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Where the new roof would go.
The city’s school district is looking to replace a persistently leaky roof in Hillhouse High School’s auditorium — with questions remaining about the procedural thorniness of a “multi-year” repair contract that extends from May to July, as well as about how delays to this needed fix might affect the school’s accreditation.
School district leaders and Board of Education members discussed that planned needed repair at Monday’s school board Finance and Operations Committee meeting, which was held online via Zoom.
The committee members were informed during that meeting that the city’s second largest school, located at 480 Sherman Pkwy., has had constant water leaks in its auditorium for several years.
“For the past couple years I know various companies have tried to patch the roof, but we’ve come to the final conclusion that repair is the only solution,” said New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) Director of Project Management Frank Fanelli.
Despite the auditorium’s leaky roof, students reported last school year that they were being sent to the auditorium on a weekly basis to hang out when there was a lack of teaching staff.
In a Wednesday email to the Independent, NHPS spokesperson Justin Harmon said the auditorium has been in limited use for classes and other school purposes. He added that the roof has reached the end of its life due to being more than 20 years old.
“There is some damage from the roof leaking that needs to be repaired,” Harmon said. Click here to read a previous Independent article about Hillhouse Drama’s production this spring of Little Shop of Horrors, which was supposed to be held in the school’s auditorium — but wound up getting moved to New Haven Academy because of Hillhouse’s leaky roof.
Thomas Breen file photo
In Hillhouse's auditorium, for an April 2022 Finance Committee budget hearing.
According to the invitation to bid for this repair project, the district sought out “bids from a qualified roofing service company to replace a 11,300 square foot section of roof of Hillhouse High Schools Auditorium in New Haven. Must have all appropriate licenses and insurance.”
At the start of April the city began accepting sealed bids for the large project requiring a total replacement, heating test, and replacement of the sub-roof. The sealed bid process makes it so that the deciding factor for the contractor comes down to the lowest qualified bid.
At Monday’s meeting Fanelli and NHPS Chief of Operations Thomas Lamb presented the committee with the lowest bidder and hopeful contractor for the job, the Danbury-based firm Barrett Inc. Roofing Company.
Barrett Inc. submitted repair plans that would last May 1 to July 30, costing a total of $292,600. The repairs would be funded by the district’s federal ARP ESSER II dollars.
The second lowest bidder offered to do the job for about $300,000 and the highest bidder priced the job at around $500,000, Fanelli noted.
The contractor and district have agreed to include a 20-year warranty guarantee, which was a qualification for the bid.
“They’re a state contractor,” Fanelli said. “More than qualified to do work for us.”
The committee initially approved the contract award at Monday’s meeting until staff noticed later in the meeting that the contract would cross into a new fiscal year on July 1. That would cause the contract to be a multi-year agreement, which requires additional approvals, including from the Board of Alders.
“Those require some additional approvals and may or may not have implications with the funder for grant funded projects,” committee Chair Matt Wilcox said. “So staff are going to figure out what needs to happen to ensure all city and BOE policies and procedures are followed, and then resubmit it to us. Hopefully with little or no delay in getting the roof replaced.”
Once noticing the contractual error, the committee voted to withdraw their previous approval of the contract.
Members briefly discussed some possible alternative options to avoid delaying the school’s roofing repairs like amending the contract work to start in May and last until the end of the fiscal year on June 30, and then to approve a second similar contract for the next fiscal year.
However without the contractor’s input around the change at the meeting, the committee decided instead to host a special F&O meeting scheduled for Monday, April 24 to make a decision.
NHPS Assistant Superintendent for Instructional Leadership Keisha Redd-Hannans did notify the committee during the meeting that the school’s roof issues could possibly impact its accreditation status if not addressed immediately.
In response to the accreditation concerns, Harmon said, “Repairs to the roof over the auditorium are a significant part of needed building repairs to improve overall building conditions. We are moving to get repairs completed as quickly as we can. Building condition is a factor in accreditation, and we certainly want to be sure we pass.”