Bungendore's only community preschool is facing the prospect of its annual rent being raised four-fold as negotiations for the lease renewal with the Catholic parish stall.
The Bungendore Preschool Association has been in serious negotiations with St Mary's Parish, which owns the preschool's Turallo Terrace site, since August.
The previous lease expired in December and negotiations between the two parties are ongoing.
The not-for-profit preschool previously paid about $9000 per year in rent and paid for maintenance of the property.
It is understood the parish proposed raising the rent to $39,800 per year, which is more than four times the previous rate.
The preschool association was awarded a $1.6 million grant from the NSW government in September in order to expand the facilities to provide another 60 places.
The grant money is slated to be used to add a building to the site with three extra rooms with a disability access administrative space, a laundry and a new staff room.
Bungendore Preschool Association chair Joe Cashman said lease negotiations were continuing.
"We are currently working with the church, the parish and the archdiocese to secure a new lease arrangement for the future of the preschool," Mr Cashman said.
The Canberra Times asked the Archbishop of the Canberra Goulburn Diocese Christopher Prowse a series of questions, including whether the parish would continue to pursue a rent increase and whether it wanted to replace the community preschool with another commercial tenant.
A spokeswoman for the archdiocese did not directly answer the questions in a written response.
"The parish and the preschool have had a longstanding working relationship," the spokeswoman said.
"The parish is in the midst of good-faith negotiations regarding the future operation of the preschool and looks forward to a continued positive relationship."
The Bungendore Preschool has been open since 1980 and is currently licenced to operate as a 39-place preschool.
It is rated as exceeding the national quality standard for early childhood education and care services.
Kirsten Hann's son attended the preschool last year before starting school this year and she said it was the best decision she could have made for many reasons.
"It's the community. It's the teachers. It's the people. It's the parents. It's the atmosphere. It's the inclusion. It's the programs, the love, the friendliness that you get at the front gate. There's just a 1000 reasons," she said.
She said if a lease agreement was not reached and the preschool closed, it would be devastating for the community.
"That would be very sad for all the kids and for their learning progress to get into big school. That's shocking and it's greedy."
Ms Hann said the preschool helped her son get ready to start school because it was more structured like a classroom.
"If he went straight from the preschool room at daycare to kindy he would not have been ready."
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