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. The good news for Manchester is that the auditors worked for the Office of School Construction Grants & Review, the same office that initially signed off on the spending. After an appeal to the office’s director, Kostantinos “Kosta” Diamantis, he agreed to waive the debt. Join in the work of CT Mirror You may not be on staff, but you can produce the journalism. “Luckily, Kosta agreed with…