Concord-Carlisle school officials to meet with Massachusetts School Building Authority to discuss halted school project

By Evan Allen, Town Correspondent

Concord-Carlisle school district officials will have their first face-to-face meeting on July 16 with the Massachusetts School Building Authority since the authority suspended grant payments last month for the district’s $92.6 million high school building project, according to Stan Durlacher, chair of the Concord-Carlisle Regional High School Building Committee.

In a letter dated June 26, the authority halted $28.8 million in reimbursements for a project it said has veered over budget, out of scope, and off schedule.

The letter demands nine pieces of information, including detailed accounts of fees as well as acknowledgement that the district understands the state’s expectations for the project. The district has 30 days to comply, or it will lose state funding.

Officials have said that without the state’s support, the project cannot be completed.

The July 16 meeting, said Durlacher, fulfills the state’s requirement that district officials meet with authority staff to “discuss MSBA expectations and requirements for the remaining phases of the project.”

“We’re gonna do a lot of listening, I imagine,” he said.

Durlacher was appointed chair of the Building Committee this month after the Committee’s two co-chairs resigned.

The meeting with the authority, he said, will ensure that as the new chair, he knows exactly what the state expects from the district.

Superintendent Diana Rigby, representatives from the district’s architectural team, and the project manager will also attend the meeting, which will not be public, said Durlacher.

In May, the project appeared to be about $10 million over its $75.1 million construction budget, according to officials, but that number has since dropped to about $3 to $5 million. Rigby has said she expects the project to be back within budget by the time the district submits its design development plans to the agency in August.

The district, said Durlacher, will meet the state’s 30-day deadline.

The next public meeting will be held on Aug. 1 in the Concord-Carlisle High School Library, he said.

Evan Allen can be reached at evan.allen@globe.com