Award-winning curricula, teachers who come and stay for years, and a high school principal who can’t imagine working anywhere else – these are just the tip of the iceberg for the Lyme-Old Lyme Schools, a system that provides a private school experience in a public school setting. That sentiment is voiced by the Lyme-Old Lyme Schools Superintendent Ian Neviaser. “It matches what we do here, and what we offer that makes us special,” he says. “What’s unique is that anybody can come here,” he continues. “We take all students that live in the towns of Lyme and Old Lyme, plus we also take tuition students, much like any private school.”

What’s the attraction of a private school experience? Small class sizes of around 15 to 18 students enable individual attention, plus many programs and activities that are not available in most public schools and even some private ones. Lyme-Old Lyme High School (LOLHS) has 17 Advanced Placement courses, an award-winning STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) program, an impressive athletics program, and more than 35 extracurricular clubs – a shopping list sure to spark any student’s interest.

English teacher Jennifer Burke emphasizes the biggest reason she came to the Lyme-Old Lyme system was because it was the best place to be. “I work with a staff of incredibly committed professionals who are passionate about what they teach and passionate about the art and craft of teaching,” she says. “I felt like there was no place where I could continue to grow professionally as much as here.” So much so that Jennifer moved her family to the area to enable her children to be part of the school system.

Some of Lyme-Old Lyme High School’s stellar achievements include a Gold Medal award in 2016 U.S. News & World Report’s “Best High Schools”—recognized as eighth in the state and #429 nationally; for the STEM ranking, LOLHS placed #173 nationally; 2014-2015 SAT results were sixth in the state; and, Newsweek’s “America’s Top High Schools” ranked the high school at fifth in the state in 2015. Athletics plays a big part in the high school experience, and LOLHS has garnered its share of championships over several sports, including some rarely found in a public school environment, such as crew.

Principal Jim Wygonik talks about the quality and dedication of the teachers during a renovation of the original building. “I showed up here as principal on the same day as the wrecking ball,” he says with a wry grin. “But we made some of our biggest growth, as far as student achievement, while we were under construction. The teachers worked twice as hard under really adverse conditions, and this state-of-the-art facility is what the students and faculty deserve.”

Over the past five years, several graduates of LOLHS have gone on to perennial academic powerhouses like Yale, Harvard, and Princeton, and also some of the most prestigious engineering programs such as MIT and Stanford — a direct result of the modern engineering department in the high school with automated equipment. Wygonik mentions, “It’s one thing to draw it in a CAD program, but it’s another thing to manufacture and test it.”

“We’re creating Renaissance men and women here,” Neviaser adds. “Our kids are involved in so many different things — they cover the gamut.”

For the fourth year in a row, the art department was awarded best high school art program on the shoreline. The teachers have established a great relationship with the Lyme Academy College of Fine Arts and many students receive scholarship money to attend top art schools. This year’s band program traveled to Hawaii to participate in the 75th Anniversary National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Ceremonies.

The school system’s dedication to getting students to where they want to be relies evenly on teachers, administration, and the community. Jennifer Burke works with students on their college essays, and the high school has brought in a company to help students study for their SATs. “I don’t know of another high school that’s offering free SAT courses,” says Neviaser. “We also have a high school advisory program. Each student is connected to one teacher for the four years, and they meet regularly. It’s a small environment, and allows the teachers to get to know the students outside the classroom.” Wygonik agrees. “Our school is small enough that kids don’t turn into numbers,” he says.

Without exception, Neviaser, Burke, and Wygonik emphasize that the tremendous support from the community is their biggest advantage. All those extra programs and services aren’t usually found in larger schools. “The beauty of this district,” says Neviaser, “is that the community is willing and eager to support the success of our students.”

As a result of that support, and with a dedicated staff of educators who believe in the best, almost 100 percent of the Class of 2016 went on to attend college and perhaps even more significantly, nearly 80 percent completed their degree in four years or less. Pretty impressive numbers for a school with less than 500 kids. For more information, visit region18.org or call 860-434-7238.

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Click here for more stories from the winter issue of Connecticut Family magazine.