Standing in the Cross lane Firehouse, a smiling Ian Neviaser, Superintendent of Lyme-Old Lyme Public Schools, said simply that he was, “Very happy,” after the results of Tuesday’s voting had been announced.

Despite an extraordinarily low voter turnout in both towns — in Old Lyme, only 462 people bothered to vote out of 6,221 registered voters representing a mere 7.4 percent of the total — the Region 18 Board of Education still achieved an overwhelming vote of confidence with 344 voters supporting the proposed $31.7 million budget and 118 voting against it.

In percentage terms, 75 percent of Old Lyme voters said Yes to the proposed budget while 25 percent said No.  The level of support was even higher in Lyme with 85 percent (140 voters) supporting the proposed budget and only 15 percent (23 voters) rejecting it.

The totals across the two towns that make up the district were 484 votes for the budget (73.9 percent) and 141 against (26.1 percent.)

Neviaser commented, “I think we brought forward a responsible budget that provides great educational programs for the children of Lyme and Old Lyme, and I think the voters responded to that.”  He added, “I think we were also transparent in what we requested in terms of all the meetings, publications and communications — I think that helped as well.”

He concluded, “We only included [in the budget] what we needed.”