Lyme-Old Lyme hires new superintendent

Old Lyme — The Lyme-Old Lyme Board of Education voted unanimously Tuesday night to hire the assistant superintendent of Regional School District 4 (Essex, Chester and Deep River) as its new superintendent.

Ian Neviaser was one of 24 candidates for the job and one of three finalists, said board Chairman James Witkins following a special meeting to approve Neviaser's contract.

Neviaser will start July 1 and earn $170,000 a year when taking into account a tax-sheltered annuity, Witkins said.

Neviaser replaces Elizabeth Osga, who is retiring June 30 after four years in Lyme-Old Lyme. She previously served for 10 years as superintendent of the Griswold schools.

"We have a number of very strong initiatives that are under way, and we believe that Ian is the right guy to help us implement these programs and maximize all of our initiatives for the district," Witkins said over the phone shortly after the meeting ended.

Among other things, the school district is in the midst of a $47.8 million high school renovation project and at the beginning stages of an elementary school redistricting.

In a press release from the Lyme-Old Lyme schools, Witkins called Neviaser, who lives in Essex, "a top-flight educational leader with demonstrated management skills."

Neviaser said over the phone Tuesday that he was attracted to Lyme-Old Lyme in part because of its reputation as an academic powerhouse.

"I think it's just a great, great school system and they have a lot of wonderful things going on there," he said.

Neviaser obtained his degrees from Wesleyan University and Southern Connecticut State University, according to the Lyme-Old Lyme schools. He received his superintendent certification at the University of Connecticut and became Region 4's assistant superintendent in 2010 after working for two years as Valley Regional High School's principal.

Region 4 has about 2,300 students, compared to Lyme-Old Lyme's 1,450.

A one-time social studies teacher in New Haven and Guilford, Neviaser became an assistant principal at Guilford High School in 2004 and was later appointed its acting principal.

As principal of Valley Regional, which is in Deep River, Neviaser was named the Connecticut Association of Schools' William Cieslukowski Outstanding First Year Principal.

The Lyme-Old Lyme school board hired Norwalk-based Cooperative Educational Services as its consultant for the superintendent search.

j.cho@theday.com