The Southeastern Connecticut Council of Governments voted Wednesday to endorse New London’s request to add the city’s magnet school construction project on the General Assembly’s list of schools to be approved for bond funding in 2015.

The council of governments unanimously passed a resolution in support of New London’s request, after Mayor Daryl Justin Finizio briefed the council on the situation. The council’s executive committee had already recommended the resolution.

New London’s city council had passed a bonding plan, of up to $168 million, last spring to renovate the high school and middle school and convert them to regional magnet schools. The city then petitioned the proposal to a November referendum vote, he said.

He said the state Department of Administrative Services, the state and the city got into a “legal back and forth” over whether the city’s filing was timely as a result of the referendum. He said DAS supports the project, but does not have authority to add the project to this year’s list, and it would require legislative action.

Finizio said it’s important to add the project to this year’s list, because the buildings, particularly the high school — are unsafe. He also said the high school’s facility issues have put its accreditation — with the agency that accredits New England secondary schools — on probation for several years.

“If we didn’t have a plan in place this year we would be the first high school in the state of Connecticut to lose accreditation in over 20 years, so it’s very critical for the safety of our children and the maintenance of our accreditation that, with the approvals gained, we’re allowed to move forward this year,” Finizio told the council.