Members of the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education have given an update to Superintendents from across the state on legislation approved during the recently completed General Assembly session.   Patrice McCarthy says a task force was set up to study ways to encourage regionalization.  The report is due by February 2020.  Language in the bill talks about proposals being an option for communities, not a mandate.

An effort was started in Ridgefield and other Fairfield County towns to fight forced consolidation, with a grassroots group forming called Hands Off Our Schools.

McCarthy says the budget bill extends the minimum budget requirement and makes some modifications to allowable reductions.  That's specifically if there's an enrollment decline over a five year period.  It's a 50-percent reduction of per pupil expenditure.

The budget bill also delays for two years the transition of the technical high school system as an independent agency separate from the state Department of Education.  She says there was a significant fiscal note attached.