Contributed photo
Snow troubles at Fair Haven School on Feb. 3.
The city’s public school district ran into trouble last week when its snow removal contractors “failed” in their plow work — and so now, after each snowfall, New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) plans to have additional inspectors visit all building sites and evaluate whether contractors’ cleanup work is satisfactory.
Supt. Madeline Negrón and NHPS operations consultant Michael Carter gave that update Monday evening at the latest Board of Education meeting, which was held at John C. Daniels School in the Hill. Last week and again on Monday, district leaders and staffers expressed disappointment in how recent snow events have been dealt with by NHPS’ three snow removal contractors.
“We are very disappointed with the manner in which our small contractors have been responding as it relates to the snow removal,” Negrón said at Monday’s meeting.
In November, the school board voted to approve contracts worth a total of $450,000 with the city’s three snow removal contractors: Tim’s Enterprises, Cheapscapes LLC, and Concrete Creations. Cheapscapes and Tim’s Enterprises, which did snow removal for NHPS last year, each cover two zones across the district, while Concrete Creations covers one.
Carter explained at Monday’s meeting that the district’s facilities and operations team has been tracking its vendor performance, which has been on a decline since the start of February, he said. The district has been documenting the incomplete work with photos, which Carter shared on Monday. He said his team has also been communicating with vendors when jobs are not being performed to the standards set at the start of snow season.
Previously, NHPS had one supervisor to monitor the work of more than 40 district buildings. Carter described this setup as “unacceptable.” Carter said this week he is working to assign more inspectors to evaluate each contractor’s performance in their designated zones after snow events. “For the short term we’re going to manage this as tight as possible by putting more eyes on the vendor,” he explained.
During Monday’s presentation, Carter broke down which contractor is assigned to which schools and provided photo evidence of several incomplete jobs. He noted that throughout the five district zones the minimum standards were not met due to a lack of clearing of handicap ramps and sidewalks and some vendors not putting down ice melt.
“We’re going to have to do something different for the rest of the year, but definitely next year we have to do something so that we’re not back in this situation with vendors that are basically holding us hostage,” Carter said.
Carter said that on Monday, seven schools dealt with no salting and partially cleared lots. Contractors were called back out to complete the job. Carter said NHPS’ team had to remain on site to be sure everything was done.
Carter concluded with a personal story from when he previously worked for the city. “One of these vendors when I was here eight years ago, I tried to get rid of, they won’t let us get rid of them. But I’ll make certain this year that we’re documenting. We are the customer. The kids are the customers, the clients the teachers, the principals, and we cannot have this level of behavior and performance.”
After Monday’s meeting, Carter said, with his background in procurement, he is having the district document the contractors’ work to see if NHPS could possibly receive a credit for its snow removal cost. He said he also hopes to work with the city’s Department of Public Works to have an agreement with the school district to help with snow removal when snow reaches more than three inches.
Contractor: Let Us Work With The Custodians Union, Again
Reached for comment on Tuesday, Joe Barbarotta, who works as a consultant and advisor for the snow-removal contractor Cheapscapes, said after reviewing the Monday board meeting presentation by Carter that he does not disagree with the issues pointed out. He added, “I don’t think it’s as bad as they made it sound at that meeting.”
In the contractors’ defense, he said that several factors contribute to these snow plow issues at city schools. Those include the district providing delayed calls to contractors to begin snow removal, resulting in late work; the phasing out of assigning school district custodial staffers assigned to help contractors with snow removal; and the need to have a priority order for school buildings based on earlier start times.
Barbarotta said in the past contractors like Cheapscapes had a “harmonious agreement” with the district’s custodial team. Per the custodial contract, Barbarotta said, custodians would typically clear and salt immediate entry walkways and emergency doorways. “We’ve always had these issues where a path was missed and in the past custodial staff would just take care of that stuff.”
“For some reason,” he continued, “they [NHPS] determined that 287 [the custodians union] doesn’t have to do anything anymore with snow removal, which is part of the problem. It puts more of a load on contractors than we were doing in the past.”
He said that hasn’t stopped Cheapscapes from responding to the district’s request for contractors to return to sites to address any missed snow clearing. He also noted that New England typically deals with refreeze issues where contractors will clear snow the night before but, by the morning, some areas will refreeze, resulting in icy spots.
“We respond, we go out, we have never gotten a call and said, ‘We’re not going or taking care of it,’ ” he said. “I don’t think the contractors are doing any worse a job than they’ve ever done in the past. There’s always been some issues that they had to go back and clean up a spot or do something similar.”
Barbarotta said that last Monday Feb. 3 Cheapscapes did not receive approval to begin clearing snow at its two school zones until 4 a.m.
“We’ve agreed with management that it’s a 12-hour deal to get it all done. It’s not fair to expect it to be done in eight hours,” he said.
To clear the district’s two zones, which include 11 buildings, Cheapscapes typically rotates between six and seven snow plow trucks and 15 – 20 people to do sidewalks, Barbarotta said.
“They wait until the last minute for whether to send the contractors out because they don’t have money in the budget, so there’s management doing their best to conserve the budget and not spend money they don’t have to spend, so they wait. And it’s a 12-hour job to do those schools and get it done. If you don’t call it out until 4 in the morning, it’s not doing to get done for opening at schools,” he said.
He said Cheapscapes has aimed to support the district by recognizing its financial struggles. He said at schools like Nathan Hale “there’s one sidewalk that’s typically missed so we’re paying attention to make sure we don’t miss that anymore.”
He continued, “I understand their frustration and what they’re saying and I think it’d help to get us back having a relationship with 287 and a lot of this could go away.”
He noted that the district’s snow removal contract states that if refreezes happen more than six hours after the vendor completed the job and if a contractor is then called back to do more work, they should be paid as if they’re responding to a different storm. However, Barbarotta said, Cheapscapes has not complained about the constant call backs to do more work. Instead, “we’ve been going out two or three days after a storm and not charging them.”
He concluded that for the past two years NHPS has had long delays with paying its contractors, when in the past they were paid only a few days after a snow event. He said that contractors’ costs are primarily driven by year-long insurance requirements that put the liability on the contractors for slips and falls rather than the school district.
“The city is kind of held harmless with that kind of stuff. That drives the cost and is why it’s so important we get enough time to do the job,” he said.
Next steps for NHPS to work toward better snow removal work in the future.