<p class=ldtitle>A BILL to amend and reenact §§ 22.1-346.2 and 23.1-812 of the Code of Virginia, relating to Board of Visitors of the Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind; authority to establish campus police department.</p>
SB 238 revises the governance and employment structure of the Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind. The bill establishes a 15-member Board of Visitors for the school, with legislative and citizen members, and gives that board broad oversight of the school’s executive cabinet, educational programs, admissions criteria, transportation policies, staffing, compensation, and annual reporting. It also authorizes the board to establish and maintain both a campus security department and, under state campus-police procedures, a campus police department.
The bill further amends state personnel law to expressly exempt faculty of the Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind from the Virginia Personnel Act, while preserving or clarifying access to state benefits and setting out how teachers and other school personnel are hired, evaluated, and compensated. It also updates related provisions governing campus police appointments to recognize the school’s authority to create its own police department. In practical terms, the measure would shift more operational control of the school from the existing departmental structure to the new Board of Visitors and its executive cabinet, while formalizing employment and law-enforcement authority for the institution.
The bill would amend §§ 2.2-2905, 22.1-346.2, 22.1-349, and 23.1-812 of the Code of Virginia. Its main legal effect is to create a new governance body for the Virginia School for the Deaf and the Blind, define its membership and powers, and exempt the school’s faculty from the Virginia Personnel Act while preserving state-benefit treatment and grievance-related protections where applicable. It also authorizes the school to establish campus security and campus police operations, affecting the school’s internal public-safety structure and the appointment of campus police officers under existing higher-education policing law.
The available vote history suggests the bill had some support but not enough to advance, with a 15-0 rereferral from Education and Health followed by a 10-4 vote to pass by indefinitely in Finance and Appropriations. That pattern indicates the policy concept was not broadly opposed at the first committee stage, but fiscal or structural concerns likely prevented further progress. No committee transcript is available, so the discussion record does not show detailed public arguments.
The most likely points of contention are the creation of a new Board of Visitors with substantial authority over a state school, the shift of personnel and compensation decisions away from the existing framework, and the authorization to create a campus police department. These provisions could raise questions about governance duplication, administrative costs, labor/HR implications for faculty and staff, and whether a separate police force is necessary or appropriate for the school. The Finance and Appropriations committee’s decision to pass the bill by indefinitely suggests concerns may have centered on cost, implementation, or the scope of the restructuring.