Next year’s gap is $930k: 10.4 positions at the district’s own $89,096 a post. Every sport, club, administrator the law allows and most of technology together come to $1.50M, which covers 2 years; after that the only lines big enough are classrooms. The town has already cut 9.2 FTE. This is the lever every other page on this shelf exists to avoid.
lunenburgbudgetproject.org — written by the Lunenburg Budget Project, an independent tool for residents. Not affiliated with the Town of Lunenburg, the School Committee or the school district. The data this page is computed from: /data/model.json
What this report counts
Arithmetic on the district’s own programme catalogue: the gap divided by the catalogue’s cost per full-time position, and the positions already cut in the budget in force. FTE as budgeted, not people by name, and not class sizes — the district does not publish a headcount by classroom.
10.4 FTE
next year’s gap, in positions at $89,096 each
52.3 FTE
the FY33 gap in positions, if nothing else moves
9.2 FTE
already cut in the budget in force — $1.17M, 16 lines
2 yr
everything outside the classroom, $1.50M, buys before this page is the only one left
If you read nothing else
0110.4 FTE
Cutting classrooms closes the gap only by cutting again every year: 10.4 positions next year, 52.3 by FY33, because the gap grows 3.2% a year.
At the catalogue’s $89,096 per position — salary and benefits, averaged across the roughly 150 the salary line pays — the $930k gap is 10.4 FTE, 3.5% of the appropriation. A position cut in FY28 stays cut, and the next year’s gap asks for more on top.
022 yr
Everything else that can be cut — $1.50M — buys 2 years. After that, classrooms are the only line big enough.
every remaining sport, $217,908; band, chorus, clubs and art supplies, $158,299; 60% of software, licenses and devices, $383,205; every administrator and office line the law allows, $736,468. That is the whole discretionary shelf, and the gap is 62% of it next year alone. Comparable districts found the same: none closed a gap this size with extras.
039.2 FTE
The budget in force already cut 9.2 FTE and $1.17M — four classroom teachers, an interventionist and a half, an assistant principal — and the projection reopens on top of it.
two classroom teachers, primary school (2 FTE, $205,019); two classroom teachers, turkey hill (2 FTE, $171,811); an assistant principal — primary and turkey hill now share one (1 FTE, $152,829); the primary school reading and math interventionist (1 FTE, $135,930); the occupational therapy assistant (1 FTE, $74,147). Not a failure: it is what a 2.5% revenue line against 3.2% costs looks like the year after it happens. Holding the salary line to the cap while pay rises 4% is 2.2 positions a year, every year — the same lever, on a schedule.
What this does not show
Class sizes. The district publishes neither a headcount by classroom nor a class-size report, so what 10.4 fewer positions does to a third-grade room is not computable here — it is the number most worth asking for. Nor does this page say which positions: the catalogue prices an average post, and no post is average.
Read the arithmetic, and what was already cut↓The full version↑2 min
The gap, in positions, year by year
year
the gap
in positions
FY28
$930,273
10.4 FTE
FY29
$1,530,474
17.2 FTE
FY30
$2,197,945
24.7 FTE
FY31
$2,938,165
33.0 FTE
FY32
$3,757,043
42.2 FTE
FY33
$4,660,955
52.3 FTE
Cumulative, because a position cut stays cut: the FY33 figure is the total gone by then, not that year’s addition.
What the budget in force already cut
position
FTE
cost
Two classroom teachers, Primary School
2
$205,019
Two classroom teachers, Turkey Hill
2
$171,811
An assistant principal — Primary and Turkey Hill now share one
1
$152,829
The Primary School reading and math interventionist
1
$135,930
The occupational therapy assistant
1
$74,147
Half the Turkey Hill interventionist
0.5
$53,674
1.0 Custodian — High School (attrition)
1
$48,630
Half the athletic trainer
0.5
$34,258
Part of the Turkey Hill music teacher
0.2
$14,488
All of it
9.2
$1,174,933
And 9 requests asked for and never funded, $746k — a cut by another name.
The discretionary shelf, for comparison
Everything outside the classroom that could be cut at all, at its real size. The extras alone are $376k; the whole shelf is $1.50M; the gap next year is $930k and grows.
Who pays
Children in larger classes, and the people whose jobs they were. What the town has already asked of them is in the table above; what the cut register shows about earlier rounds — which announced cuts the state’s counts can see and which they cannot — is on the cut register.
What it does not do
It does not change the rate either. Fewer positions is a smaller base growing at the same 4%; the gap reopens the next year on the smaller base. Only the settlement and health insurance move the rate, and an override moves the other side of it.
What would settle it: a class-size report by school and grade for FY27, which the district does not publish and could; and DESE’s staffing file for the same year, to turn the catalogue’s positions into a count.