Massachusetts treasurer wants to limit school design costs

Massachusetts State Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill, trying to head off what he calls "Taj Mahal" high schools, says he wants cities and towns to begin using off-the-shelf building designs that could cut school-project costs by 30 percent. The goal, Cahill says, is to shave tens of millions of dollars from the cost of building new schools, which have reached as high as $197.5 million for the new Newton North High School, a lightning rod of discontent over the escalating price tags for such projects.