Saco school department negotiates more favorable lease agreement for Pre-K building

The Saco School Department will continue to use the former Toddle Inn building for Pre-K until a new school is built. The school department has negotiated a new lease at a lesser cost than what the department is currently paying.

The Saco School Department entered a five-year lease in 2020 to use the former Toddle Inn day care building at 5 Willey Road for its Pre-K program. The decision to use the building, which was made under a previous superintendent, was mired with controversy, with questions regarding the lease terms and the industrial park location of the building.

With preliminary steps of a construction project underway for a new Pre-K through fifth grade campus on Portland Road (Route One) the school department has decided to continue using the Willey Road location until the new school is built.

The school department negotiated a new three-year lease, which Superintendent of Schools Jeremy Ray outlined in a memo to the city council and school board.

‘While acknowledging that the initial lease negotiations in 2020 presented challenges for both the school department and the city, we made a strategic decision to proactively engage with Toddle Inn representatives to rebuild our working relationship and find a mutually beneficial solution until the new elementary schools are built,” said Ray in the memo.

The new lease starts with $191,767.50 annual cost for the 2025-2026 school year. This is an $81,010.13 savings over the current year lease price of $272,777.63. The reduction in price will account for the loss of an $81,000 annual subsidy that expires in the end of fiscal year 2026.

The annual rent will increase in year two of the new lease to $201,892.50 and in year three to $212,017.50.

The City Council, with Councilor Douglas Edwards absent, unanimously approved the lease Monday night.

Councilor Nathan Johnston said when the original lease with Toddle Inn was agreed upon by the former superintendent in 2019, the process was not transparent, the lease rates exorbitant, and there were zoning violations, said Johnston. He described the situation as “pure chaos.”

Johnston said he appreciated the work done by Ray and the school department to negotiate the current lease. He said the current rate was much more palatable and recognizing that in three years the program would be moving to a new, permanent location, approving the lease was “the right thing to do.”

Councilor Joe Gunn said the three-year lease was “a logical and common sense bridge” to the new school.

Saco Bay News Publisher Liz Gotthelf can be reached at newsdesk@sacobaynews.com.

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