State gets OK to oversee CT city’s school finances. The most recent budget had called for hundreds of layoffs

The Connecticut State Board of Education unanimously passed a resolution Wednesday to authorize the commissioner of education to examine and improve Hartford Public Schools’finances.The action, which grants the commissioner the authority to “take necessary actions … to ensure the stability of fiscal operations” in the district, is intended to guide Hartford Public Schools through its financial challenges after the most recent budget cycle called for hundreds of layoffs to keep the underfunded school system afloat.As the city’s schools face millions in cuts this fall, the conversation at Wednesday’s board meeting centered largely around what remains in the current fiscal year — chiefly millions of dollars in state grants the district has yet to draw down as a deadline for liquidation looms on June 30.After the vote Wednesday, the Connecticut State Department of Education said it would launch a three-pronged approach to address the problem “immediately.”The plan, which the department sai...