The nine trustees who govern the Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired meet Oct. 2 to adopt a policy barring diversity, equity and inclusion activities at the Austin campus and to certify to the state that the school follows the 2025 law behind it.
Senate Bill 12, passed in 2025, bars school employees, contractors and volunteers from carrying out diversity, equity and inclusion duties — the activities and programs designed to advance those ideas — and requires a policy for disciplining, up to firing, any employee or contractor who knowingly does it anyway. The same law tightened a 2021 statute on how race and related contested topics are taught. Trustees are asked to adopt one new policy on prohibited diversity activities and to amend two others, covering employee conduct and the teaching of controversial issues. The package goes first to the board’s program committee, which meets at 8 a.m.
The vote also puts the school on the record where the statute does not. The certification section runs to the superintendent of a school district or open-enrollment charter school, and the Texas Education Agency set Sept. 30 as this year’s date for those systems; its guidance does not mention the state’s special schools. The school for the blind is a state agency whose board organizes itself like a district board only so far as that does not conflict with its standing as an agency. Neither the agency nor the school has said publicly whether the deadline reaches this board, which votes Oct. 2 regardless.
Also on the agenda: the school’s 2026 internal audit report, which includes an audit of the campus health center; a plan to lift student scores on the STAAR exam, alongside this year’s results and a review of the English-as-a-second-language program; a new organizational chart; and a request the agenda ties to a 2025 conflict-of-interest law that lets an administrator below the superintendent take outside paid work only if trustees see the written contract and find it poses no conflict and stays on personal time. Superintendent Emily Coleman’s formative evaluation is also listed, and the board plans to close the doors on personnel and a student legal matter.
Watch whether the three policies clear the program committee unchanged and whether the certification draws public comment, which is item 8. Trustees take up future meeting dates before adjourning; the notice does not set the next one.
Meeting at a glance
- When
- 8:00 AM, Friday, October 2, 2026 — three standing committees first; the notice says the full board convenes at 10:15 a.m. TRDs 2026005741 through 2026005744 were filed September 24.
- Where
- Building 600, 1100 W. 45th St., Austin. The audit committee meets in Room 102 and the program committee in Room 104; the full board meets in the Board Meeting Room.
- Governing body & chair
- Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired Board of Trustees — nine members the governor appoints with Senate consent to six-year terms. Board President Lee Sonnenberg.
- Format
- Full board meeting, 23 items, following three concurrent committee meetings. Public comment is item 8. The board may close any item under the Open Meetings Act.
- Live video
- The notice lists no webcast or call-in line. To speak, contact Susan Houghtling at (512) 206-9233 or houghtlings@tsbvi.edu beforehand, or sign up on site before the meeting starts.
- Full agenda
- Secretary of State Open Meeting Viewer · tsbvi.edu
Board members
- Lee Sonnenberg — board president; parent seat; serving since 2013; term ends 2031.
- Julie Prause — vice president; finance committee chair; educator seat; term ends 2029.
- Dan Brown Jr. — secretary; finance vice chair; consumer seat; term ends 2029.
- Hillary Rodriguez — parent seat; personnel chair; audit member; term ends 2029.
- Rusty Peterson — Allen; bank executive and accountant; parent seat; term ends 2027.
- Brenda Lee — educator seat; audit committee vice chair; term ends 2027.
- Belinda Rudinger — educator seat; program committee member; term ends 2031.
- Beth Jones — Anna; program committee chair; consumer seat; term ends 2031.
- Ernest Worthington — Lancaster; audit committee chair; consumer seat; term ends 2027.
Roster checked September 25, 2026 against the school’s board of trustees page, the committee agendas filed for October 2, which name the same three committee chairs, and the governor’s appointment releases. The school’s page is out of date: it still lists Maghan Gautney and does not list Rusty Peterson, whom the governor appointed July 24, 2026 and whom the school introduced as a trustee in August. This list follows the appointment release. No committee role is printed for the Peterson seat because none was found. Education Code Section 30.022 seats the board at nine gubernatorial appointees in six-year staggered terms; the school’s page groups them as parents of people with visual impairments, people who work with the visually impaired, and consumers with visual impairments, and that grouping is the source for the seat labels above. The page lists only the campus address for most members, so no home cities are printed for them. Emily Coleman is superintendent. Contact: (512) 206-9133.