Connecticut § 10-45 - Referendum on establishment of regional districts or addition or withdrawal of grades.

§ 10-45. Referendum on establishment of regional districts or addition or withdrawal of grades.

Sec. 10-45. Referendum on establishment of regional districts or addition or withdrawal of grades. (a) Upon receipt of a copy of the certificate of approval, the committee shall set the day on which referenda shall be held simultaneously in each of the participating towns to determine whether a regional school district shall be established as recommended. Such referenda shall be held between forty-five and ninety days from the date of such approval. In the case of a recommendation from a study committee or a regional board of education to add or withdraw grades from the regional school district pursuant to the provisions of subsection (a) of section 10-47b, such referenda shall be held between forty-five and ninety days from the date of such recommendation. The committee or regional board of education shall immediately notify the town clerk in each participating town of its decision. Upon receipt of such notice, the town clerk shall file the notice required by section 9-369a. The warning of such referenda shall be published, the vote taken and the results thereof canvassed and declared in the same manner as is provided for the election of officers of a town. The town clerk of each participating town shall certify the results of the referendum to the State Board of Education.

(b) The vote on the question shall be taken by a “yes” and “no” vote on the voting tabulator and the designation of the question on the voting tabulator ballot shall be “Shall a regional school district be established in accordance with the plan approved by the State Board of Education on .... (date)?” and the ballot used shall conform with the provisions of section 9-250. If the majority of the votes in each of the participating towns is affirmative, a regional school district composed of such towns is established and shall be numbered in accordance with the order of the incorporation of the districts.

(c) If the majority vote of one or more of such towns is negative, the committee or, in the case of a study committee's or a regional board of education's recommendation to add or withdraw grades from the regional school district pursuant to the provisions of subsection (a) of section 10-47b, the regional board of education shall determine the advisability of immediately submitting the question to referendum a second time. If the committee or regional board of education so recommends, the committee or board shall notify the town clerk in each participating town of its decision. Within thirty days after receipt of such notice, the legislative body of the town shall meet to act upon the committee or board recommendation. If the legislative body in each of the participating towns accepts the recommendation, a second referendum shall be held in each participating town in accordance with the provisions of this section. If the majority of votes cast in each town is affirmative, the regional school district is established and numbered accordingly or grades are added to or withdrawn from the regional school district, as applicable.

(1949 Rev., S. 1375; 1951, 1953, 1955, S. 900d; 1953, S. 919d; 1963, P.A. 387, S. 3; February, 1965, P.A. 411, S. 3; 1969, P.A. 698, S. 7; P.A. 86-170, S. 8, 13; P.A. 87-320, S. 4; P.A. 08-169, S. 24; P.A. 11-20, S. 1.)

History: 1963 act added provision requiring state board to approve or disapprove committee recommendations within 30 days and requiring publication of state board's report in newspaper; 1965 act required committee to send report to state board within 10 days of its report to towns, replacing vague reference to the naming of towns where regional school should be located which contained no language requiring report to state board, and deleted provision for sending committee report and request for approval to state board after referendum; 1969 act virtually replaced previous provisions with new Subsecs. (a) to (c) concerning referendum vote and second vote if one or more towns has majority of negative votes; P.A. 86-170 required that ballot label designation be in form of question; P.A. 87-320 repealed clause prohibiting absentee voting in other than a special or regular election; P.A. 08-169 amended Subsecs. (a) and (c) to add provisions re study committee or board recommendation to add or withdraw grades, effective July 1, 2008; pursuant to P.A. 11-20, “machine” and “ballot label” were changed editorially by the Revisors to “tabulator” and “ballot”, respectively, in Subsec. (b), effective May 24, 2011.

District held at least de facto; any irregularities were validated by special act of legislature and no town has power to withdraw legislative authority. 134 C. 613. Cited. 157 C. 7; 169 C. 613.

Cited. 20 CS 158.