Montclair school officials plan to move ahead with nearly $60 million in major facilities work — just weeks after they said they couldn’t yet start the process for a capital improvement bond only a fraction of that size.

On July 26, Montclair Board of Education members said there wouldn’t be enough time to bond for $17 million worth of facilities updates, mostly to aging, broken or absent ventilation systems that played a key role in the drama over whether and when students and staff would return to the schools last school year. At issue was a looming November referendum that could change the entire process for capital improvement bonding in the district.