Four of Five New Haven School Pools Could Open This Summer

New Haven Public Schools could have four of its five school pools open by early July, pending board approval of a $250,187 contract to restore the long-shuttered pool at Conte West Hills School.

Paul Whyte, the district’s Chief of School Operations, laid out the plan Monday at the Board of Education’s Finance and Operations Committee meeting. The proposed contract with Ruotolo Mechanical, Inc. would install a new balance tank and sand filters at Conte’s facility at 511 Chapel St. If the work goes smoothly and all approvals come through, Whyte estimated the project would take eight to 10 weeks, putting the pool on track to open in early July.

That would be the first time Conte’s pool has been operational since 2020.

The district isn’t starting from zero on the other schools. Pools at John S. Martinez School and Career High School are already open and running. Hillhouse High School’s pool reopened recently after a brief closure over spring break to allow door replacements in the building. Whyte said that work is now complete and the Hillhouse pool is cleared for use.

One pool that won’t open this summer

The fifth pool, at Wilbur Cross High School, stays closed. The problem isn’t the pool itself. It’s the roof above it. “To do the work within the Cross pool we first have to fix the roof above it, otherwise any work that’d be done there would be destroyed,” Whyte told the committee. Until the roof is repaired, the pool won’t be touched.

Whyte’s presentation came one week after Conte School Building Manager Dennis Tondalo addressed the full Board of Education with concerns that the mechanical work alone won’t make the pool safe over the long run. Tondalo flagged issues with the building’s HVAC system, dehumidification, and climate controls, along with locker room conditions, as problems that still need to be addressed.

Whyte didn’t dismiss those concerns. He agreed the additional systems need work. But he drew a clear line: those deficiencies, he said, “should not prohibit us from opening.” The balance tank and sand filter installation is the primary remaining step needed to get the pool running again, not a stopgap measure.

“Is this a Band-Aid?”

Board member Andrea Downer pressed Whyte directly on that point. “Is this a Band-Aid?” she asked. No, Whyte replied. He characterized the Ruotolo Mechanical contract as the core fix, not a patch. Downer also asked Whyte to connect with Tondalo to work through his specific concerns. Whyte said the two are already in conversation, and that he wants more clarity on Tondalo’s concerns about asthma risk related to the pool’s current conditions.

The back-and-forth highlights a tension familiar to urban school districts across Connecticut: aging facilities, constrained budgets, and the need to balance long-term capital investment against near-term public access. For New Haven families, school pools aren’t a luxury. They’re often the most accessible option for summer swim programming, particularly on the city’s lower-income west side where Conte is located.

New Haven Independent first reported Tondalo’s earlier testimony to the board and has been tracking the pool situation through the spring. His concerns about HVAC and air quality were detailed enough that the board didn’t want to move forward without Whyte addressing them on the record.

What comes next

The $250,187 contract with Ruotolo Mechanical still needs formal board approval. The Connecticut State Department of Education tracks district facility expenditures, and contracts of this size typically require a vote by the full board, not just committee sign-off. New Haven Public Schools also coordinates summer programming timelines with the city’s parks and recreation department, which runs parallel swim offerings at municipal facilities.

If the contract clears the full board quickly, the eight-to-10 week construction window makes early July realistic. That timeline gives New Haven’s summer programming coordinators enough runway to staff the pool and schedule lessons. A slip in approval or unexpected complications in the construction could push opening to mid-July or later, cutting into the season.

Whyte gave no indication he expected major obstacles. The scope of work is defined, the contractor is identified, and the district has been working toward this outcome since the pool went dark six years ago.