Dave Altimari and Andrew Brown // CTMIRROR.ORG

It took the state 12 years — the same amount of time a student can pass from first grade to college — to conclude that the town of Manchester owed it nearly $5 million due to “ineligible costs” in a state-financed reconstruction of its middle school, Bennet Academy.

Kosta Diamantis’ daughter Anastasia was hired by a firm overseeing construction of a Tolland school.

Many local leaders are asking how state officials seemed so unprepared and surprised at the surge of testing demand that was needed between Thanksgiving and the early weeks of 2022.