republic-os/legislation/us/states/va/2017/sb-949.md

---
type: "Bill"
title: "Southern Virginia Higher Education Center; members of board of trustees, powers and duties."
description: "Requires the Southern Virginia Higher Education Center (the Center) to encourage the development and delivery of workforce training in collaboration with educational institutions serving the region, with a focus on critical shortage areas and the needs of industry. The bill replaces the superintendent of the Halifax County Public Schools as an ex officio member of the board of trustees of the Center with a superintendent of a public school division located in the Southside region appointed by the Governor. The bill also broadens the eligibility requirements to serve as one of the representatives of business and industry on the board of trustees. The bill requires the board of trustees to seek opportunities to collaborate with local comprehensive community colleges to meet specialized noncredit workforce training needs identified by industry. However, if the local comprehensive community college is unable to meet such needs, then the board may seek to collaborate with other education providers or provide Center-delivered specialized noncredit workforce training. This bill is identical to"
jurisdiction: "us/states/va"
legislature: "Virginia General Assembly"
session: "2017"
identifier: "SB 949"
citation: "Virginia SB 949 (2017)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: ["Southside Virginia"]
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Frank M. Ruff, Jr."]
version_count: 4
action_count: 18
vote_count: 6
first_action: "2016-12-31"
last_action: "2017-03-03"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/32463836-83c5-4756-a292-8d49c8ea2f81"
source_url: "http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+sum+SB949"
source_hash: "bb3bfd344b6ab5eab6c2265b401974ae70506fc4471137a8b0ceefaf85fed879"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-va"]
---

# Virginia SB 949 (2017) — Southern Virginia Higher Education Center; members of board of trustees, powers and duties.

Requires the Southern Virginia Higher Education Center (the Center) to encourage the development and delivery of workforce training in collaboration with educational institutions serving the region, with a focus on critical shortage areas and the needs of industry. The bill replaces the superintendent of the Halifax County Public Schools as an ex officio member of the board of trustees of the Center with a superintendent of a public school division located in the Southside region appointed by the Governor. The bill also broadens the eligibility requirements to serve as one of the representatives of business and industry on the board of trustees. The bill requires the board of trustees to seek opportunities to collaborate with local comprehensive community colleges to meet specialized noncredit workforce training needs identified by industry. However, if the local comprehensive community college is unable to meet such needs, then the board may seek to collaborate with other education providers or provide Center-delivered specialized noncredit workforce training. This bill is identical to

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **Governor: Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0305)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+CHAP0305)
2. **Senate: Bill text as passed Senate and House (SB949ER)** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+SB949ER)
3. **Senate: Committee substitute printed 17105150D-S1** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+SB949S1)
4. **Senate: Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/11/17 17101153D** (committee substitute) — [source](http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?171+ful+SB949)

## Votes

- Reported from Education — **22–0** (pass) · legislature
- Constitutional reading dispensed — **40–0** (pass) · legislature
- Constitutional reading dispensed — **38–0** (pass) · legislature
- Reported from Rules with substitute — **14–0** (pass) · legislature
- Passed Senate — **40–0** (pass) · legislature
- Passed House BLOCK VOTE — **99–0** (pass) · legislature

## Sponsors

- Frank M. Ruff, Jr. — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2016-12-31** Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/11/17 17101153D `introduction`
- **2016-12-31** Referred to Committee on Rules `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-06** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2017-02-06** Reading of substitute waived
- **2017-02-06** Committee substitute agreed to 17105150D-S1
- **2017-02-06** Engrossed by Senate - committee substitute SB949S1
- **2017-02-08** Placed on Calendar
- **2017-02-08** Read first time `reading-1`
- **2017-02-08** Referred to Committee on Education `referral-committee`
- **2017-02-14** Read second time `reading-2`
- **2017-02-15** Read third time `reading-3`
- **2017-02-15** Passed House BLOCK VOTE (99-Y 0-N) `passage`
- **2017-02-17** Enrolled
- **2017-02-17** Signed by Speaker
- **2017-02-20** Signed by President
- **2017-02-21** Enrolled Bill Communicated to Governor on 2/21/17
- **2017-02-21** Governor's Action Deadline Midnight, March 27, 2017
- **2017-03-03** Approved by Governor-Chapter 305 (effective 7/1/17) `executive-signature`

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/32463836-83c5-4756-a292-8d49c8ea2f81`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Virginia legislature records).