The executive director of Discovering Amistad said Tuesday that he is “cautiously optimistic” that his nonprofit will be able to restore its $211,085 in state funding that was cut from Gov. Ned Lamont’s proposed $43 billion, two-year state budget.

The same thing happened last winter, when its $265,000 in funding was cut but then restored. Since then, the State Bonding Commission also has approved $370,000 to perform repairs and maintenance on the ship over the next several years while the organization has developed a new social justice curriculum that it is getting ready to launch this year in New Haven, Bridgeport and other cities across the state.

Len Miller said the new curriculum is designed to bring urban and suburban students and communities together “to discuss issues that people should be discussing together.”

“We’ve put a lot of time into developing this,” he said.

Miller said Discovering Amistad was assured it would be funded in 2019-20 “but now we’re not.” He said he and other board members will be reaching out to state legislators and members of the Lamont administration to get the funding restored.

“We’re not the only nonprofit that is being cut back,” he said.

Miller stressed that the organization continues to seek private funding for its operation and to fund school systems' ability to access its educational programs with the goal of weaning itself off state funding over a few years.

He said that if state funding is eliminated in 2019-20, the Amistad would cease operation.

In that case, he said it would be important to end the organization in a professional and positive fashion, which means shutting down with no debt owed. Its predecessor, the financially troubled Amistad America, shut down in 2014, leaving more than $2 million in unpaid debts to banks, small businesses, individuals and nonprofit organizations.

If the new organization were to shut down, the fate of the Mystic Seaport-built schooner would be unclear. The state, which seized it in 2014, would have to maintain it while seeking a buyer. But in 2014, there was almost no interest in buying it.

Miller said “the cloud” of Amistad America continues to hang over his organization when it comes to successfully obtaining grants from private organizations.

“But the more good we do, the smaller the cloud gets,” he said about the 5,000 students in 20 districts his organization served last year.

Since it acquired the schooner, Discovering Amistad has revamped its educational curriculum for students across the state, telling the Amistad story and its importance. Unlike Amistad America, which sailed the ship to Africa and the Caribbean and other far-flung locations, the ship now spends most of its time in state waters. It is spending the winter at Mystic Seaport.

j.wojtas@theday.com