By Lindsay Tice,Staff Writer

AUBURN – Just eight days before Smart Start Child Care closes its doors, parents and staff members will meet to discuss ways to keep kids and caregivers together. The meeting will be held Thursday evening at the center.

“We’re still working,” said Roland Davis, whose 8-month-old son and 3-year-old daughter attend the day-care center.

Smart Start opened in 1989 in a Mount Auburn Avenue building leased from the Auburn School Department. Jaime Bolduc, who also owns Lever’s Day Care Centers, bought Smart Start in 2003. The child-care center serves nearly 70 children and is one of the few Lewiston-Auburn facilities that accepts infants and toddlers.

On Friday, as they dropped off their kids for the day, parents learned that Smart Start would be closing Dec. 16. Some parents were told that the owner had a disagreement with the School Department over the condition of the building and could not stay open in the face of maintenance and other costs.

Bolduc, the owner, declined to comment on the situation Friday, but said parents’ information was correct.

Frantic parents scrambled to find local child care before the two-week deadline, but they quickly discovered that few centers took infants and those that did were already full. Frustrated, parent Roland Davis wondered about keeping the Smart Start community together, even if only temporarily. He has sought out real estate agents and commercial building owners, anyone who might lease a space to a revamped center.

On Saturday, Davis said, more than two dozen parents and staff met to discuss the situation. Many said they’d like to keep kids and caregivers together.

Parents will meet again Thursday to talk about the possibilities of a temporary or permanent replacement for the closing child-care center. That meeting will begin at 6:15 p.m. and will be held at Smart Start.

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