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Voters Approve 7.39% Budget Increase for Lyme-Old Lyme Schools by Comfortable Margin

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Low Turnout in Rainy Weather

Lyme-Old Lyme Schools Superintendent Ian Neviaser. (File photo)

LYME/OLD LYME–The Region 18 school district’s $39.7 million 2025-26 budget has gone from proposed to official now that voters in Lyme and Old Lyme have approved the spending plan, which is up 7.39% over the current budget. 

Unofficial numbers show the budget passed by 457 votes to 297, which reflects 60.6% of voters supporting the budget and 39.4% voting against it. That, in turn, shakes out to a vote by town of 374 to 272 in Old Lyme and 83 to 25 in Lyme. The total number of voters in. both towns combined was a scant 754.

Of the proposed budget’s $2.7 million increase, $1.8 million is attributable to debt payments on the renovation project. Calls from some residents to mitigate the increase by dipping into the district’s Rainy Day Fund were rejected by the regional school board at the budget meeting Monday night. 

The budget includes an elementary school music position that was on the chopping block when Superintendent of Schools Ian Neviaser presented his initial recommendation early this year. The regional school board reinstated the position after a group of residents decried the ripple effect the reduction would have on the entire music program.

Neviaser on Monday evening welcomed the news. “We appreciate the continued support of our communities allowing for us to provide a top notch education for the young people of our two towns,” he said in a text message.

District budget documents show that Old Lyme is responsible for $31.51 million of the budget, while Lyme must pay $6.96 million. Both towns are billed by the regional school district based on enrollment.

That’s a proposed increase in Old Lyme of $1.99 million, or 6.7%, and in Lyme of $299,504, or 4.5%.

Lyme-Old Lyme Schools’ Board Sends Unchanged Budget Proposal to Tuesday Referendum

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The Region 18 Board of Education on Monday declined to take upwards of $700,000 from the district’s ‘Rainy Day Fund’ to mitigate the impact to taxpayers of a $39.7 million budget proposal.

OLD LYME–The Region 18 Board of Education on Monday evening unanimously sent the proposed $39.7 million 2025-26 budget to referendum unchanged despite calls from several residents to take money out of its reserve funds to reduce the impact on taxpayers going forward. 

The referendum will be held Tuesday from noon to 8 p.m. Old Lyme residents and qualified taxpayers will vote at the Lyme-Old Lyme Middle School Gym, 53 Lyme Street. The vote in Lyme will be held at the Lyme Town Hall, 480 Hamburg Road.

Of the proposed budget’s $2.7 million or 7.39% increase, $1.8 million is attributable to debt payments on the extensive renovation project affecting all the district’s schools except Lyme-Old Lyme High School. 

Old Lyme resident Andy Russell, a member of the Old Lyme Board of Finance and the District Building Committee, who said he was speaking for himself, asked the board to use $700,000 of its $3.1 million undesignated fund – colloquially referred to as the ‘Rainy Day Fund’ – to offset the anticipated increase in the district’s special education spending. 

State law beginning in 2023 empowered each regional school board to create a reserve fund for “educational expenditures.” The law previously specified reserve funds could only be used for one-time capital expenses. 

Special education is up $726,721, or 58.67%, in the proposed budget. Superintendent of Schools Ian Neviaser has attributed the increase to the number of students, who need to be placed in programs outside the district to meet their needs. There are four students requiring outplacements in the coming year compared to the single student identified when the current budget was approved. 

Russell said the school board could dip into its undesignated fund balance for the next several years until the debt payments stop increasing. 

He said the district typically ends each year with a healthy surplus. 

“I’m reminded that you’ll probably end up – because the school district is very well run – with another $700,000 put back in that budget following this year,” he said. 

David Kelsey, another Old Lyme Board of Finance member, who also said he was speaking for himself, said the school board needs to be more “healthily skeptical” of the enrollment projections from the New England School Development Council (NESDEC) that helped justify the need for the renovation project. 

He said the NESDEC forecast overestimated the number of students in the district.

“Going forward, we have a high school that’s going to need to be renovated as well, and I do not think that we need to rely upon projections that are not commensurate with an obvious skepticism that’s required,” Kelsey said. 

District Building Committee Chairwoman Susan Fogliano before Monday’s vote to send the budget proposal to referendum laid out the school board’s case for not dipping into the ‘Rainy Day Fund.’ 

She said the school board over the past two years used reserve funds to reduce the overall amount of money that would have to be borrowed for the project, which resulted in the proposed 2025-26 budget coming in lower than the 10% increase originally anticipated. 

She also cited grant funding and advantageous interest rates that helped bring down costs. Neviaser said the district will be spending about $17 million less than the $57.5 million price tag approved by voters at referendum in 2022. 

Neviaser said the district’s bond rating – which district business manager Holly McCalla said has stood at an AA2 rating from Moody’s since 2017 – is influenced by the size of the district’s undesignated fund balance. 

“Keep in mind too, we will be bonding again this summer, so they will be looking at what’s in our undesignated fund, and that does impact our rating,” he said. “We’ve confirmed that with our bonding agent, so that’s another consideration.”

Fogliano pointed out the school board has earmarked $1 million of the undesignated fund balance to be used if necessary for security upgrades to the school vestibules. 

She said the district hopes to cover the expense out of the total project budget. 

“We hope, but we can make no promises,” she said. 

She cited the potential impact of tariffs enacted under the administration of President Donald Trump. 

“A great number of our materials have already been purchased, but it’s possible we may see overruns that we don’t anticipate based on future purchases that we can’t control,” she said. 

Fogliano and Neviaser said state law allows the district to put an amount not exceeding 2% of the prior fiscal year’s education budget into its reserve fund. But they said the school board is willing to put less than that into the fund in the coming year – if it makes financial sense at the time based on district needs – so that it can return more of the surplus to Lyme and Old Lyme. 

“I just wanted to have that out on the table so everyone understands that we are thinking about this concept, and that we are doing as well as I think anyone could expect under the present circumstances,” Fogliano said.

Referendum on Lyme-Old Lyme Schools’ Budget to be Held Tuesday, Budget Meeting Monday

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‘Rainy Day Fund’ Will Not be Used to Offset 7.4% Budget Increase

LYME/OLD LYME–Registered voters and qualified taxpayers on Tuesday will be asked to weigh in on the proposed $39.7 million budget for the regional school district serving Lyme and Old Lyme. 

The District 18 Board of Education earlier this month voted unanimously to hold a District Budget Meeting this evening, Monday, May 5, at 6:30 p.m. in the Board of Education Conference Room at Center School. Members of the school board will adjourn to a referendum vote the next day.

A livestream of Monday evening”s meeting can be viewed at this link: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF2_W7yYtFwx067Ici9776Q/live

The agenda for the meeting is at this link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WB8EzTFs_0MSwy-MnBEaU67YXJNbRkvJ0Vwdw3qYFrk/edit?tab=t.0

The proposed budget represents an increase of $2.7 million, or 7.39%, over the current spending plan. Superintendent of Schools Ian Neviaser has said the bulk of the proposed budget increase is related to debt coming due on the extensive renovation project in four of the district’s five buildings. 

Of the proposed budget’s $2.7 million increase, $1.8 million is attributable to debt payments on the renovation project. 

Voters in late 2022 authorized spending up to $57.5 million on the project. During this budget season, Neviaser has emphasized the district will be spending about $17 million less than that due to grant funding and good interest rates.

The proposed budget includes an increase in special education spending of $726,721 over the current year.

Neviaser said the increase in special education costs is driven by more students, who need to be placed in programs outside the district to meet their needs. There are four students requiring outplacements in the coming year compared to one student when the current budget was approved. 

There are currently 180 kindergarten through grade 12 students with disabilities in the district compared to 162 in 2020-21, according to budget documents. 

Employee benefits are up $448,485, salaries for certified staff members are up $278,654 and transportation costs are up $164,234.

The proposed budget includes maintenance and improvements to district facilities totaling $359,200 for a sound system in the high school auditorium, lighting in the middle school auditorium, replacement of the preschool playground and paving of the sidewalk in front of the middle school. 

Reductions were achieved by turning the high school assistant principal position into a ten-month position rather than a full-year position and reducing middle school education staffing by one position. 

A music teacher cut in Neviaser’s initial recommendation is back in the proposed budget after the school board agreed the reduction would be detrimental to the music program. The district will find savings elsewhere in the proposed budget to cover the cost, Neviaser said. 

District budget documents show that Old Lyme would be responsible for $31.51 million of the budget, while Lyme would pay $6.96 million. Both towns are billed by the regional school district based on enrollment.

That’s a proposed increase in Old Lyme of $1.99 million, or 6.7%, and in Lyme of $299,504, or 4.5%.

Neviaser in a Tuesday email said the regional school board won’t use any of its $3.1 million undesignated fund balance – or Rainy Day Fund – to offset the spending increase despite calls to explore the option.

“The board has not chosen to make any changes to the current proposed budget and plans to go to referendum with what we believe is a fiscally responsible and reasonable request of a 2.69% increase in the operating budget coupled with a 4.7% increase in debt service, which is the main driver for the overall 7.39% increase,” he said. 

School board Chairman Jason Kemp, who said he was speaking for himself rather than the full board, wrote in an email Tuesday that the undesignated fund is generally used for projects that might be too large for an annual budget, but too small to go to referendum and bonding. 

“While nothing is planned at the moment, an example of such a project would be to replace the track which we are told can’t really be resurfaced again. It would be fiscally irresponsible to spend that down significantly to cover a year of debt service on the PK-8 school project,” he said. 

Residents voting through an absentee ballot must submit the 2025 application, which are available on the town’s websites and the Secretary of the State website. Only absentee ballot applications with the current year printed on them will be accepted. 

Absentee ballots must be received by the town clerk before the close of polls on the day of the referendum. 

The referendum is open to registered voters and non-resident property owners in each town.

The referendum will be held May 6 from noon to 8 p.m. The vote will take place in Old Lyme at the Lyme-Old Lyme Middle School Gym, 53 Lyme Street. Lyme residents will vote at the Lyme Town Hall, 480 Hamburg Road.

Editor’s Note: This article has been updated with details of the time and location of the Budget Meeting, and links to both the meeting agenda and the livestream of the meeting.