Waterford ― After more than a decade of offering Chinese language and culture classes in East Lyme, the Southeastern Connecticut Chinese School is coming to town.

First-year Principal Yonghua Yang said the COVID-19 pandemic forced the school to operate remotely for the last two years and student enrollment declined. Although the school is set to return to teaching classes in person on Sept. 11 at the high school, Yang said the enrollment numbers have not returned to their pre-pandemic levels.

Yang said the school used to have upwards of 300 students. Currently, they have 180 enlisted in classes. The loss of income combined with the costs of renting portions of the high school priced the SCCS out of East Lyme.

“We cannot afford the price East Lyme offered because we want to keep the price low for our local families,” Yang said.

The school reached out to surrounding towns in search of an answer. Raymond Chen, the chair of the board of directors, said it was Waterford that offered the most affordable option for the nonprofit organization. Yang and Chen declined to say how much money the school saves by moving to Waterford.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity for the Waterford community,” said Tom Giard III, superintendent of Waterford schools.

Chen said it was important for the school to stay in the southeastern part of the state as a large portion of their students live in the area. He added a majority of staff and administration work full-time in the area as well. Chen said he works for Pfizer.

“Whether we are in East Lyme or Waterford, it is not significant,” Chen said. “We still want to appreciate the support from East Lyme schools.”

“Just a new chapter,” Chen said of the move.

In acknowledgment of the collaboration, the SCCS said it will offer 20 free seats to Waterford residents for Chinese language classes on a first come, first served basis. Normally, language classes cost $290 per student.

“It’s one school supporting another school for the sake of education,” said Shunhai Wang, a member of the SCCS’s board of directors.

Currently, the SCCS curriculum is separate from Waterford High School’s, but both Yang and Giard said that can change depending on interest from students.

“One of our goals would be to hopefully build enough interest in the Chinese language and culture that hopefully, one day, we can add Chinese as a world language,” Giard said.

SCCS began with a group of parents teaching Chinese in a local public library in the late 1970s. Nearly 50 years later, now with 25 teachers and five administrators, the school is still teaching in the community.

“We have not only the Chinese community, we have people from different neighborhoods, different communities,” Yang said. We come together.“

k.arnold@theday.com