The pool at Conte West Hills School won’t be open this summer after all — thanks to “tedious” procurement steps the school district still has to work through in order to produce a final purchase order (PO) covering needed repairs.
Lisa Hopkins, New Haven Public Schools’ (NHPS) executive director of facilities, gave that update to the Board of Education’s Finance & Operations Committee Monday while requesting change orders for a total of five different projects.
For each project — including the installation of a new balance tank and sand filters at Conte’s pool — Hopkins requested a completion-date extension from June 30, 2026 to June 30, 2027.
That means that only three, rather than four, of the city school district’s five pools will likely be open this summer.
Hopkins asked for the change orders because of what she described as a lengthy process required for securing a PO through the city’s purchasing division.
F&O Committee members questioned why the hold up would delay projects an entire year. Hopkins responded that the additional year is a safe, guaranteed date to set considering the lengthy PO process and the time it takes for materials to be delivered.
One of the completion-date extensions that Hopkins presented on Monday was for the $250,187 contract covering the last needed repairs to make Conte’s pool operational. NHPS Chief of School Operations (CSO) Paul Whyte estimated back in April that the work would take take about 8-10 weeks to complete, and therefore the pool could be open in July.
Hopkins said on Monday that the pool-repair work likely won’t be completed so soon.
The other projects that Hopkins requested change orders for on Monday include a cooling tower replacement for Celentano School, the replacement of the chiller at John C. Daniels School, and the installation of a boiler at Conte School. The committee also approved an amendment for a contract with Sav-Mor Cooling and Heating Inc. for HVAC replacements at Edgewood and Lincoln Bassett schools, thereby extending that works’ end date to 2027.
“The plan is to complete the work as soon as possible but obviously there’s some constraints that we’re dealing with in regards to getting it done,” Hopkins told the committee. “We have to receive the money and then once we receive the money and we pay for it we’ll be able to get the products and the materials to be able to start the actual job.”
Hopkins said that the Conte pool project likely will not take until the end of next fiscal year to finish. Nevertheless, she said June 30, 2027 “is a safe date to ensure it gets done on time.” She estimated that getting the multiple signatures still needed for the official issuing of the contract and project PO from the city and then purchasing materials would push the project completion to the fall at the earliest.
“So if we’re able to get this purchase order approved by July 1, we’ll be able to get the pool running by Sept. 30, 2026,” Hopkins said. “If we were able to get it this month then we very [well] could have had the pool up and running in August, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to be the case because of the RSC process that we’re going through, and that’s through city purchasing.”
She emphasized that for all the projects, some of which the school board approved back in January and February, the final step is approvals from the city. “Unfortunately we can’t purchase materials until we get the purchase order,” she said.
On top of waiting for approvals from the city, the district then must order materials, which typically takes weeks to months to arrive. The John C. Daniels School chiller, for example, could take 22 weeks to come in, Hopkins said.
When asked what the “hold up” was, Hopkins responded that it’s not a delay but instead that the RSC process requires multiple sign offs. Hopkins said that the Conte pool contract is currently being processed by the city.
Hopkins said she plans to advocate for the city PO process to work faster but that for the Conte pool project specifically, the process is “tedious.”
Reached for comment Thursday about the district’s concerns around the PO process, city spokesperson Lenny Speiller said, “Depending on the project and funding sources, there are different procurement and contracting requirements to ensure contracts and change orders are properly reviewed and executed in accordance with all applicable laws and requirements. These are multi-step processes among both internal and external parties – and can move slower than everyone would like at times.”
In regards to the contract with Ruotolo Mechanical, Inc. for the new balance tank and sand filters for the Conte School pool project, “the city’s purchasing division received the formal Request for Contract documentation from NHPS Facilities on May 20, 2026” — that is, on Wednesday. “In the interim, the purchasing division had initiated a request for bonds from the contractor and can proceed to contracting once the required documentation and sign-off is received.”
For the contract with Air Temp Mechanical Services, Inc. for the cooling tower replacement for Celentano School and their separate contract to replace the chiller at John C. Daniels School, Speiller said, “the purchasing division is currently awaiting the required bond documentation from the contractor. Upon receipt and review of the required bonding documents, the contract may proceed through the remaining approval and execution process.”
Speiller said that the city’s purchasing division and NHPS’ facilities department communicate regularly to ensure projects move forward as “expeditiously as possible” for all school-facilities projects, contracts and purchase orders.
For the cooling tower replacement for Celentano School, Hopkins noted on Monday that the district’s HVAC vendor — Tucker Mechanical — has been on “speed dial” to offer temporary fixes while the city signs off on final approvals for the cooling tower contract.
F&O Committee member and Board of Education President OrLando Yarbrough suggested the district start keeping track of what costs it incurs when procurement processes are delayed on the city’s side, thereby causing NHPS to pay for Band-Aid fixes.