Castine voters reject daycare lease renewal
Current tenants’ lawyer says decision ‘fraught with legal and financial implications’
The lease for the Round School, built a decade ago by local daycare operators on town-owned land, will not be renewed, Castine voters decided this week. Photo by Emily Baer.
Jan. 14, 2026
By Emily Baer
Castine residents voted not to renew the land lease for the Community Childhood Learning Place, a daycare known locally as the Round School, during a referendum vote on Jan. 13. Of the 223 votes cast, 68 were in favor of extending the lease and 154 voted against it.
“The CCLP Board is sorry the vote was negative to the mission and to the young families of Castine and surrounding area,” daycare founder and director Nancy Sayre said in an email to The Rising Tide.
The school’s current lease will expire in June. A month-to-month lease option may be available to CCLP, but the town must also undertake an RFP process to solicit proposals for new tenants. During a public hearing in December, the select board said that CCLP will be able to submit a new application.
“I think [the vote] provides the town an opportunity to move down a road that it’s already moving down, but do so in a new way,” said Castine resident Bobby Vagt. “And there can be no dallying around, because we need to have continuity of care when the current lease expires.”
If a new daycare were to submit a proposal and be selected, it would need to complete all state-mandated inspections and licensing requirements. Final approval would require a public vote.
“The decision would go to town meeting,” said Mary Costigan, the town’s legal counsel, during December’s public hearing. “The town meeting would ultimately be voting on the new tenant and the terms of a new lease.”
An informal group of parents and community members has also formed to explore next steps.
“At this point, we're not too organized,” said former CCLP parent Elizabeth Lewis. “But we talk regularly about our dreams and hopes for the future.”
“We’re ready for change,“ Lewis said. “We welcome anyone who wants to work together. That includes people involved with the Round School and those who are eager for the next step. The door's not shut.”
In the meantime, the fate of the daycare seems far from over. In a Jan. 8 email to town officials, the daycare’s legal counsel intimated possible legal actions over the legitimacy of the referendum due to its financial implications, estimating that its building has a value of approximately $3 million.
“Voting down the lease is obviously fraught with legal and financial implications,” Tom Ferlerle, the Round School’s legal counsel, said in the letter. “Such a vote would lead to counter-productive legal entanglements that will likely take years and substantial resources to resolve.”
Another not-so-contentious lease decision
A second referendum question before voters, allowing town officials to continue leasing Castine’s dockside take-out shack, was approved by residents 209-13. Town officials will solicit new tenants this spring.
