{"about":"The newest reports, by the day each first appeared (the commit that added it). Generated by scripts/build_reports_index.py from reports.json.","reports":[{"title":"School transportation: what the buses cost, and who pays","url":"/analysis/transportation","first_published":"2026-10-09","about":"What the school buses cost and who pays: the school day against athletics, budgeted and spent, every year since FY2010; athletic buses sport by sport, with our estimate of the trips the dollars buy; and what the Dee Bus contract fixes through FY2028."},{"title":"The FY26 school surplus, from the period-13 ledger","url":"/analysis/fy26-school-surplus","first_published":"2026-10-08","about":"What the period-13 ledger shows was left unspent in the school general fund in FY2026, against the range the June ledger allowed and what the Committee was told."},{"title":"The FY25 school surplus, from the closed ledger","url":"/analysis/fy25-school-surplus","first_published":"2026-10-06","about":"What the closed ledger shows was left unspent in the school general fund when FY2025 ended, beside the figure the School Committee was told."},{"title":"The annual town reports","url":"/analysis/annual-reports","first_published":"2026-09-28","about":"The sixteen annual town reports, FY2011\u2013FY2025, every one downloadable with the sha256 of the bytes we hold \u2014 and what we read out of them, by category. Says plainly which pages tie to a total the page itself prints and which carry figures nothing has ever checked, because those are not the same thing."},{"title":"Open seats","url":"/analysis/open-seats","first_published":"2026-09-22","about":"Which of the town\u2019s boards and committees has a seat going spare, and when the filled ones come up. A list rather than a report: the one page here somebody reads and then does something about. Regenerated by the daily refresh."},{"title":"Board composition","url":"/analysis/board-composition","first_published":"2026-09-22","about":"How the town\u2019s boards are made up \u2014 which are biggest, how fast each turns over, and whether the establishment is growing. The seats barely move; about a third of the people in them change every year."},{"title":"Who works for the town","url":"/analysis/town-personnel","first_published":"2026-09-21","about":"How many people each part of the town employs, department by department, from the counts the town states in its own annual reports \u2014 a named roster, an establishment of posts, or a figure spelled out in prose. A minority of departments publish one and the rest publish nothing, and the page says which is which and why. The seats people volunteer for are on the board-composition report."},{"title":"The stabilization option","url":"/analysis/stabilization-option","first_published":"2026-09-21","about":"What the stabilization funds could actually do about the school budget gap. Spending the whole spendable balance buys two years; stopping the deposits is permanent and covers a quarter of the first year. Neither closes it, and they fail differently."},{"title":"Solid Waste & Recycling: what the town votes for it","url":"/analysis/town-budget-solid-waste","first_published":"2026-09-21","about":"Trash and recycling \u2014 the fastest-growing line in the budget by rate, and small enough that the rate moves the total very little. Every budget line the town prints beneath it, FY2023 to FY2025, reconciled against the department total on the same page."},{"title":"Schools: what the town votes for it","url":"/analysis/town-budget-schools","first_published":"2026-09-21","about":"The largest line in the town budget by a long way, and not the fastest growing one. Lunenburg Public Schools and the Monty Tech assessment. Every budget line the town prints beneath it, FY2023 to FY2025, reconciled against the department total on the same page."},{"title":"Public Works: what the town votes for it","url":"/analysis/town-budget-public-works","first_published":"2026-09-21","about":"Highway, vehicle maintenance for three departments, the Park and Cemetery departments, and snow removal. Every budget line the town prints beneath it, FY2023 to FY2025, reconciled against the department total on the same page."},{"title":"Protection of persons & property: what the town votes for it","url":"/analysis/town-budget-protection","first_published":"2026-09-21","about":"Police, Fire, Radio Watch and the inspectors, each with its own printed subtotal beneath the department total. Every budget line the town prints beneath it, FY2023 to FY2025, reconciled against the department total on the same page."},{"title":"Maturing Debt & Interest: what the town votes for it","url":"/analysis/town-budget-maturing-debt","first_published":"2026-09-21","about":"The town\u2019s debt service \u2014 the only line in the voted budget that falls, and it falls by a third in three years. Where that room went is the cross-department report\u2019s question, not this page\u2019s. Every budget line the town prints beneath it, FY2023 to FY2025, reconciled against the department total on the same page."},{"title":"Library: what the town votes for it","url":"/analysis/town-budget-library","first_published":"2026-09-21","about":"One line, one library. Every budget line the town prints beneath it, FY2023 to FY2025, reconciled against the department total on the same page."},{"title":"Health & Sanitation: what the town votes for it","url":"/analysis/town-budget-health-sanitation","first_published":"2026-09-21","about":"Board of Health, the Nashoba association, nursing and mental health \u2014 under a fifth of a percent of the budget. Every budget line the town prints beneath it, FY2023 to FY2025, reconciled against the department total on the same page."},{"title":"General Government: what the town votes for it","url":"/analysis/town-budget-general-government","first_published":"2026-09-21","about":"The town\u2019s own administration \u2014 the Select Board, the Town Manager, the Accountant, the Clerk, the Assessors, IT and legal. Every budget line the town prints beneath it, FY2023 to FY2025, reconciled against the department total on the same page."},{"title":"Facilities & Grounds: what the town votes for it","url":"/analysis/town-budget-facilities-grounds","first_published":"2026-09-21","about":"The buildings the town owns and the grounds around them. Every budget line the town prints beneath it, FY2023 to FY2025, reconciled against the department total on the same page."},{"title":"Employee benefits & reserves: what the town votes for it","url":"/analysis/town-budget-unclassified","first_published":"2026-09-21","about":"Printed `Gen Gov Unclassified`, and seven tenths of it is group health insurance. The fastest-growing large line in the budget, and the one that moves the total more than the schools do. Every budget line the town prints beneath it, FY2023 to FY2025, reconciled against the department total on the same page."},{"title":"Central Purchasing: what the town votes for it","url":"/analysis/town-budget-central-purchasing","first_published":"2026-09-21","about":"The smallest line in the budget and the flattest. It is here because a department that does not move is a finding about the ones that do. Every budget line the town prints beneath it, FY2023 to FY2025, reconciled against the department total on the same page."},{"title":"Budgets across town","url":"/analysis/town-budgets","first_published":"2026-09-21","about":"What Town Meeting voted for each of the twelve town departments, and which of them actually move the total. It refuses the question it is most often asked \u2014 an omnibus budget cannot show a deficit, because a town may not vote one \u2014 and answers the useful version: ten of twelve departments grew faster than the levy cap, and the biggest line is not the fastest."},{"title":"Assistance: what the town votes for it","url":"/analysis/town-budget-assistance","first_published":"2026-09-21","about":"The Council on Aging and Veterans\u2019 services, each with its own printed subtotal. Every budget line the town prints beneath it, FY2023 to FY2025, reconciled against the department total on the same page."},{"title":"The stabilization funds, and who may spend them","url":"/analysis/stabilization-funds","first_published":"2026-09-20","about":"The town\u2019s savings, fund by fund: what each one holds, who may spend it, what it may be spent ON, and the meeting that created it. Whether any of it can cover a school deficit is a question of purpose and of vote, not of balance."},{"title":"How Lunenburg compares, and what matching would cost","url":"/analysis/spending-compared","first_published":"2026-09-20","about":"Lunenburg beside the districts people name at meetings \u2014 including the regional ones, because \"regionalize and we get more money\" is a top-five talking point about this deficit. Per-pupil spending, what the state pays, what the district itself funds, and what the tax bill is in each town."},{"title":"Hiring here instead of placing there","url":"/analysis/hiring-here-or-placing-there","first_published":"2026-09-20","about":"The district\u2019s own argument \u2014 that hiring special education staff in district avoids out-of-district placements \u2014 and why this archive cannot yet test it. A scoping note, not a finding: what it would take to answer is the whole point of it."},{"title":"What the town is deciding now","url":"/threads","first_published":"2026-09-19","about":"What the town is deciding now"},{"title":"Youth sports and the fields","url":"/youth-sports","first_published":"2026-09-17","about":"Youth sports and the town: the funds that field and facility money runs through, what goes in and out of them, which leagues use the fields, and what the boards have said about the arrangement since 2014."},{"title":"The boards, compared","url":"/boards/compared","first_published":"2026-09-17","about":"How the boards post: for every board the town posts for, the share of its meetings that got minutes, by fiscal year, and how many were recorded."},{"title":"The School Committee\u2019s finances \u2014 every fund and line it owns","url":"/boards/school-committee/finance","first_published":"2026-09-17","about":"The School Committee\u2019s finances, every line: the appropriation, its revolving funds, grants, gifts and trusts, with what each held at 31 March 2026 and what it has done since FY2011 \u2014 the first of a page per board and department, from a registry of every accounting measure the town prints."},{"title":"Teacher contracts","url":"/salaries","first_published":"2026-09-17","about":"What the next teachers\u2019 settlement is worth to the gap per half a point, what holding the line to the cap means in positions, and what smaller raises would have changed."},{"title":"School user and athletic fees","url":"/fees","first_published":"2026-09-17","about":"What athletic, activity and bus fees can add at the most each can ever raise \u2014 every fee has a peak \u2014 and how many years that covers."},{"title":"Parks & Recreation \u2014 the department, its fund, its sales, its grounds","url":"/parks-and-recreation","first_published":"2026-09-17","about":"Parks & Recreation: what the department is voted, what its own fee fund holds and has done since FY2011, what the registration system took in for FY2025, and what a contractor bid to keep the grounds."},{"title":"Health insurance","url":"/health-insurance","first_published":"2026-09-17","about":"What Massachusetts law lets a town do about health insurance, what each option costs somebody, and what every municipality in the Commonwealth has spent since FY2002."},{"title":"Free cash \u2014 can it fill the gap?","url":"/free-cash-for-schools","first_published":"2026-09-17","about":"Whether free cash can fill the gap: yes, once, inside the town\u2019s own guideline \u2014 for one year, out of the capital plan\u2019s money, and budgeting tighter moves the same dollars a year earlier."},{"title":"Extracurriculars \u2014 sports, music and clubs","url":"/extras","first_published":"2026-09-17","about":"Every sport, the band, the clubs and the art supplies still funded, eliminated: what it saves, and that it buys one year."},{"title":"Classroom positions and class size","url":"/classrooms","first_published":"2026-09-17","about":"The gap in classroom positions at the district\u2019s own cost per post, what is already cut, and why this is the line every other option exists to avoid."},{"title":"Homes and students \u2014 the town builds, the schools do not grow","url":"/homes-and-students","first_published":"2026-09-16","about":"Homes and students: the town\u2019s single-family parcel count and the schools\u2019 headcount, FY1994 to FY2026, side by side \u2014 the town has added homes every year and the schools have not gained children."},{"title":"Commercial development and new growth","url":"/growth","first_published":"2026-09-16","about":"The commercial base as the state certifies it, FY2002 to FY2026: how big it is, what share of the town it is, and how much of it was built rather than revalued."},{"title":"The budget feed \u2014 every board, everything about money","url":"/budget-feed","first_published":"2026-09-14","about":"What every board is doing to prepare for Town Meeting: the omnibus budget, the school budget above all, and the warrant. What is coming, where this cycle stands, what was said most recently, what was posted. Not every mention of money \u2014 the budget being built, and what will land on the warrant."},{"title":"The boards \u2014 each one, in one place","url":"/boards","first_published":"2026-09-14","about":"Every board and committee the town posts for, one page each: what is coming, what happened, every vote we have minutes for, where the board\u2019s time goes, and when budget season has fallen on its agendas in past years."},{"title":"Lunenburg\u2019s homes and the tax bill","url":"/homes-and-taxes","first_published":"2026-09-13","about":"Lunenburg\u2019s homes and the tax bill: how many there are, what the average one is worth and pays, year by year and against the neighbours \u2014 and, behind that, how long the owners have been here and what a long-held home pays."}]}