Six weeks, eight big school exterior jobs, eight different firms at the top of the tab. Between May 6 and June 17 the NYC School Construction Authority opened eight roofs-windows-parapets-masonry packages we've been tracking, most with flood elimination on top. They drew 144 bids from 40 general contractors, and the apparent low bids add up to $162,603,896. No firm was low twice.

Here's the run, in order. New Utrecht High School in Bensonhurst opened May 6: Ashnu International, Inc. low at $16,813,919 of 15 bids. I.S. 24 in Great Kills opened May 7: Adam's European Contracting Inc. low at $16,799,000 of 21. P.S. 190 in East New York opened May 29: Army Construction, LLC low at $19,226,200 of 24. Clara Barton High School in Crown Heights opened June 2: VENUS GROUP, INC. low at $24,184,000 of 15. Richmond Hill High School in Queens opened June 3: J & N Construction Group Corp. low at $15,996,000 of 20. P.S. 177 on Avenue P opened June 10: AKM Construction Services Corp. low at $24,000,777 of 17. P.S. 226 on 23rd Avenue opened the same morning: NEHAL CONTRACTING, INC. low at $29,884,000 of 13. P.S. 149 Danny Kaye in East New York opened June 17: CVM Construction Corp low at $15,700,000 of 19.

Now look at who kept showing up. Whitestone Construction Corp. bid all eight and never won one on price. Its best finish was second at New Utrecht; its worst was 13th of 24 at P.S. 190. KEL-TECH CONSTRUCTION, INC. and Army Construction, LLC bid seven each, and Army took P.S. 190. NEHAL CONTRACTING, INC. bid six: one first, two seconds. Adam's European Contracting Inc. bid five: one first, two seconds. That's a bench of maybe a dozen firms that price this work every week.

The math says the fronts of these fields were tight. The median gap from first to second across the eight was 3.8%, and four of the eight were under 4%. P.S. 190 and P.S. 149 were decided by about 1.25% each. New Utrecht was the outlier at 14.4%. Every apparent low sat between 11.0% and 20.8% under its own field's median bid, and the median spread from low to high was 57.6%. None of the eight tabs came with a published engineer's estimate.

Why so many of the same job? The SCA's February 2025 capital plan amendment calls water infiltration "the single greatest cause of accelerated deterioration" of its buildings. When its condition survey rates roofs, parapets, windows or masonry "poor" or "fair to poor," the other exterior pieces rated fair or worse get rolled into one project. The City Council's review of the February 2026 amendment puts the exteriors budget at $2.75 billion, including $763.9 million for roofs, $660.2 million for exterior masonry, $591.8 million for flood elimination, $375.8 million for windows and $321.4 million for parapets. Eight jobs is a small slice of that.

Why this matters. If you're a masonry, roofing, window, scaffolding or waterproofing sub, the GC who wins the next SCA exterior job is a coin toss among a dozen names. Relationships with one prime won't carry you. Get your number in front of the regulars, every time. Apparent low is not an award on any of these until the SCA says so.

What to do next. Keep a standing price sheet for SCA exterior scope and send it to the firms that bid all spring: Whitestone Construction Corp., KEL-TECH CONSTRUCTION, INC., Army Construction, LLC, NEHAL CONTRACTING, INC., VENUS GROUP, INC. and Adam's European Contracting Inc. The individual results are on our board at RFI-000509 (New Utrecht) and in the listings for the other seven. The SCA's anticipated contract awards list shows more exterior and flood elimination packages still in design.

Update, Sept. 28, 2026: The SCA's bid tabulations now show seven of the eight jobs awarded to the apparent low. The exception is New Utrecht High School, where the tab marks Whitestone Construction Corp., the second bidder at $19,231,000, as awarded and as the lowest responsive bidder. The record gives no reason Ashnu International, Inc.'s low bid was not taken.