A dispute between two local governments is threatening to delay work on the long-awaited rebuilding of Suncoast High.
School Board members agreed recently to try mediation and, if that doesn't work, sue Riviera Beach after the city refused to approve water and sewer permits for the school.
City officials say they are holding the permits hostage because the district has not moved to acquire land to widen a two-lane road into the school. The road is already clogged by construction traffic and will get worse when teachers and 1,500 students travel each day to and from school.
School administrators say the city had also asked the district to pay to install lights on a road as much as a mile away, and to build a small police station near the school. City officials recently dropped both requests, which the district called unreasonable.
Suncoast is a magnet school that draws some of the top academic students from all over the county.
The disagreement isn't expected to affect the August opening of the $74.6 million school. Suncoast is now operating elsewhere in the city.
But a contractor has notified the district that it will levy an $8,600-a-day fine if it's prevented from finishing the job on time. The project was expected to be approved for a certificate of occupancy by Jan. 4. The district applied for the permits in March.
There is no way to meet that deadline now. Once the water and sewer permits are approved, workers need about 60 days to get the school ready for occupancy, said Joe Sanches, chief of facilities management.
School board member Debra Robinson, who has been talking to both city and school officials, said there's plenty of blame to go around.
"I think that all hands are dirty in this," she said.
The district and city can probably reach agreement to widen 13th Street and add turning lanes, but the improvements won't likely be finished by the start of school, Sanches said.
First they must negotiate with True Faith Church to get an easement to expand the road. The district originally owned the land the church is being built on, but it traded parcels with the church.
Paul White, assistant city manager, said the district should have moved months ago to get the land needed to expand the road. Because the district didn't, the city had no choice but to hold up the permits as a kind of insurance, he said.
"Somehow we're being painted like we're being unreasonable when they haven't taken the normal steps in completing the project," he said.
The parties will still require mediation to settle who is responsible for paying damages to the contractor held up while they feuded, Sanches said.
Palm Beach Post Staff writer Willie Howard contributed to this story.