New London — Though the legislative session ended by constitutional mandate late Wednesday night, the General Assembly had not completed all of its work.

Its members agreed to reconvene later this month for a special session, and among the work left outstanding is to add New London’s planned school construction project to the General Assembly's annual school construction spending bill, which would allow the city to move forward with its plan to renovate New London High School.

Mayor Daryl Justin Finizio said Thursday he expects the bill to pass nearly unanimously and that the delay in receiving approval will not significantly affect the project's timeline.

The roughly $98 million project, which, along with construction of a new middle school, will complete the facilities portion of the city's plan to become the state's first all-magnet school district, was not among the school building projects recommended by the state Department of Administrative Services to the General Assembly for funding when the legislative session began because it was not approved at the local level until it passed referendum in November.

To be included on that list, DAS spokesman Jeffrey Beckham said, a municipality must have approved the project by June 30, though the legislature can add the project to the final bill by inserting "notwithstanding language" as an amendment to the bill.

Even though the City Council approved the project and the associated bonding ordinance before that date, it was petitioned to referendum, and the state considered local approval to be incomplete until the referendum question passed on Nov. 4.

On Election Day, voters overwhelmingly affirmed the City Council's approval of the bond ordinance, allowing the city to set in motion its plan. The referendum had no effect on the state's pledge to reimburse the city for 80 percent of the total project cost, Beckham said. The city ultimately will be responsible to pay about $31 million of the total cost.

c.young@theday.com

Twitter: @ColinAYoung