Researched 2026-08-17. Used to seed the "What districts actually do" preset in the priority builder, as a counterweight to Lunenburg's own revealed ordering.

Case evidence

The observed sequence

Districts converge on roughly this order. Cheap and visible first; expensive and educational last.

1. Raise revenue before cutting — athletics user fees ($300–$1,000/sport), facility rentals, advertising, parking fees. Politically easiest; raises modest money.
2. Non-personnel first — supplies, textbooks, curriculum adoption cycles, professional development, equipment replacement, technology refresh.
3. Transportation for non-mandated purposes — athletic and field-trip transport.
4. Sub-varsity and enrichment — middle school sports, freshman teams, clubs, advisors.
5. Attrition only — hold vacancies open rather than lay off. Cheap politically, arbitrary educationally: you lose whichever role happens to retire.
6. Support staff — paras, custodians, secretaries, classroom assistants.
7. Specialists — interventionists, reading specialists, librarians, coaches/mentors.
8. Electives and arts staff — music, art, world language, upper-level electives.
9. Classroom teachers — where the money actually is, so this is where large deficits inevitably land regardless of stated priorities.
10. Advanced academics collapse — AP catalog shrinks because enrollment-per-section thresholds can no longer be met after teacher cuts. This is usually a consequence of step 9 rather than a decision.
11. Administration — cut late and cut little; districts cite compliance risk.
12. Legally mandated services — SpEd, ELL, nursing. Effectively never cut; doing so invites state findings and compensatory-services liability.

The lesson for Lunenburg

Easthampton's 93%-personnel ratio is the number to internalise. Non-personnel lines are too small to close a seven-figure gap. Lunenburg's own arithmetic agrees:

• Every athletics line, fully eliminated: $451,830 (of which $233,922 is already cut)
• All band and music supplies district-wide: $17,073
• All art supplies, four schools: $30,685
• All clubs and after-school advisors: $11,731

Against a projected FY28 gap of $700k–$1.1M. The frills cannot close it. Only classroom positions are big enough — which is precisely why class size, not athletics, is the real variable in every scenario the model produces.

A revenue lever Lunenburg has not pulled

Neither the FY27 budget documents nor the addendum mention athletic user fees. At Winchester/Bridgewater-Raynham rates ($600–$1,000/sport) and a plausible 300–400 participations, fees could offset $180k–$400k of the $451,830 athletics cost. This is worth modeling as an explicit lever, since it materially changes whether athletics survives the first two years of cuts.

Part 2 — Local districts, FY27 budget cycle (primary sources)

Added 2026-08-17. Unlike Part 1 (press reporting), every figure below comes from the district's own published FY27 budget document or meeting minutes. PDFs and extracted text are in sources/peers/.

The headline

Lunenburg's schools grew 1.08% while every neighbor grew 2.9%–6.5%, in a year when health insurance rose 8–14% and Chapter 70 aid rose 1.5–2% everywhere. That gap is the whole story.

District detail

Groton-Dunstable — the cautionary tale

FY27 total $61,085,099 ($54,187,751 general fund), operating +6.46%. Wages +5.42%, benefits +7.92%, health insurance +8.9%, substitutes +$200k, maintenance +$145k.

• *Budget reductions in FY24, FY25 and FY26* — personnel cuts across all job classifications, producing "increased class sizes, reduced class offerings and reduced staff and student support."
• FY26 cut 3.0 FTE by not filling vacancies; those posts are not in the FY27 budget, so the FY27 proposal starts below level service.
• District states an operational override is needed "now and in the foreseeable future," blaming Chapter 70 hold-harmless status.
• Reviewing athletic, kindergarten, preschool and student activity fees.
• Deliberately weaning off $400,000 of one-time revenue.
• Source: peers/groton-dunstable-fy27-budget-book.pdf

Ashburnham-Westminster — the opposite choice

FY26 $39,116,620 → FY27 $40,233,975 (+2.9%). Salaries +3.4%, benefits +13.1%, retirement +9.6%, transportation +5.2%, Chapter 70 +2.05%.

• District goals explicitly include "Maintain Class Size" and "Ensure that co-curricular, arts, music and athletic budgets are preserved."
• Accordingly: athletics +2.7%, marching band +4.8%, and girls ice hockey reinstated — funded by user fees.
• Paid for by cutting 2.0 elementary FTE (−$130,000), out-of-district tuition budget (−$100,000), technology (−5.8%), and drawing $600,000 from reserves (up from $400k).
• Collects $215,000/yr in student fees. Enrollment falling: 2,225 → 2,184.
• Held total town assessment growth to +1.85%.
• Source: peers/ashburnham-westminster-fy27-presentation.pdf

Ayer-Shirley — the cost squeeze in one line

Level-service budget $36,743,801, +$1,917,231 / +5.5% over FY26. Net school spending portion +8.7%. Health insurance +14.4% — steepest in the group. Chapter 70 +1.5%. Central office shows "budget offsets and reductions." Source: peers/ayer-shirley-fy27-expenses.pdf

North Middlesex — the tightening vice

Projected a $64,000 deficit at 3% budget growth versus $1.5 million at 5%.

• ~30% of students receive special education — far above the state average.
• Already using: soft spending freeze, deferred capital and technology, positions shifted onto grants, vacancies held unfilled.
• Received $302,000 in extra Circuit Breaker and Chapter 70 aid in FY26.
• Town administrators call overrides "politically challenging." **Townsend has not passed an override in 20 years.** Revenue growth ~2%/yr.
• Source: peers/north-middlesex-finance-subcommittee.pdf

Wachusett — pushing it onto the towns

Revenue $129,076,000 → $134,809,232 (+4.44%). Closed the gap through assessments: minimum local contribution +4.14%, but discretionary contribution +9.21% ($25.0M → $27.3M) — while enrollment fell in four of five member towns. Source: peers/wachusett-fy27-budget-presentation.pdf

What the local set proves

1. Nobody closed a seven-figure gap with extras. Every district used personnel, reserves, deferrals or higher assessments.
2. Priorities are a genuine choice. Ashburnham-Westminster protected athletics, arts and music by name and cut elementary teachers to do it. Lunenburg did the reverse. Same pressures, opposite answers.
3. Fees are the untouched lever in Lunenburg. AWRSD collects $215k and funds a whole team from fees; GDRSD is reviewing four fee categories. Lunenburg charges nothing.
4. One-time money is everywhere, and it runs out. AWRSD $600k reserves, GDRSD weaning off $400k, Lunenburg $453,722 in September.
5. The squeeze is structural. Health insurance 8–14% against Chapter 70 at 1.5–2%. No district solved it; they only chose who absorbs it.