Parents ‘scrambling’ after Castine’s only daycare announces closing

Jan. 21, 2026

By Emily Baer

The doors are closing at Castine’s only daycare at the end of this month. File photo.

Castine’s only daycare announced it is abruptly closing, leaving parents upset as they scramble to find alternatives for their children.

The Community Childhood Learning Place, a daycare in Castine known locally as the Round School, announced on Jan. 16 that it will be closing its doors at the end of the month.

In an email to parents, director Whitney Schofield said the school’s board and leadership had made the “difficult decision” to close permanently due to “insufficient community support.” 

Castine residents voted not to renew the land lease for CCLP, a nonprofit organization, via a townwide referendum on Jan. 13. 

The school’s current lease is set to expire in June. During a public hearing in December, the town’s select board said that CCLP would be able to submit a new lease application but that the town would also have to undertake a competitive process to solicit additional proposals from other prospective tenants. 

“The thing that made this situation particularly challenging is that [...] the vote was either to renew it for the exact same terms or not,” said Danielle Morgioni, a CCLP parent. “It has become very emotionally charged, but when you step back it was just a question about if we could do something differently.”

For current CCLP families, the closure was a surprise.

“As parents, we were given no indication that they would close abruptly if the vote failed,” said CCLP parent Kate McMahon, who joined the Castine Historical Society as executive director last summer. “My daughter has done great [at CCLP]. She has very close relationships with the other kids in the school and she really loves the staff. The closure will be very confusing to her.”

With few childcare options available in the area, parents are exploring both short and long-term care options. “We're all scrambling, all trying to figure out how we will piece everything together,” Morgioni said.

Whitney Schofield, director of CCLP, at a Dec. 11 public hearing in Castine on the school’s ground lease. File photo.

“We want Castine to be a thriving year-round community but we’ve lost the continuity of care,” Morgioni said. “Childcare is necessary for our economic development and it’s really important for our community to have a space here where children can thrive.”

Castine’s select board will convene on Jan. 21 for a regularly scheduled meeting. Parents are hopeful that the RFP process to solicit new tenants will be accelerated.

A successful childcare proposal would require that the tenant pass all state-mandated inspections and licensing requirements. Final approval would require a public vote.

The daycare’s founder and director, Nancy Sayre, did not return a request for comment.