LETTER: Renew Castine daycare lease and work on succession plan

By Ann Robinson

Castine residents will be asked to vote in January on the lease renewal for what is known around town as "The Round School"--Castine's only licensed early childhood care center. A small group has already organized to posit that the school be "seized" by the town, and the facility used for other purposes. These actions would lead to much unnecessary conflict within the community. More importantly, they would leave Castine without a licensed provider.

A very simple and community-positive solution exists which satisfies all parties: Help the school during its next lease term to implement its succession plan.

From the beginning of Nancy Sayres's concept to–using her own resources–locate, construct, and operate an early childhood care facility to meet the void in Castine's community, the search for a successor was underway. The plan was to hand off a newly constructed facility and a trained and licensed organization to a more permanent leadership team, and to get back to retirement. Yet, finding properly motivated and knowledgeable personnel was--and still is, a challenge. So, the succession plan is the only phase that really hasn't been achieved.

Instead of drumming up such conflict and division, the respectful and fair solution is to renew the lease and to form a balanced constructive task force to assist with achieving the succession plan Sayre has been attempting all along.

—Robinson lives in Castine.

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