State Withholds High School Funding

     Due to a lapse in communication and concerns over the status of the Falmouth High School renovation, the state is withholding $3.4 million in reimbursements to the town for the $86 million project.
     A letter from Mary Pichetti, director of construction management for the Massachusetts School Building Authority, was sent to Superintendent of Schools Dennis A. Richards on Tuesday that it would not be processing Falmouth’s reimbursement request.
     The MSBA is the agency responsible for overseeing state reimbursements for school building projects, including the Falmouth project, for which it is paying 59.7 percent, or roughly $33.5 million, of allowable costs. Thus far, the town has received roughly $23 million.
     In her letter, Ms. Pichetti wrote that with less than seven weeks before school starts, “the MSBA is very concerned not only about the status of the project but, in particular, the completion of Phase A and the lack of a negotiated price and schedule for the completion of the remaining work.”
     In January, representatives from the Massachusetts School Building Authority and town officials began a relationship to improve communication and increase the state’s oversight of the project. In May, MSBA representatives toured the high school, which was followed up by a visit from the agency’s executive director Katherine P. Craven in June.
     Since May, Ms. Pichetti wrote, her agency and town officials “agreed to begin a dialogue to improve the MSBA’s understanding of the challenges that Falmouth is facing in the completion of the Falmouth High School project and to provide Falmouth with an opportunity to address the questions raised by the MSBA about the project.”
     On May 29 a meeting was to be held to answer those questions and it would have included a review of general contractor TLT’s proposal for completing the project, as well as an inspection of the revised drawings, outstanding change orders, a proposed schedule and cost for the remainder of the project, and an inventory of stored material.
     That meeting was postponed by Marc P. Dupuis, the assistant superintendent for finance and human resources, so that the town could resolve its issues with TLT to negotiate a firm contract and a set of milestones for the second phase of the project.
     The meeting, Ms. Pichetti stated in her letter, was to be rescheduled for June, but they have yet to be contacted by Falmouth.
     During yesterday’s Falmouth High School Building Committee meeting, Mr. Dupuis acknowledged receipt of the letter after Chairman of the Board of Falmouth Selectmen Ahmed A. Mustafa asked whether SBA officials could shed some light, either positive or negative, that may be able to move the high school renovation forward.
     “We are working with them closely,” Mr. Dupuis said. “They are aware of what we are doing.”
     However, Ms. Pichetti’s letter paints a different picture, one in which town officials have yet to answer their questions and shut down the channels of communication, with their agency receiving word that Falmouth overpaid TLT $2 million for work not completed on the project by reading the newspaper.
     As a result, she said, the MSBA would be withholding its payment to the town until it answers several accounting questions, including those related to change orders. Because of their concerns, the MSBA is asking Falmouth to submit requisitions on a monthly basis for the remainder of the project as opposed to every few months, as it had been doing previously.
     Mr. Richards, who announced his retirement on Tuesday, said he had only received the letter yesterday. After discussing the matter with Mr. Dupuis, who will be replacing him as the interim superintendent in October, he said, they will be contacting SBA representatives to speak to their concerns.
     He admitted that one of the reasons they had not contacted the SBA was because of the inherent difficulties that continue with the renovation. Those were discussed at yesterday’s building committee meeting, in which there were frustrations over the possibility that TLT will not meet the August 8 deadline to complete phase one and the fact that negotiations with the general contractor to finish phase two of the project will require mediation.
     “Part of the assumption that Marc has made was that we wanted to make sure we give them [the SBA] what they needed, which is assurance that phase two is on track,” he said.
     He also said that the SBA’s actions would not add to the delays or costs of the project. In the end, he said, “the SBA has a fiduciary responsibility they are following through with. We have a responsibility to the town. And so we have to come together on an understanding so both groups feel satisfied we are making the progress we need to make.”