Schools Assign All Snow Removal Work To Outside Contractors

New Haven Public School (NHPS) has hired three outside contractors for snow removal this winter — thereby icing out the custodial union from the cold season lineup, due to the district’s current lack of working in-house snow plow vehicles. 

Those details came to light last week as the Board of Education approved a handful of contracts concerning school district snow removal plans. 

NHPS has a snow removal budget of $450,000 this year. The Board of Education voted 6 – 1 at its Nov. 12 meeting in favor of hiring three different contractors to do snow removal and ice treatments at its five property zones during the 2024 – 25 school year. 

The school board voted to approve contracts with the lowest bidders. Those contractors include Tim’s Enterprises, Cheapscapes LLC, and Concrete Creations. Cheapscapes and Tim’s Enterprises, which did snow removal for NHPS last year, will each cover two zones while Concrete Creations will cover one, totaling to full coverage of the district’s five zones. Each zone will cost NHPS $90,000 for snow removal. 

Board member Andrea Downer, who cast the sole dissenting vote, pushed for the district to consider using forecasting prediction services to better gauge how much snow removal will be needed based on early predictions of local snow fall throughout the winter. 

“We got $450,000 for snow removal. Last year the change orders came in, we didn’t get early warnings or anything. But we still got two contractors sitting up here again that got approved because they’re low bid. Are we going to get the early warnings this time? Or we’re just going to go for it, come June we’re gonna be at three quarters of a million dollars,” Downer said at the Tuesday board meeting. 

She also asked how this year’s snow removal plans will look different from last school year’s, which she said did not have adequate oversight of contractors by NHPS. 

According to NHPS’ annual change order reports, since 2020 change order totals for snow removal vendors have ranged from $488,350 in 2020 – 21 to $310,050 in 2021 – 22. Last year, 2023 – 24, the district’s snow removal change orders reached a high of $649,905.

Click here to read the change order report, and here for the recently approved contracts. 

In response to Downer’s request for information about the district’s prevention efforts to avoid change orders, school district operations consultant Michael Carter explained that ​“there was no real oversight last year on the snow program” by NHPS. 

He said with his experience as the city’s former Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) for four and a half years, he’s learned that even while using different weather forecasting models, he would at times still get three different snow predictions. He said he instead plans to works with the city’s emergency management department and command center to make calls for the district’s snow removal needs. 

“No matter how many models you have, the models don’t always sync and don’t always give you the best prediction,” he said. 

He added that this school year NHPS’ building managers will oversee the contractors’ snow plowing and ice treatments for each building and the district will have supervisors monitoring the snow removal processes.

With plans to work closely with the city to make the district’s calls and a new monitoring plan of contractors, Carter told the board ​“it will be a lot better than it was last year.” 

Downer asked if it will be possible to migrate the custodial union, Local 287, back into the school district’s snow removal system. 

Carter responded that while the custodial union has supported snow removal in the past, this year the district does not have enough properly maintained snow removal vehicles to provide to Local 287 to do snow removal. ​“Right now we don’t have equipment for 287 to drive. We don’t even have equipment for our own trades persons and custodial people to deliver supplies,” he said. 

He said his goal for next school year with support from the city is to repair and replace district equipment, and to assign Local 287 to at least one of the district’s five snow-removal zones. 

He noted that the snow plows needed for this work cost about $110,000 apiece, and would take 16 – 24 weeks to order. 

Carter concluded, ​“We basically don’t have the equipment. but next year we get the equipment it will be equitable and we’re gonna move forward, but right now we just don’t have the equipment. That’s why we use the contractors, which is something I really don’t wanna do. But at this point in time, we have no choice.”

The snow removal contracts memo provided by Carter further explains: ​“Earlier in the summer, there was discussion with DPW about supporting NHPS in snow. DPW relies upon Parks and Recreation and Department of Transportation vehicles and personnel to salt and remove snow from major roads and neighborhood streets. DPW cannot assist NHPS this year in snow removal. However, DPW committed to re-establish the condition and maintenance of the current NHPS fleet. DPW will procure five (5) new vehicles for NHPS for use by trades and custodial staff to travel to school sites for work orders and delivery of supplies.”

Downer was the sole ​“no” vote for the five contracts that were approved Tuesday. She concluded, ​“I would really like to see the contractors phased out. Considering what happened last year, that should be the immediate goal going forward.”

Reached by phone Thursday, custodial union president Tom Delucia told the Independent that if the district wants to save money, it would support Local 287’s request to do snow removal rather than paying contractors. 

Last school year the custodial union used eight NHPS vehicles to remove snow at seven school sites. He estimated this saved the district around $80,000.

He said as of a recent meeting with Carter, he learned the district will not assign the custodial union any snow removal sites. He said Local 287 sent an email to the district’s facilities management company ABM at the start of November asking if Local 287 would be assigned to snow removal sites this winter, but they got no response. 

“The equipment could be in better shape,” he said. ​“But we did have trucks last year to help save cost and get snow removed.” 

Last school year, he said, custodial union members had to fix mistakes made by the district’s snow removal contracts when it came to salt not being put down around buildings entrances. 

“The deficit that the board, is in we want to help out. We want to be a part of the solution,” DeLucia said. ​“But if the board chooses not to save money, that’s on them.”