$16M Wintergreen School Sale Deal Struck; 2 Other Schools Saved

Hamden has reached a deal to sell Wintergreen school for $16 million— which Mayor Leng said will result in Church Street and Shepherd Glen Elementary School remaining open and the town getting a new fire station.

Mayor Curt Leng announced that news at a press conference held Wednesday at the Board of Education (BOE) central office. He was joined by Superintendent Jody Goeler, Hamden schools Chief Operating Officer Tom Ariola, BOE chair Arturo Perez-Cabello, and BOE secretary Melinda Saller.

Leng said Area Cooperative Educational Services (ACES) submitted a letter of intent to purchase the Wintergreen property for $16 million. Tom Ariola said he expects the sale to close by Feb. 15, 2022. When it does, Leng said $10 million of that sum will go to a Hamden schools renovation fund while an additional $6 million will be split between capital improvement projects for the Keefe Center and the Fire Department, pending final approvals of the deal.

Leng said that it was ​“not just a good day, but a great day” because $6 million will go to other sectors beyond education.

Station 2 in Southern Hamden is the Fire Department’s busiest station. Chief Gary Merwede said it has needed to be replaced since ​“1949.” Now, with proceeds from the sale, it will either receive significant renovations or move to a new and improved location on Putnam Avenue. Merwede noted that the station is currently too small to house modern fire trucks.

Meanwhile, a full kitchen will be constructed inside the Keefe Community Center. That will aid the center in its food security work.

The schools aspect of the deal represents an update to Hamden’s sweeping Reimagine, Restructure, Results Initiative (known as 3R). Read more about the history of that evolving project here.

The original plan had called for shutting down both Church Street and Shepherd Glen, two of Hamden’s eight public elementary schools, incorporating Wintergreen magnet school back into the public school system, and moving sixth graders into a physically expanded middle school. Parents then rose up to protest the planned closings.

Leng said that the BOE had picked the ​“best of nonperfect options” at the time, when a 2019 attempt to sell Wintergreen failed. Then, in July, Mayor Curt Leng put out a press release stating that he was firmly against the closure of Church Street. On Wednesday, he said that two years of conversations with parents about the importance of saving two of Hamden’s most diverse schools prompted him to return to the issue and lead additional negotiations with ACES.

The sale, which still requires approval by the Board of Education and Legislative Council, means that sliding scale pre‑K is still in the works. Though declining enrollment numbers and ​“racial imbalances” informed the initial decision to close the elementaries and maximize the efficiency of Hamden’s public school facilities, Superintendent Goeler said that there will be enough room across elementary schools to increase early education opportunities without losing town money.

An application for state grant money to expand the middle school is still pending. That will decide the degree to which Hamden can actually build its pre‑k program.