Tag Archives: school budgets

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%.

Op-Ed: Dip Into Region 18 ‘Rainy Day Fund’ to Dampen Debt Impact

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Mary Powell St. Louis

Town residents have received their postcard reminder about the 2025-2026 district budget meeting and referendum vote from Regional 18 school district both scheduled for May 5 and May 6 respectively.   

By means of background information on the school budgeting process, it is important to understand some of the Connecticut school laws defined by the general statutes. According to the Connecticut General Statutes Section 10-262(j) on minimum budget requirements, a school budget may not be less than the budget from the prior fiscal year except for limited circumstances defined in the statute. 

Additionally, section 10-51(d)(1) was amended in 2024, such that a regional school district can create a “reserve fund for educational purposes” rather than the prior designation of such fund for only “capital and nonrecurring expenditures.” The statute had also been amended in 2021 to change the amount regional school districts are allowed to appropriate from the current fiscal year’s budget from 1% to 2%.   

Key takeaway: Outside of exceptional circumstances, a school budget can never go down and there has been expansion for a regional school district like Lyme/Old Lyme in terms of how a budget surplus can be used.  

The Region 18 school district has long taken the opportunity to fund their “undesignated fund,” or reserve fund, for at least the last 10 years (per the annual October Board of Education meeting minutes on the district website). For the last four years since the change in the statute to support 2% funding of the reserve fund, Region 18 has appropriated approximately $700,000 annually to the reserve. The current reserve fund balance stands at $3.1 million. Although the Board of Education has not formally approved any of the current earmarked projects in the reserve, they are formulated in the five-year facilities plan for the district. There is no reason to doubt that at the October 2025 Board of Education meeting, the board will again vote to fund the reserve based on past experience and determination of a budget balance (unaudited at the time of the decision) in a similar range of $700,000.   

You may ask why these details matter. The 2025-2026 school district budget up for referendum stands at a 7.39% increase over the previous year’s budget and over half of the increase represents debt service (bonds) predominantly related to the $57.5 million PK-8 building project.  Debt service obligation (principal and interest) for the district is estimated to increase annually for the next five years then start to drop dramatically.

Rather than increasing the budget as proposed to cover the current year debt service requirement, I recommend the board consider the use of a portion of the reserve funds to dampen the impact of debt service on the budget in the next five years.  

Why not use all the reserve? Well, we don’t want to do that as it could adversely impact the credit rating of the district for future debt service.  Further, the forecasted campus improvement projects could not be funded for the foreseeable future.    

My suggestion is to use a portion of the reserve, equivalent to the maximum allowable 2% of budget holdback. Instead of increasing the budget by 7.39% to $39,650,803, the requested budget could be about $38.5 million, or a 5.5% increase.  Presuming the recent historical trend of budget surplus continues, this strategy would limit the growth of the budget until the debt service started to decline in five years, at which time the contribution to the reserve fund could be resumed.   

I hope that the residents of Lyme and Old Lyme consider contacting the Board of Education members about the above issues and that the board takes this into consideration at the district budget meeting on Monday May 5.  

Editor’s Note: The author, Mary Powell-St. Louis, was a member of the Region 18 Board of Education for eight years.

Lyme Board of Finance Proposes $11.37 Million Budget With No Tax Increase

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Despite Increase in D18 Spending, Budget Down Over $1M Primarily due to Reduction in Capital Costs

LYME – The Board of Finance is predicting a flat tax rate after they unanimously approved a proposed $11.37 million 2025-26 spending plan that will go to a public hearing next month. 

The budget proposal is down $1.02 million, or 8.2%, from the current budget. 

The Board of Finance on Tuesday voted to send the proposed budget to a public hearing on May 8. The finance board will then take a vote on sending the spending plan to a Town Meeting preliminarily set for May 22.

If the proposed budget is approved by voters, the finance board said it will set the tax rate at the current 14.5 mills immediately following the town meeting. 

The budget proposal includes town operating and capital expenses, as well as Lyme’s share of the Region 18 education budget. 

Education costs in Lyme’s proposed budget come out to $6.96 million for the town’s estimated 231 students. That’s up $299,504, or 4.5%, from the town’s current share. The increase is driven by debt payments on a multi-building renovation project approved by voters at a cost of $57.5 million. 

The Region 18 budget, which totals $39.7 million for the district covering Lyme and Old Lyme, is set to go to a referendum vote in both towns on May 6.

Lyme’s $10.84 million town operations budget proposal is up $513,372, or 5.0%, over the current budget. Proposed capital spending comes in at $530,400, a decrease of $1.53 million, or 74.3%, from the current budget. 

First Selectman David Lahm in a Tuesday interview at the Town Hall attributed the decrease in capital spending to the completion of bridge projects on Birch Mill Road and Macintosh Road that had driven up the budget in previous years. 

He said the town is looking at a flat tax rate because officials are not extravagant in their budget planning. 

“We take care of what needs to be taken care of, but we understand the difference between ‘I want’ and ‘I need,’” he said. 

Planning for Tomorrow’s Needs Today

The town’s projected general fund balance – referred to informally as a Rainy Day Fund – amounts to $4.14 million in the proposed budget. The figure represents about 33% of total anticipated revenues, which is one of the figures credit agencies look at to gauge a town’s financial health. 

Finance board Chairman Alan Sheiness at this week’s meeting said the bond agent for the school district told him S&P Global Ratings likes to see reserves in the area of at least 19% to secure a AA or AAA credit rating. 

Finance board policy dictates that the town maintain a “target” fund balance equivalent to two months of operating expenses, but Sheiness in a Friday phone interview said two months’ savings is more of a minimum than a target. 

Nearby towns like Old Lyme have debated how much money to keep in the Rainy Day Fund in order to save for emergencies while not overtaxing residents. 

In a phone interview Friday, Sheiness acknowledged the fund balance in Lyme has historically exceeded the two months’ target. But he said the number fluctuates based on big-ticket capital expenses that may be needed in any given year. 

Sheiness said the finance board looks several years ahead when determining how much money should remain in the town’s reserves. 

“I do understand the number is high today for today’s needs, but it’s not too high today for the next few years’ needs,” he said.

Lyme-Old Lyme School Board to Hear from Music Department Amid Outcry About Threatened Cut to Elementary School Position

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OLD LYME—After backlash to a proposed budget cut that would eliminate an elementary school music position from the proposed 2025-26 Region 18 schools’ budget, the district Board of Education has invited members of the music department for a conversation about how to maintain a vibrant and appropriately-staffed music department amid declining enrollment.

The proposed cut comes as part of the $39.7 million budget proposal coming in at an increase of $2.7 million, or 7.39 percent, over the current spending plan. It goes to voters at a May 6 referendum.

The district school board heard from about a dozen people each at its March and April regular meetings, who were clamoring to keep the music program undisturbed. 

Neviaser in a phone interview Tuesday cited “underenrollment” as the reason the district cannot maintain current staffing levels. 

“We just don’t have the students to support that, or the student interest in music that we used to have,” he said. 

Neviaser said the remaining five music teachers would ensure continued coverage throughout the district. While the schedules have not yet been decided, he suggested a framework that could involve the middle school choral teacher moving to Mile Creek to take over both chorus and band duties, with some support from both the high school band teacher and the music teacher at Lyme Consolidated School. 

“The high school choral teacher, because we have so few enrollments in chorus at the high school, would teach two classes and the rest of her day would be spent at the middle school teaching chorus there,” he said. 

Data provided at an April 2 school board meeting shows there are 40 students in the chorus program at the high school and 73 students in the high school band. At the middle school, there are 119 students in chorus program and 87 students in the band.

Small group chorus lessons at the middle school would combine under the new framework but would not exceed 10 students each, according to Neviaser. 

He has emphasized throughout the budget season that programs available to students would not change due to the staffing cut. 

Overall, the budget proposal assumes there will be 23 fewer students districtwide in the coming year than there are currently. Data in a January budget presentation by Neviaser showed enrollment at the high school is expected to go down by 13 students, while middle school enrollment is expected to increase by 17 students. 

Sara Goldin, a 2014 graduate of Lyme-Old Lyme High School, presented the school board at their April 2 meeting with a petition she started on change.org. It has since garnered 918 signatures. 

Goldin said the change has implications that will affect to varying degrees the number and quality of the ensembles, concerts, music festivals and small group classes in which students are able to participate. 

“Ensembles would be reduced and students at both the middle school and high school level would be losing dedicated staff. This is the definition of affecting programming for students,” Goldin wrote. 

Mary Powell-St. Louis, a former district school board member from Lyme, said retaining the Mile Creek music teacher at an estimated cost of $100,000 for salary and benefits could be accomplished by paying for planned upgrades to the high school sound system and middle school lighting system out of the district’s undesignated fund balance, or ‘Rainy Day Fund,’ rather than the operating budget. 

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 the Board of Education will hold a meeting with music department teachers this Thursday to gauge their thoughts, “and what their solutions might be to address these underenrollment and staffing issues.” 

The school board at the May 5 district budget meeting will vote to send the budget to referendum the next day. 

Neviaser said the budget proposal can be revised prior to or during the May 5 district budget meeting. 

“You can change those numbers right up to the last minute,” he said. “We’ve done it in the past.”

The meeting will be held Thursday, April 10, at 7:30 p.m. at Lyme Consolidated School. A livestream will be available here.

Editor’s Note: This report was updated with details of the time and location of the meeting with the district school board and music department .

Region 18 Schools’ Spending Plan Goes to Voters with $2.7 Million Increase Over Current Budget

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OLD LYME – Voters in Lyme and Old Lyme will be asked to weigh the implications of a relatively steep increase in education spending now that the Region 18 Board of Education’s proposed $39.7 million budget is on its way to voters. 

The district school board on Monday voted unanimously to set a May 5 district budget meeting prior to the May 6 referendum. The vote followed a 10 minute public hearing with a presentation from Superintendent of Schools Ian Neviaser during which no residents spoke. 

The public silence was a departure from previous meetings that drew a cacophony of concern from members of the school community regarding the cut of a music teacher at Mile Creek School that they said would affect music department staffing at all levels.

The proposed budget represents an increase of $2.7 million, or 7.39%, over the current spending plan.

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%.

The figure comes from calculating the average number of students over the course of the current school year based on enrollment data from Oct. 1, 2024 and April 1, 2025. 

Neviaser in a phone interview this week attributed the bulk of the proposed budget increase to debt that is coming due on the extensive renovation project in all the district’s schools except Lyme-Old Lyme High School. 

The project involves heating and ventilation system work in the four buildings, plus the addition of new classrooms at Mile Creek School. Voters in late 2022 authorized spending up to $57.5 million on the project.

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

“What I want to remind people is, yes, we have a 7.39% increase, but 4.7% of that is in debt service alone. So the operating budget is really only increasing 2.69%, which is exceptionally low if you look at surrounding districts,” he said. 

Proposed school board increases in shoreline districts range from 2.5% in Madison to 6.72% in East Lyme. But the East Lyme Board of Finance last week slashed that town’s proposed $4 million education increase by $1.5 million, leaving it up to the school board – as required by state statute – to figure out where the cuts will come from. 

In the Lyme-Old Lyme schools’ budget proposal, special education spending is up $726,721 over the current year, employee benefits are up $448,485, salaries for certified staff members are up $278,654 and transportation costs are up $164,234.

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. 

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. 

Other staffing reductions include 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. 

The certified staffing cuts in total amount to the equivalent of just over three full time positions.

Neviaser during the public hearing pointed to district budgets going back five years, including the proposed 7.39 increase, that combine for an average increase of 2.73% per year. The second highest jump during that time period was 3% in the budget approved last year. On the opposite end, the budget decreased 0.1% in 2022-23.

But he also included historical data to illustrate that the impact of the renovation project will continue. 

“Just to remind you, anytime we take on new debt service it drives the budget up, especially in the first few years,” he said. 

When debt came due on the last round of elementary school renovations in 2000-01, budget increases hovered around 10% for the first two years and 8% in the third. 

This time around, he emphasized increases won’t be as extreme because the district will spend about $17 million less than what was projected when the project was put out to referendum due to grant funding and good interest rates.