On August 12, the School Construction Authority mailed out an Invitation to Bid for interior and exterior repairs at PS 32 in Flushing — Solicitation No. SCA27-20704D-1, Design No. D020704. Here's the part that should stop you: that letter didn't go to the market. It went to a hand-picked list of contractors, and SCA's own language leaves no wiggle room — "Only those bidders who have been specifically invited by the SCA to submit a bid under the referenced solicitation, will be eligible for a contract award under same." If your firm wasn't on that mailing, you don't bid this job. Full stop.

The mechanics, for the firms that did get the letter: documents were available August 14, and the bid goes in through the SCA Bonfire portal only — email it and it doesn't count. A walkthrough runs August 26 at 10 a.m. at 33-59 171st Street, the Custodian's Office — not mandatory, but the letter "strongly encourages" it, which means show up. Bids open September 9 at 10 a.m. The contract runs 695 continuous calendar days, work confined to after school hours per the Phasing Exhibit — kids in the building every day the crews aren't. Miss the finish and it's $2,000 a day in liquidated damages.

“Most contractors assume a public job means a public bid. PS 32 is the file that says otherwise.”

This is SCA's Limited Solicitation track, part of its CIP/PLA/LTD program, and it exists because the agency wants a known quantity: the low bidder has to prove it has "successfully completed work on a similar project in terms of cost, scope and complexity." You'll also carry a mandatory $22,000 lump-sum allowance under Spec Section S01010, Article 1.03 — baked into your number whether you spend it or not. Miss it and you're eating it out of margin. Bonds run standard: 5% bid, 100% performance, 100% payment, through Surety 2000. The M/W/LBE goal is 30%, SCA's own OCIP wrap-up applies, and Wicks Law sends plumbing, electrical and HVAC out as separate primes. SCA tags the job $2,000,001 to $3,000,000 — then adds, in writing, "not to be interpreted as a 'bid range.'"

So who's circling? Two counts, and they don't match. Our tracking logs 11 firms. Total Bid Data's listing names 14: ABC Construction Contracting, Ashnu International, Carnak Construction, Eagle 1 Mechanical, Gateway Demo/Civil, Iannelli Construction, Kel-Tech Construction, KG Construction Services, Lambo Mechanical, Nagan Construction, Perfetto Enterprises, R.A.M.S. Mechanical, Stanco Sys. Elec. Contracting, and Whitestone Construction. On a normal open bid, that's your plan-holder list. On a Limited Solicitation it's more likely the invited names — and since SCA publishes no list of its own, neither number is the whole picture.

Most contractors assume a public job means a public bid. PS 32 is the file that says otherwise.