Hartford - As the legislative session heads into its final weeks, Connecticut lawmakers and officials are working behind closed doors to sculpt Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's proposed education overhaul package into a compromise bill they believe would be supported by both the administration and legislature.

The meetings are largely conducted in private, and some state teachers' unions that had previously met with the administration on the bill, say lately, they've been left out of the conversation.

On the opening day of the legislative session two months ago, Democratic leadership in both the state's House of Representatives and Senate introduced Malloy's 163-page proposal that would, among many things, tackle teacher tenure, target funding at underperforming districts and increase access to early childhood education.

In late march, the General Assembly's Education Committee crafted and passed a modified version of the governor's bill. The revisions included delaying changes to teacher tenure and lowering the number of under-performing schools that would receive intervention by the education commissioner.

Publicly, the governor has said several times he expects the bill to change and will not sign the proposal into law if it reaches his desk as is. Malloy said he would only support an education bill that includes his six principles, which include expanding access to early childhood education, providing interventions for the lowest-performing schools and delivering more resources to districts.

Rep. Andrew Fleischmann, D-West Hartford, co-chair of the committee, said if left unchanged, the governor's original bill would have "gone down in flames," in committee, because of concerns by other legislators.

In the weeks following the bill's passage in committee, Malloy and state lawmakers have been relatively quiet on the status of the legislation and what changes are being discussed behind closed doors.

House Speaker Christopher Donovan, D-Meriden, said he is working hard to find areas of compromise in the bill. He said the meetings between leadership and key lawmakers are in the information gathering process and have included discussions on different school models, like the one in Windham, where the state recently intervened in an effort to improve the district's educational performance.

"We're talking and trying to see where avenues of agreement are," he said.

Donovan met with Senate leadership and the governor's administration on the bill Tuesday. He said he expects to meet with them regularly with the goal of finishing the bill next week.

Mark Ojakian, Malloy's chief of staff, said the administration's goal is also to have the legislation ready for floor action by next week.

Despite the discussions among state officials and legislators at the Capitol, Connecticut teacher unions have been pushing their members to contact local lawmakers over their concerns on the bill. The unions have not formally met with the governor's office since the bill came out of committee.

Representatives from the state's two largest teacher unions - the American Federation of Teachers of Connecticut and the Connecticut Education Association - say their meetings and discussions with the governor on his education proposals abruptly ended following the modification and passage of the governor's bill in committee.

Mary Loftis Levine, the executive director of CEA, said meetings canceled by Malloy's office in the days following the bill's emergence were never re-scheduled and that the union has yet to hear again from the governor.

She said her association will not pursue further meetings with Malloy, as she believes the governor and his administration have attacked and misrepresented teachers.

"After (the bill came out) he continued on his quest to teacher bash in these forums, and teachers are absolutely demoralized by it," Levine said of the governor. "Their jobs are hard enough without this constant attack and misrepresentation."

Eric Excell-Bailey, the spokesman for AFT Connecticut, said meetings between his union and the governor's office also have been canceled. He said AFT Connecticut is discussing the bill with the state's House and Senate leadership.

Ojakian, however, said the meetings were never even scheduled. He said there was no point to meet since the bill was already drafted by the Education Committee.

"Now is the time we have to negotiate the bill with legislative leaders," he said.

Ojakian denied any tension between the unions and the administration, saying Malloy has been respectful of teachers. He said the governor holds no ill feelings toward state educators.

The governor has been publicly taking his education overhaul proposals on tour across the state. He pledged to continue trying to sell them to Connecticut residents until the legislature comes up with an education bill he can support. He will make his 12th tour stop in Bridgeport next Wednesday.

"We're going to continue to advocate on behalf of real education reform in the state until we get a bill that's acceptable," he said.