OLD LYME – The Lyme-Old Lyme Schools Board of Education on Thursday voted unanimously to reinstate an elementary school music position to the district’s $39.7 million 2025-26 proposed budget while calling for harmony between the music department and district administration. 

The district school board called for the special meeting amid vocal opposition from some community members after the position held by Mile Creek School music teacher Matthew Guevara was not included in the proposed budget. The school board approved the spending plan in February. 

There are currently six music teachers in the district, including Guevara. He was hired in January. 

Superintendent of Schools Ian Neviaser on Friday said the bottom line of the 2025-26 budget proposal will remain the same despite the added position. The cost, which he valued at $70,201 in salary and benefits, will be absorbed in the proposed budget. 

It hasn’t yet been decided exactly where money will come from, according to Neviaser. 

The budget proposal represents an increase of $2.7 million, or 7.39 percent, over the current spending plan. It’s the highest increase among comparable schools in the shoreline area, according to a presentation given by Neviaser earlier this week. 

He said $1.8 million of the $2.7 million increase is attributable to debt payments for the renovation project happening in all district buildings except the high school. 

The move to reinstate the music position came after school board members heard from members of the music department about how to enhance the program using the existing ensemble of six teachers. 

The school board members were receptive to the music department’s plan and surprised it was the first they were hearing of it. 

School board member Chris Staab, who made the motion to add the sixth teaching position and to require the administration and music department to work together in coming up with an implementation plan, voiced concerns about the dynamic he was seeing in the district. 

“The departments don’t seem to be working in conjunction with the administration, at least in this case, and that’s concerning to me,” he said. 

Kristine Pekar, music department chair and Lyme-Old Lyme High School choral teacher, said members of the department have not been asked for their thoughts like this before.

“It’s the first time anybody’s hearing it because when we put ideas out there, it doesn’t feel like they are really looked at for what they can do for kids,” she said. 

Neviaser has cited underenrollment, rather than cost cutting, as the reason the district could not maintain current staffing levels. 

Pekar said she’s heard over and over that the cut wasn’t a financial decision. 

“We’re not asking for more finances,” she said. “We’re asking for the opportunity to grow this program.” 

Critics said eliminating the music teacher at Mile Creek School would have negative implications at all grade levels by spreading the five remaining teachers too thinly across the district’s five schools. 

Pekar gave an hour-long presentation on the structure of the district’s music program and how it compares to area districts. She also laid out how the program could better serve students whose musical education had been interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic with lasting effects. 

Some of the strategies to more fully utilize existing staff included introducing instrument lessons, band rehearsals and chorus classes earlier in elementary school; scheduling one-on-one lessons for students with disabilities at the middle school; and promoting existing music electives at the high school to make more students interested in taking them. 

Key to increasing enrollment at the high school is classifying the high school’s music theory class as a Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) credit students can choose from to satisfy graduation requirements, Pekar said. 

She used the example of a current student planning to study music in college who signed up for marine biology as his STEM credit. 

“He’s going into music education and he had to take marine bio to fulfill his STEM credits, instead of taking music history to get ready for college, or AP music theory to get ready for college. And I think that is a huge disservice to our students,” she said. 

Pekar pointed to data showing 121 of Lyme-Old Lyme High School’s 368 students, or 33%, are enrolled in chorus or band ensembles. She said the number compares favorably to area districts, including 11.7% in East Lyme and 20.4% in the Region 4 school covering Chester, Deep River and Essex. 

Members of the school board agreed they can still cut the music position after the proposed budget is approved by voters if the administration and music department doesn’t come forward with a compelling plan for implementing the ideas laid out at the meeting. 

Neviaser on Friday remained focused on enrollment.

“We look forward to building upon the creative ideas presented by the music department last night in order to grow student enrollment in this area,” he said.

The board did not discuss a suggestion from Mary Powell-St. Louis, a former district school board member from Lyme, to offset the cost of the sixth music teacher’s salary by paying for the high school sound system and middle school lighting system out of the district’s undesignated fund balance, or rainy day fund. 

She said the move would end up lowering the overall budget increase to 6.85%.

There is $3.1 million in the undesignated fund balance, according to Neviaser.  

He said it is “yet to be determined” whether the district will consider Powell-St. Louis’ suggestion.

The referendum on the proposed budget will be held May 6.