five trustees (subject to RCW 28B.50.102), regional university and Evergreen boards consist of eight members including one student and one labor member. Governors appoint trustees, with Washington State Senate consent required where specified for regional universities and Evergreen; student trustees are selected by the governor from lists provided by student governance bodies. Student trustee terms are one year (July 1 to the following July 1); regional university and Evergreen nonstudent trustees serve six-year terms beginning October 1; college district trustee successors serve five-year terms under RCW 28B.50.100; no more than two nonstudent member terms may expire on September 30 of any one year for regional universities and Evergreen. Quorums are three members for college district boards and five members for regional university and Evergreen boards. District or college presidents serve or designate the board secretary. The bill imposes procedural requirements: boards must follow chapter 42.30 RCW open public meetings statutes and provide time for public comment at each meeting. Trustees may be removed for misconduct or malfeasance under RCW 28B.10.500. The act takes effect October 1, 2030. The text references RCW 28B.50.102 as an exception but does not provide its content. A parenthetical phrase "((containing technical colleges))" appears in the college district provision and the extracted facts do not indicate whether that text is being added, retained, or removed. The bill’s fiscal impacts, broader legislative history, and underlying rationale are not included in the provided material.

If enacted, the bill will change who sits on public college and university boards and how those boards operate: boards must include designated labor and business representatives and a student trustee with a one-year term chosen by the governor from a student-provided list, trustees face set term lengths and staggered expirations, meetings must be open with time for public comment, and trustees can be removed for misconduct. Practically, this will shift board perspectives toward including organized labor and business voices, increase turnover among student representatives, and require more routine coordination between student governments, college presidents (as board secretaries), and the governor’s office to manage appointments and meeting procedures; these changes take effect October 1, 2030. The groups most affected are community and technical college districts, regional universities, The Evergreen State College, students serving as trustees, labor and business groups asked to serve, and the governor/Senate involved in appointments. They will face modest new administrative responsibilities and scheduling constraints to maintain quorums and staggered terms, plus a likely small increase in public engagement and oversight at board meetings. The text leaves unclear how the cited exception in RCW 28B.50.102 applies and whether the parenthetical phrase about “containing technical colleges” is being changed, so some implementation details remain uncertain.