Putnam Science Academy, a for-profit boarding school known for its standout basketball program, has closed, according to a letter attributed to school president Tieqiang Ding that was circulating on social media Monday.
Ding wrote in the letter that the school was “no longer operating” and would cease its day and boarding programs immediately, that faculty and staff could not be retained, and that he had turned payroll matters over to the state Department of Labor.
The school’s website, which had listed enrollment of between 120 and 232 students and tuition approaching $70,000 a year, now displays only a message saying it is undergoing maintenance.
The closure comes after months of mounting problems for the Windham County school. The New England Association of Schools and Colleges terminated the school’s accreditation effective Nov. 4, 2025, stripping it of its status as a state-approved private school, according to documents from the state Department of Education.
The school had been under NEASC scrutiny for years, having been placed on probation before moving to warning status in 2022.
Following the accreditation loss, the education department notified school administration that diplomas issued to the school’s June 2026 graduating class would no longer be recognized by the state and that it could not continue operating a boarding facility without first obtaining a Certificate of Exemption from the State Board of Education.
Putnam Science Academy has not applied for that exemption, an agency spokesperson said.
The school’s property is also in foreclosure and, in June, WFSB reported Putnam police were working with the Department of Labor to investigate unpaid wages to staff.
Connecticut’s banking regulator also issued a cease and desist order against the school’s owners, accusing them of raising at least $5.7 million from investors through misrepresentations about the school’s financial condition.
Regulators alleged the defendants ran an “affinity fraud” — an investment scam that preys on members of a specific community — targeting Chinese nationals and Chinese Americans through the social media platform WeChat.
According to the commissioner’s filing, Ding suggested to one investor that he held a degree from Yale University and falsely valued the school at up to $21 million, when an independent audit put its total assets at $3.3 million.
The school was founded in 1928 on a 30-acre campus overlooking the Quinebaug River and operated for decades as a Catholic high school before being purchased by Ding’s company in 2015 for $2.9 million. It became an international boys boarding school in 2022 and developed a national reputation for placing players into top college basketball programs.
