Decision Deadline Looms for West Hartford on Purchase of UConn Campus

WEST HARTFORD, CT — The town has until May 14 to decide if it wants to purchase the UConn West Hartford campus after the school’s board of trustees approved a deal earlier this week to sell the property to the China-based Weiming Educational Group for $12.6 million to use as an international high school.

The town will hold a public forum to discuss the possible purchase of the 58-acre campus on Monday, May 2 at 7 p.m. at town hall.

The Hartford Courant reports that some Republican council members have pushed for more information on the Weiming’s plans and the group’s partnership with the school district in response to an article that appeared in the Boston Globe article the same day the deal was approved.

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The Globe reported that the Weiming proposal quickly moved forward when “local officials saw a potential windfall of private money and an antidote to the schools’ declining enrollment.”

But now, the Globe wrote, opposition to the plan was “quietly growing” after local officials learned that the for-profit education group is under investigation by the Department of Homeland Security for possibly skirting federal visa laws in a similar program it runs in Michigan.

Mayor Scott Slifka told the Courant that no decision has been made on whether or not to match the Weiming offer for the UConn campus and all concerns will be evaluated.

“I have not made a judgment on it myself,” Slifka told Kristin Stoller of the Courant. “I've been consistent by saying the concept sounds intriguing, but I don't know anything beyond that to say whether the town should do anything or not."

Read the Courant’s detailed report on the issue at its website here.

For the full Boston Globe story, click here.