Analyses

Monty Tech — the school bill nobody here votes on

Lunenburg is a member town of the Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical district. It is assessed, not billed a tuition — and most of the assessment is a figure the state calculates.

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/monty-tech.json

$1,334,521

the FY26 assessment, out of the town’s own ledger. Appropriated and expended in full

95.2%

of it is the Chapter 70 minimum required local contribution, computed by the state. No Lunenburg vote sets it

$63,810

is everything else — transportation and capital, apportioned by the district among its member towns

97 / 58

Lunenburg residents at Monty Tech against school choice. The larger outflow, and the one the town cannot decline

What this page establishes

Finding 1

The town paid $1,334,521 in FY26, and 95.2% of that was a figure the state calculated.

The Town’s accounting system carries it in full: department 310, account 0100-3-310-9500-00-0-00-2-532000, appropriated $1,334,521 and expended $1,334,521 at period 12. The district’s own book splits the same figure into a required minimum contribution of $1,270,711, transportation and other operating of $47,577, and capital of $16,233. Those three sum to the total exactly.

Finding 2

It is not apportioned among member towns by enrolment. It is Chapter 70’s local contribution, split between the town’s two districts by foundation budget.

DESE publishes both halves and the district reprinted DESE’s own apportionment sheet: FY26 foundation enrolment 1,603 for Lunenburg Public Schools and 101 for Montachusett, foundation budgets $22,073,946 and $2,103,516, each district’s share of the town’s foundation 91.30% and 8.70%, required contribution $13,334,631 and $1,270,711.

Finding 3

So a child moving to Monty Tech does not raise the town’s obligation. It moves part of it from one line to the other.

The town’s total required contribution is the lesser of its combined effort yield — property wealth and resident income — and a statutory cap on the local share of its foundation budget. The wealth figure is the lower one, and therefore the binding one, in all 20 years DESE publishes. Enrolment never enters the town-wide total. What it changes is the split: Monty Tech’s share went from 7.04% in FY14 to 8.70%.

Finding 4

A Monty Tech pupil carries about half again the foundation budget of a Lunenburg one, which is why the money share runs ahead of the head share.

In FY26 the state’s foundation budget is $20,827 for each Lunenburg pupil at Monty Tech and $13,770 for each one in Lunenburg’s own schools — a ratio of 1.51. Monty Tech is 5.93% of the town’s foundation enrolment and 8.70% of its foundation budget and of its bill.

Finding 5

The town’s own five-year forecast of this line missed FY26 by $329,057.

A Select Board packet in 2021-01-19 projected the assessment forward at 2.5% a year, reaching $1,005,464.38 in FY26. The actual figure is $1,334,521 — 32.7% higher. The line was being forecast as an ordinary cost escalator; the thing driving it is a state contribution formula, which over the same span compounded at 9.3% a year.

Finding 6

What the town is billed is not what the district spends, and the gap is Chapter 70.

Monty Tech’s FY26 budget is $34,641,344. Chapter 70 aid paid directly to the district covers 54.2% of it; assessments on all eighteen member towns together cover 38.0%. Lunenburg’s $1,334,521 is 3.85% of the district’s budget while Lunenburg is 6.79% of its foundation enrolment.

The bill, and the four parts it is made of

required minimum contribution — set by the statetransportation & other operating — by enrolment sharecapital — by school-attending children, grades 1–12

3 years — every year in this archive where the split is published. Bonds are zero in all of them.

the assessment, year by year

FY	required minimum	transport & operating	capital	total	above the minimum	state-set share
FY23	—	not stated	not stated	$1,054,376	—	—
FY24	$1,127,113	$34,700	$19,577	$1,181,390	$54,277	95.4%
FY25	$1,172,254	not stated	not stated	$1,225,646	$53,392	95.6%
FY26	$1,270,711	$47,577	$16,233	$1,334,521	$63,810	95.2%
FY27	$1,378,183	$74,196	$0	$1,452,379	$74,196	94.9%

FY26 is bold because it is the one row that comes out of an accounting system. Rows marked “not stated” are years where only the total is on the record.

Three years here have two documents behind them and the page prints both. FY24: the district assessed $1,181,390 and the Town’s budget book records $1,181,390.18 expended. FY26: the district’s book, the Town’s budget book and the Town’s MUNIS ledger all say $1,334,521, to the cent. FY27: the district says $1,452,379 and the Town’s budget book says $1,452,426 in all three of its scenarios — $47 apart, with neither document acknowledging the other. The FY25 line was appropriated at $1,225,646 and came in at $1,224,162, $1,484 under.

What this does not show

The FY25 split, or the split in any of the 11 annual-report years. Only three years in this archive publish the four parts and one more states them in prose at a meeting. For every other year the 0.5%–10.1% sitting above the state minimum cannot be attributed to transportation, to capital or to debt — and those three behave nothing alike, since one tracks a busing contract, one is voted annually and one is fixed until it ends.

How the assessment is built

The district states its own method and Lunenburg printed it, in the FY2017 Annual Town Report, printed page 146:

DETERMINATION OF ASSESSMENT RATIOS Each Community's assessment is made up of four parts: ~ Required Minimum Contribution (set by the State) ~ Transportation & Other Operating Expenses above Minimum Net School Spending ~ Capital Outlay ~ Bonds (assessed based upon the Capital apportionment)

4124-fy-2017-annual-town-report.txt line 5716 · the document

and the two ratios, on the same page: the operating ratio is The number of students from each member community enrolled … divided by total … Day school enrollment of member communities on October 1, 2017 equals the operating ratio. The capital ratio is The number of students … enrolled in Grades 1 through 12 divided by the total number of students enrolled in Grades 1 through 12 of 18 member communities equals the capital assessment ratio.

So two of the four parts are apportioned among member towns by enrolment share — but they are the small two. The large one is the state’s.

The district also publishes the split, in full, for every one of its eighteen member towns and in the same book every year: foundation enrolment, foundation budget, required minimum contribution, transportation, capital and bonds, beside the prior year’s figure. That is why this page can decompose the bill at all, and it is more than the town’s own budget documents show about any other assessment they carry.

The money share against the head share

Monty Tech’s share of Lunenburg’s required contributionMonty Tech’s share of Lunenburg’s foundation enrolment

20 years, FY07 to FY26

Lunenburg's required contribution, split between its two districts

FY	Monty Tech pupils	foundation budget	required contribution	share of the bill	share of the pupils	foundation per pupil
FY07	59	$731,856	$509,713	5.43%	3.46%	$12,404
FY08	64	$837,086	$566,820	6.00%	3.70%	$13,079
FY09	55	$750,799	$498,770	5.20%	3.24%	$13,651
FY10	64	$910,744	$595,449	6.19%	3.80%	$14,230
FY11	65	$908,950	$598,756	6.35%	3.89%	$13,984
FY12	64	$906,403	$604,947	6.31%	3.90%	$14,163
FY13	69	$1,021,493	$656,476	6.67%	4.06%	$14,804
FY14	74	$1,102,322	$714,845	7.04%	4.40%	$14,896
FY15	71	$1,069,515	$670,826	6.68%	4.18%	$15,064
FY16	78	$1,191,829	$738,561	7.21%	4.52%	$15,280
FY17	91	$1,394,324	$824,401	8.23%	5.28%	$15,322
FY18	92	$1,436,287	$805,318	7.98%	5.12%	$15,612
FY19	82	$1,330,703	$748,657	7.18%	4.56%	$16,228
FY20	74	$1,256,607	$712,494	6.54%	4.16%	$16,981
FY21	82	$1,415,902	$814,475	7.18%	4.59%	$17,267
FY22	83	$1,471,017	$871,685	7.40%	4.77%	$17,723
FY23	94	$1,791,269	$1,012,282	8.20%	5.33%	$19,056
FY24	97.13	$1,954,986	$1,127,113	8.64%	5.67%	$20,127
FY25	99	$2,005,870	$1,172,254	8.51%	5.72%	$20,261
FY26	101	$2,103,516	$1,270,711	8.70%	5.93%	$20,827

Every figure in this table is a subtraction: the town’s column in DESE’s Chapter 70 workbook, minus the Lunenburg school district’s. It is checked below.

Why the subtraction can be trusted

The required-contribution series is derived rather than published, so it is checked rather than asserted. Two ways.

Against DESE’s own apportionment sheet, which the district reprinted in its FY27 Monty Tech Budget Presentation: 9 published fields for FY26 — enrolment, foundation budget, share and required contribution, for both districts and the town — and every one agrees with the subtraction to the dollar. The sheet prints the share as 8.70%; the subtraction gives 8.70%.

and against what was said at public meetings

FY	what was stated	stated	derived here	where
FY23	Lunenburg’s FY2023 required minimum contribution to Monty Tech	$1,012,282	$1,012,282	Finance Committee, 2022-03-23
FY23	Lunenburg’s FY2023 foundation enrolment at Monty Tech	94	94	Finance Committee, 2022-03-23
FY24	Lunenburg’s FY2024 required minimum contribution to Monty Tech	$1,127,113	$1,127,113	Finance Committee, 2023-03-22
FY26	Lunenburg’s FY2026 required minimum contribution to Monty Tech	$1,270,711	$1,270,711	Finance Committee, 2025-03-06
FY26	the FY2026 foundation budget for each Lunenburg pupil at Monty Tech	$20,827	$20,827	Finance Committee, 2025-03-06

Five figures, three meetings, three fiscal years, all matching to the dollar. The build fails if one stops.

The share identity is measured rather than assumed: Monty Tech’s share of the town’s required contribution equals its share of the town’s foundation budget to a tenth of a basis point in 19 of the 20 years published. The exception is FY07, off by 0.19 points. And that the town’s total is wealth-bound rather than enrolment-bound is measured too: DESE’s target local contribution equals its combined effort yield in every one of those 20 years, meaning the statutory cap never binds.

What this does not show

What the regional agreement says. A budget book states current practice; the agreement is what binds it, and it is not in this archive. It is the document that would say whether those ratios can be changed, how bonds are apportioned and over what term, and what withdrawing from the district would involve. Asked at the Finance Committee whether the agreement was indefinite or could be renegotiated, the Superintendent-Director said he believed it was ongoing and that amendments were very rare — quoted below. A recollection at a meeting is not the instrument.

The long series, and which parts of it are established

the state-required minimum, derived from DESE’s workbookwhat the town was billed — stated by the district or its own booksthe annual town reports — every one fails its own reconciliation

21 years, FY07 to FY27 — one established line, 4 documented totals, and 11 figures that fail their own reconciliation

the annual town reports, against the derived state minimum

FY	annual report	state minimum, derived	above it	status	edition, page
FY11	$633,124	$598,756	+5.7%	check failed	FY2011 p64
FY13	$681,078	$656,476	+3.7%	no check	FY2013 p69
FY14	$757,805	$714,845	+6.0%	check failed	FY2014 p27
FY15	$710,814	$670,826	+6.0%	check failed	FY2015 p27
FY16	$799,478	$738,561	+8.2%	check failed	FY2016 p29
FY17	$899,267	$824,401	+9.1%	check failed	FY2017 p27
FY18	$877,527	$805,318	+9.0%	check failed	FY2018 p33
FY19	$824,011	$748,657	+10.1%	check failed	FY2019 p35
FY20	$783,987	$712,494	+10.0%	check failed	FY2020 p29
FY21	$888,684	$814,475	+9.1%	check failed	FY2021 p30
FY22	$876,289	$871,685	+0.5%	check failed	FY2022 p31

Every one of these carries check failed or no check: the extractor’s own reconciliation, against the report’s printed totals, failing. CLAUDE.md forbids aggregating across status, so these are candidates and not established figures.

What this cross-check is and is not. Every candidate sits above an independently derived figure by a margin consistent with the transportation and capital assessments — the same band the documented years show, and the FY26 ledger figure sits 5.0% above its own minimum. That is evidence about the shape of the series. It is not evidence that any individual value is right, and it cannot be: two wrong numbers can stand in the same ratio as two right ones.

The FY22 outlier — +0.5%, where every other year is at least 3.7% — has a documented cause and it is not a defect in the extract. A Special Town Meeting reduced the assessment mid-year, and the Town Manager told the Finance Committee so at the time. A certified assessment can move downward after Town Meeting votes it.

FY23 is not read here at all. Its row exists and its page states no identity that fixes which printed column is which, so v1 there is an ordinal rather than a column name. The FY23 figure in the table above comes from the district’s own budget book instead.

report_monty_tech is not used on this page at all. Its 70 rows are Monty Tech’s own budget reprinted inside the FY2017 annual town report; its column_meaning is empty and its status is no check, so v1 there is the first column of that page that held figures and not a column name. Its label column has also absorbed the first printed figure. The generator refuses to run if that table ever silently acquires a column meaning.

What the town expected this line to do

the Select Board’s own projection, at 2.5% a yearthe state-required minimum, as it actually moved

5 projected years from a Select Board packet dated 2021-01-19, against what the state formula actually did

the projection, and the figure that was driving the line

FY	projected at 2.5% a year	state minimum, actual	difference
FY22	$910,901.10	$871,685	-$39,216
FY23	$933,673.63	$1,012,282	$78,608
FY24	$957,015.47	$1,127,113	$170,098
FY25	$980,940.85	$1,172,254	$191,313
FY26	$1,005,464.38	$1,270,711	$265,247

The projected column is quoted from the packet itself: our copy · the town’s. By FY26 the state minimum alone had passed the projected total.

What would you have had to see, and when

DESE publishes the apportionment sheet this page derives — foundation enrolment, foundation budget and required contribution for each of a town’s districts — in the same workbook and at the same time as the Chapter 70 aid figure the town already reads every January. The line that would have shown this coming is the town’s required local contribution against the school district’s: the difference between them is the Monty Tech minimum, and it grew at 9.3% a year over the span the packet projected at 2.5%. Nothing had to be requested from anybody.

What this does not show

That the projection was wrong to use 2.5%. It is the same assumption the town applied to its own school department in that packet, and for a line the town appropriates it is a reasonable one. What the arithmetic shows is that this line is not that kind of line — not that anybody should have known it was not.

Where the town’s children actually are

Monty Tech — resident members of a district Lunenburg belongs toschool choice — a seat another district openedcharter schools

13 years, FY14 to FY26 — DESE’s October headcount of Lunenburg residents, by the district they attend

Lunenburg residents, by where they go

FY	Monty Tech	school choice	charter	in Lunenburg	all resident	Monty Tech share
FY14	70	69	44	1,513	1,699	4.12%
FY15	76	89	42	1,513	1,722	4.41%
FY16	86	80	40	1,512	1,723	4.99%
FY17	87	106	40	1,568	1,805	4.82%
FY18	77	99	30	1,599	1,812	4.25%
FY19	72	74	26	1,616	1,792	4.02%
FY20	75	84	27	1,607	1,798	4.17%
FY21	77	68	30	1,565	1,744	4.42%
FY22	90	77	28	1,578	1,781	5.05%
FY23	92	67	25	1,541	1,732	5.31%
FY24	97	56	26	1,565	1,746	5.56%
FY25	96	58	29	1,544	1,728	5.56%
FY26	97	58	22	1,553	1,730	5.61%

Monty Tech is the larger of the two routes out of Lunenburg’s own schools and it is not a departure. These children are reported by DESE as Resident/Member — resident members of a district Lunenburg belongs to. No Lunenburg vote admits or refuses any of them, and the town is assessed for them whether the count rises or falls. That is the opposite of school choice, where the receiving district opens the seats and a family applies for one. The count has risen in 9 of the 12 years DESE publishes here, from 70 in FY14 to 97; the longest unbroken run is the 5 years FY19 to FY24.

Two counts of the same children, and they disagree in every year

DESE publishes an October headcount of Lunenburg residents attending Montachusett, and a Chapter 70 foundation enrolment used to compute the assessment. For FY26 they are 97 and 101. Across the overlapping years the difference runs from 8 below to 15 above, with no consistent sign. One documented mechanism puts children into the assessment who are not at Monty Tech: the district’s business director told the Finance Committee in March 2022 that four Lunenburg students attending trade programmes at Leominster and Nashoba become part of the Monty Tech assessment. That explains a difference in one direction and not the years running the other way.

the two counts

FY	October headcount	foundation enrolment	difference
FY14	70	74	+4
FY15	76	71	-5
FY16	86	78	-8
FY17	87	91	+4
FY18	77	92	+15
FY19	72	82	+10
FY20	75	74	-1
FY21	77	82	+5
FY22	90	83	-7
FY23	92	94	+2
FY24	97	97.13	+0.13
FY25	96	99	+3
FY26	97	101	+4

So every per-student figure has to name its denominator. The district’s own budget book prints $13,213 for FY26, dividing the assessment by the foundation enrolment of 101. Dividing by DESE’s October headcount of 97 gives $13,758. Both are correct arithmetic on different counts.

What this does not show

Why the count has risen. A count is the outcome of families applying and of Monty Tech admitting, and the lottery exists precisely because more apply than there are places. Asked at the Finance Committee how many Lunenburg students had been turned away, the district’s business manager said she was unsure of the exact number.

And do not subtract these per-pupil figures from Lunenburg’s own. $13,213 and $13,758 are what the town is billed for a child. The per-pupil figure on what other districts spend is what DESE reports Lunenburg Public Schools spending per pupil from all funds — grants, revolving funds, school choice receipts, and town-paid insurance and retirement attributed to the schools. The difference between the two is two definitions, not a saving: the assessment has no grants and no direct Chapter 70 in it, because those are on Monty Tech’s revenue side.

The bill is not the cost

The assessment is what Lunenburg is billed. It is not what educating those children costs, and the difference is mostly Chapter 70 aid paid to the regional district directly — money that never touches a Lunenburg budget line and never appears in a Lunenburg vote.

Monty Tech's own budget, and what pays for it

FY	district budget	Chapter 70	all 18 assessments	everything else	Lunenburg’s assessment	of the budget	of the pupils
FY26	$34,641,344	$18,762,805 (54.2%)	$13,178,539 (38.0%)	7.8%	$1,334,521	3.85%	6.79%
FY27	$35,516,660	$18,872,680 (53.1%)	$13,968,980 (39.3%)	7.5%	$1,452,379	4.09%	7.10%

Read from FY27 Monty Tech Budget Presentation, line 82. The three assessment components the district prints sum to the total it prints, and the build fails if they stop.

Lunenburg is 6.79% of the district’s foundation enrolment and pays 3.85% of its budget. Both are true and neither is a discount: the assessment is a share of what is left after Chapter 70 and the district’s other revenue, and it is apportioned by a wealth formula rather than by heads.

What this does not show

What the district spends over time, or what a Lunenburg place there costs. This archive holds two of the district’s own budget books — FY24 and FY27 — and no series, no year before FY24, and no all-funds figure reported after a year closed. So the bill can be tracked and the cost cannot.

What was said about this, in public

The Finance Committee takes a Monty Tech budget presentation in March in almost every year, and those meetings are where most of what is known about this line comes from.

“96 percent of the Monty Tech assessment is governed by the state, which determines contribution by average income and property values in town”

Finance Committee · minutes · 2022-03-23 · our copy · the town’s

The mechanism, said out loud to the Finance Committee in 2022. The DESE workbook agrees with the shape of it: in FY2023 the state-required minimum was 96.0% of what the town appropriated, and the remaining 4.0% was itemised in the same presentation as transportation and capital.

“foundation enrollment has increased from 83 to 94, which increases the town’s required minimum contribution to $1,012,282 (a $140,597 increase) for Monty Tech, which is 8.2 percent of all L”

Finance Committee · minutes · 2022-03-23 · our copy · the town’s

Two of the four figures this page checks its own derivation against. Subtracting the school district’s required local contribution from the town’s, in DESE’s workbook, gives 83 and 94 foundation pupils and $1,012,282 — independently, from a document neither party wrote.

“DESE determines how much local communities contribute using their calculations and formula. The calculation includes half the income for town residents and half of the value of the property value in the town”

Finance Committee · minutes · 2026-02-05 · our copy · the town’s

Said four years later, about the same formula. It is why the town’s total obligation does not move when a child changes school: the inputs are property value and resident income.

“what if anything can be done to reduce the contribution that Lunenburg needs to pay. Tom Brown states there is potential to change but that requires a change to the formula”

Finance Committee · minutes · 2026-02-05 · our copy · the town’s

The question this page exists to answer, asked at a public meeting, and answered the same way the arithmetic answers it.

“Chris Menard inquires about the district agreement whether it’s indeﬁnite or if it can be renegotiated. Tom Brown believes the agreement is ongoing. He is also aware of some amendments, but they are very rare.”

Finance Committee · minutes · 2026-02-05 · our copy · the town’s

The nearest thing in the record to the regional agreement itself, which this archive does not hold. It is a recollection given at a meeting, not the document, and it is printed here as that.

“The total contribution needed from Lunenburg is $1,270,711.”

Finance Committee · minutes · 2025-03-06 · our copy · the town’s

The third check on the derivation, for FY2026, to the dollar. It is also the figure a reader is most likely to mistake for the assessment: the town appropriated more than this, and the difference is transportation and capital.

“totaling $1,127,113 going to Monty Tech, which amounts to 6.62 percent of Monty Tech’s operating budget”

Finance Committee · minutes · 2023-03-22 · our copy · the town’s

The fourth check, for FY2024 — and rule 11 in one line from the other direction: what Lunenburg is billed is a small share of what the district spends, because Chapter 70 and everything else on its revenue side pay the rest.

“a reduction in the Monty Tech Assessment will cover that cost”

Finance Committee · minutes · 2021-10-14 · our copy · the town’s

The one year in twelve where the appropriation candidate does NOT sit comfortably above the state-required minimum. An assessment certified downward mid-year is a thing that happens to this line, and it is a reason to read a single year of it carefully.

“The Monty Tech Assessment stands at $117,858.00, leaving $1,256,405.89 to be allocated between the School and Town budgets”

Finance Committee · minutes · 2026-02-19 · our copy · the town’s

Two quantities are called “the Monty Tech Assessment” in the town’s own record and they differ by a factor of eleven. This one is the INCREASE taken off new revenue before the rest is split — the arithmetic in the sentence proves it — and the assessment itself is the larger figure this page charts.

“we'd have to disentangle ourselves from Monty Tech”

School Committee · minutes · 2026-03-23 · our copy · the town’s

Said at a School Committee meeting in March 2026, about bringing vocational programmes back into Lunenburg’s own schools. It is the only place in the searched record where leaving the district is raised, and it is printed because the page owes a reader who is thinking about it the arithmetic rather than a verdict.

“The Committee agrees that Monty Techs assessment should be aligned with the Lunenberg Public Schools”

Finance Committee · minutes · 2026-01-08 · our copy · the town’s

What the Finance Committee wants the line to do. Whether it can be made to do that is the subject of this page: the state-required part is 95% of it and is set by a formula the town is not a party to.

What was searched, and what that covers

terms searched across the meeting archive

term	documents matching
Monty Tech	174
Montachusett	188
vocational	22
assessment	387
regional	432
foundation enrollment	2
required minimum contribution	1

8,899 of the 12,015 meeting documents this archive holds are searchable — 74.1%. The rest are image scans awaiting OCR and a handful that hold no text at all. An empty result is therefore unproven, not disproven. Search them yourself at /minutes/find/.

What this page does not establish

What Monty Tech spends over time, or what a Lunenburg place there costs. The assessment is what the town is BILLED. The archive holds two of the district’s own budget books — FY2024 and FY2027 — and no series, no year before FY2024, and no all-funds figure reported after a year closed. So the bill can be tracked and the cost cannot.
How the assessment divides between operating, transportation and capital in FY2025, or in any of the eleven annual-report years. The four-part split is published for FY2024, FY2026 and FY2027 and stated in prose at a meeting for FY2023. Everywhere else only the total exists.
That the eleven annual-report figures are right. Every one of them fails the extractor’s own reconciliation, so they are drawn as candidates. What can be said is that each sits above the independently derived state minimum by a margin consistent with transportation and capital — which is a check on their shape, not a check on their values.
Why the district’s FY2027 assessment and the Town’s FY2027 budget line differ by $47. Both are in the archive, neither mentions the other, and every other year where two figures exist ties to the dollar or to eighteen cents.
Why the number of Lunenburg children at Monty Tech has risen. A count is the outcome of families applying and of Monty Tech admitting, and the lottery exists precisely because more apply than can be admitted. Nothing here separates demand from capacity, and the district told the Finance Committee in February 2026 that it did not know how many Lunenburg students had been turned away.
Why DESE’s foundation enrolment and DESE’s own October headcount of Lunenburg residents at Monty Tech disagree in every year, by between eight below and fifteen above. Both are published; nothing reconciles them, so every per-student figure on this page names its denominator.
That the town could reduce the assessment by deciding to. Roughly 95% of it is the Chapter 70 minimum required local contribution, computed by the state from Lunenburg’s property value and resident income and apportioned by foundation budget. No Lunenburg vote sets it, and no Lunenburg vote admits or refuses a child to the school.
What the regional agreement says. The apportionment METHOD is on the record — the district printed it in the FY2017 annual town report — but the instrument that binds it is not in this archive, so nothing here can say whether the ratios can be changed, how bonds would be apportioned, or what withdrawing from the district would involve.

What we cannot answer, and the document that would

Each of these is a row in the register at /what-we-cannot-answer, so it is visible to anybody who never reads this page.

What Monty Tech spends, and on what

Lunenburg is assessed $1,334,521 for Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical in FY2026 and that figure is what the town is BILLED, not what educating 101 foundation pupils costs. The archive holds two of the district’s own budget books — the FY2024 hearing book and the FY2027 presentation — so a FY24-to-FY27 view of its spending by DESE function code does exist. What does not exist here is a SERIES: no year before FY2024, nothing for the years between the two books, and no all-funds end-of-year figure at all, only budgets and two years the FY2027 book labels Actual Expenditures. So the district’s cost per Lunenburg pupil cannot be tracked over time, and cannot be compared to Lunenburg Public Schools’ own per-pupil spending, which is measured all-funds and after the year closed.

closesMonty Tech’s annual budget book for each year, presented to its own School Committee and to the Lunenburg Finance Committee every March, and DESE’s End of Year Financial Report for LEA 08320000, which gives all-funds spending by function after the year closes.

How the Monty Tech assessment splits between operating, transportation and capital

A regional assessment is four parts, and the district names them: required minimum contribution set by the state, transportation and other operating above minimum net school spending, capital outlay, and bonds. The split is published for FY2024, FY2026 and FY2027 in the district’s own budget books, and for FY2023 it was itemised in prose at a Finance Committee meeting. Every other year holds only the total. That includes FY2025, and it includes all eleven annual-report years FY2011 to FY2022 — so for the whole of the series this project charts, the roughly 4-10% of the assessment sitting above the state minimum cannot be attributed to transportation, to capital or to debt. It matters because those three behave nothing alike: one tracks a busing contract, one is voted year by year, and one is fixed until it ends.

closesthe district’s annual assessment certification to each member town, which states the four components separately; the Town Accountant receives one every year and the district retains all of them.

Why the district and the town state different FY2027 Monty Tech assessments

Monty Tech’s FY2027 budget presentation puts Lunenburg’s total assessment at $1,452,379, built from a required minimum contribution of $1,378,183 and a transportation and operating assessment of $74,196 with no capital and no bonds. The Town’s own FY2027 operating budget book carries the same line at $1,452,426, in all three of its scenarios. The difference is $47 and neither document acknowledges the other. It is small enough to be a rounding or a late revision and it is not nothing: the two figures are the district’s bill and the town’s appropriation for the same year, and every other year in this archive where both exist ties to the dollar or to eighteen cents.

closesthe district’s FY2027 assessment certification to the Town of Lunenburg, and the Monty Tech line as finally voted at Annual Town Meeting.

How the Montachusett regional agreement apportions costs among its member towns

The apportionment method is now on the record twice: the district printed it in Lunenburg’s FY2017 annual town report — four parts, with transportation and other operating divided by each town’s 1 October enrolment share and capital divided by each town’s school-attending children in grades 1 to 12 — and DESE’s own apportionment sheet, reprinted in the FY2027 budget presentation, shows the required-contribution part split between a town’s two districts by foundation-budget share. WHAT IS STILL MISSING IS THE INSTRUMENT. A budget book states current practice; the regional agreement is what binds it, and it is the document that would say whether the ratios can be changed, how bonds are apportioned and over what term, what a member town’s withdrawal would require, and what amendments have been made. Asked at the Finance Committee on 5 February 2026 whether the agreement was indefinite or could be renegotiated, the Superintendent-Director said he believed it was ongoing and that amendments were very rare. A recollection at a meeting is not the instrument.

closesthe Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School District regional agreement and its amendments, filed with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and held by the district and by each member town’s clerk.

How many Lunenburg applicants Monty Tech turns away

Lunenburg’s count at Monty Tech has risen in nine of the last twelve years, and a count is the outcome of two things at once: families applying, and Monty Tech admitting. The lottery exists precisely because more apply than there are places. Asked at the Finance Committee on 5 February 2026 how many Lunenburg students were turned away, the district’s business manager said she was unsure of the exact number. The Class of 2030 lottery result in this archive gives one cohort’s admissions — 24 Lunenburg students of 365 places — and its per-applicant pages are OCR of an image PDF and cannot be counted from. So a rising count cannot be read as rising demand, and the two have opposite implications for what the town should expect next.

closesMonty Tech’s admissions summary by sending town and year — applications received, offers made, waitlisted — which the district produces for its own School Committee.

Why DESE’s foundation enrolment for Lunenburg at Monty Tech differs from its own October headcount

Two DESE counts of the same thing disagree in every year. The Chapter 70 foundation enrolment used to compute the assessment — derived on /monty-tech by subtracting the Lunenburg district’s from the town’s — runs between eight below and fifteen above the October headcount of Lunenburg residents attending Montachusett Regional in DESE’s own residents-by-district file, and the gap has no consistent sign or size. One documented mechanism puts children into the assessment who are not at Monty Tech: the district’s business director told the Finance Committee in March 2022 that four Lunenburg students attending trade programmes at Leominster and Nashoba “become part of the Monty Tech assessment”. That accounts for a difference in one direction and not for the years running the other way. Until it is reconciled, no per-student figure on this page can be quoted without saying which count is the denominator.

closesDESE’s foundation enrolment detail for the Chapter 70 calculation, which states the collection date and the categories included, published beside the key factors workbook this project already holds.

Where every figure comes from

Three data sources, and six figures read off a printed page. The second kind carries its coordinate — the file, the line, and the row as printed — because a figure quoted without one is a rendering being passed off as an observation.

dese-ch70-key-factors.xlsx

DESE’s Chapter 70 key factors — the municipal contribution sheet (income, property, combined effort yield, required local contribution, by town) and the district aid sheet (foundation enrolment, foundation budget, required local contribution, Chapter 70 aid, by district). Every established figure on this page is a subtraction between those two sheets.

Stage: the Chapter 70 calculation for each fiscal year. A formula calculation, not a budget and not an actual.

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education · 4.6 MB · the publisher’s copy
sha256 9fdc7d0a6131c82a400509f336f2ac88539e05b2dde1b019232757e668bc2e6f

dese-town-enrollment.csv

Every Lunenburg-resident student, by the district they actually attend and the programme they are there under. The source of the student counts on this page.

Stage: reported as of 1 October each year. A headcount, not a foundation enrolment — the two are different counts and this page keeps them apart.

Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (extracted by this project) · 241 KB
sha256 8b1c177790540bafd1603f43a8c4ff60de6d660869b01aa07452c86ddb1e5915

glytdbud-expense-fy2026-p12-gf-all.xlsx

The Town’s MUNIS year-to-date budget report for the general fund, FY2026 period 12. The only Monty Tech figure on this page that came out of an accounting system rather than off a printed page.

Stage: what the books say was appropriated and expended. Rule 13a: a printout from the accounting system, not a sheet somebody assembled.

Town of Lunenburg (obtained by records request) · 72 KB
sha256 215dd64f597f1f2d8a373080756a188c0fecfd7caff9158824ec7d293e287cd1

Figures read off a printed page, with their coordinates

FY27 Monty Tech Budget Presentation

DESE’s own sheet, “FY27 Chapter 70 Apportionment of Local Contribution Across School Districts — 162 Lunenburg”, reprinted. It states the split this page derives, for FY2026, as published figures rather than as a subtraction.

1 FY26 foundation enrollment1,603 101 1,704 · 2 FY26 foundation budget22,073,946 2,103,516 24,177,462 · 3 Each district’s share of municipality’s combined FY26 foundation91.30% 8.70% 100.00% · 4 FY26 required contribution13,334,631 1,270,711 14,605,342

What kind of document: DESE’s Chapter 70 calculation, reprinted inside the district’s budget book. Checked against this project’s own copy of the state workbook.

line 77 of 3583-fy27-monty-tech-budget-presentation-pdf.txt · the document · 4.9 MB
sha256 edc51fdd8b8a54d4adccacdcff1099ed40b2a3a905dc6dd4fe5f601517c5097a

FY27 Monty Tech Budget Presentation

“FY 2027 Budget Summary” — the whole district’s budget, its Chapter 70 aid, and what all eighteen member towns are assessed between them. The rule 11 page: what Lunenburg is billed against what the district spends.

Net School Spending30,990,41431,796,495806,0812.60% … Total Budget$34,641,344 $35,516,660 $875,3162.53% … Estimated Ch. 70 18,762,805 18,872,680 … (1)REQUIRED MINIMUM CONTRIBUTION$12,227,609 $12,923,815 … (2)NET TRANSPORTATION & OTHER OPERATING$700,930 $1,045,165 … (3)NET CAPITAL ASSESSMENT$250,000 $0 … TOTAL ASSESSMENT (All Budgets) $13,178,539 $13,968,980

What kind of document: the district’s own budget book. A sheet somebody assembled.

line 82 of 3583-fy27-monty-tech-budget-presentation-pdf.txt · the document · 4.9 MB
sha256 edc51fdd8b8a54d4adccacdcff1099ed40b2a3a905dc6dd4fe5f601517c5097a

FY27 Monty Tech Budget Presentation

Lunenburg’s own line in that sheet — the fifth independent confirmation of the required-contribution figure this page derives.

162 Lunenburg 101 104 3 1,270,711 1,378,183 107,472

What kind of document: DESE’s Chapter 70 calculation, reprinted inside the district’s budget book.

line 79 of 3583-fy27-monty-tech-budget-presentation-pdf.txt · the document · 4.9 MB
sha256 edc51fdd8b8a54d4adccacdcff1099ed40b2a3a905dc6dd4fe5f601517c5097a

FY27 Monty Tech Budget Presentation

DESE’s apportionment sheet for the district itself — every one of the eighteen member towns, its foundation enrolment at Monty Tech and its required minimum contribution, for FY2026 and FY2027.

832 Montachusett · LEA Member FY26 FY27 Change FY26 FY27 Change · Total 1,488 1,465 -23 12,227,609 12,923,815 696,206 · … · 162 Lunenburg 101 104 3 1,270,711 1,378,183 107,472

What kind of document: DESE’s Chapter 70 calculation, reprinted inside the district’s budget book.

line 79 of 3583-fy27-monty-tech-budget-presentation-pdf.txt · the document · 4.9 MB
sha256 edc51fdd8b8a54d4adccacdcff1099ed40b2a3a905dc6dd4fe5f601517c5097a

FY2017 Annual Town Report, printed page 146

The district’s own statement of how it apportions an assessment, printed inside Lunenburg’s annual town report: four parts, with transportation and other operating divided by each town’s 1 October enrolment share and capital divided by its school-attending children in grades 1 to 12.

DETERMINATION OF ASSESSMENT RATIOS · Each Community's assessment is made up of four parts: ~ Required Minimum Contribution (set by the State) ~ Transportation & Other Operating Expenses above Minimum Net School Spending ~ Capital Outlay ~ Bonds (assessed based upon the Capital apportionment)

What kind of document: the district’s own description of its method, reprinted by the Town. It is a statement of practice, not the regional agreement that binds it.

line 5716–5720 of 4124-fy-2017-annual-town-report.txt · the document · 37.1 MB
sha256 4c6fbf70d0aff247bc2e18914ec1b0dcfddeeb33da85d5411dc44170eec61579

FY2017 Annual Town Report, printed page 146

The capital ratio, stated as a formula.

CAPITAL BUDGET - (determined by each Communities school attending children, grades 1 - 12, October 1, 2017) · The number of students … enrolled in Grades 1 through 12 divided by the total number of students enrolled in Grades 1 through 12 of 18 member communities equals the capital assessment ratio.

What kind of document: the district’s own description of its method, reprinted by the Town.

line 5744–5745 of 4124-fy-2017-annual-town-report.txt · the document · 37.1 MB
sha256 4c6fbf70d0aff247bc2e18914ec1b0dcfddeeb33da85d5411dc44170eec61579

FY2017 Annual Town Report, printed page 146

The operating ratio, stated as a formula.

TRANSPORTATION & OTHER OPERATING BUDGET - (determined by each Communities enrollment, October 1, 2017) · The number of students from each member community enrolled … divided by total … Day school enrollment of member communities on October 1, 2017 equals the operating ratio.

What kind of document: the district’s own description of its method, reprinted by the Town.

line 5726–5728 of 4124-fy-2017-annual-town-report.txt · the document · 37.1 MB
sha256 4c6fbf70d0aff247bc2e18914ec1b0dcfddeeb33da85d5411dc44170eec61579

FY24 Monty Tech Budget for Public Hearing, 8 March 2023

The “Community Assessments” table — Lunenburg’s FY2024 assessment in the same four parts, beside its FY2023 approved assessment.

Lunenburg 97 1,954,986 1,127,113 34,700 19,577 0 1,181,390 94 1,054,376 127,014

What kind of document: the district’s own budget book. A sheet somebody assembled.

line 402 of a103-fy24-monty-tech-budget-for-public-hearing-march-08-2023-pdf.txt · the document · 1.6 MB
sha256 a34d6cd7ee6ae4170cac5aa6ec58dee89ab03def065f5e72ff4d9311fef52712

FY27 Monty Tech Budget Presentation

“Lunenburg 2-Year Assessment Comparison” — Lunenburg’s assessment for FY2026 and FY2027, in the four parts the district assesses in.

20262,103,516$ 1,270,711$ 47,577$ 16,233$ -$ 1,334,521$ 101 1610 13,213$ 20272,251,170$ 1,378,183$ 74,196$ -$ -$ 1,452,379$ 104 1612 13,965$

What kind of document: the district’s own budget book. A sheet somebody assembled, not a printout from an accounting system.

line 98 of 3583-fy27-monty-tech-budget-presentation-pdf.txt · the document · 4.9 MB
sha256 edc51fdd8b8a54d4adccacdcff1099ed40b2a3a905dc6dd4fe5f601517c5097a

FY2027 Operating Budgets (Balanced, Tier 1, Tier 2)

The Town’s own budget book, Schools section — the Monty Tech line for FY2024 expended, FY2025 budgeted, FY2025 actual, FY2026 budgeted and the three FY2027 scenarios. The only place the FY2025 figures appear.

Monty Tech Assessment $1,181,390.18 $1,225,646.00 $1,224,162.00 $1,334,521.00 $1,452,426.00 $1,452,426.00 $1,452,426.00

What kind of document: the Town’s budget book. Assembled from the Town Accountant’s figures, and not itself a ledger printout.

line 185 of 3769-fy-2027-operating-budgets-balanced-tier-1-tier2.txt · the document · 809 KB
sha256 64062d0b1417b76555c1e631daa31b819b42a944b7446cf72d9b24a67485d27a

The rows behind every chart are published at /data/monty-tech.json, written by scripts/build_monty_tech.py, which refuses to write if any assertion in it stops holding. The long-form analysis is at /docs/analyses/monty-tech.md. Where the town’s children actually are, counted rather than costed, is at where students go instead, and the formula that sets 95.2% of this bill is at why we only get minimum aid.

an established figure, throughouta candidate off a check-failed extractthe state-set minimum contributiontransportation and other operatingcapital

Nothing on this page is typed into it. What Lunenburg is assessed for Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical, what sets that figure, and what neither the town nor the district publishes about it.