The Lunenburg Budget Project·The money →

Lunenburg Budget Project · Data architecture · high level

Follow the money

Every route into Lunenburg’s school budget and out the other side, level by level — and the level at which each trail goes cold.

The answer, FY2026
Town Meeting appropriation — dept 300 School Departmentbudget$26,323,868
Town Meeting appropriation — dept 301 non-recurringbudget$35,777
Appropriated — 51.2% of the town’s whole omnibusbudget$26,359,645
The school’s own Funds — money inactual$1,553,151
The school’s own Funds — money outactual$1,736,376
…and held in those Funds at Q3actual$1,592,572
Everything the schools spent in FY2026mixed basis$28,096,021
That last row adds a budget to an actual, and this project’s first rule forbids it. The appropriation is what was authorised; the Fund figure is what was spent. They are on different bases and there is no document that puts them on the same one — which is the honest form of the answer, not a caveat on it. Read it as “about $28.1M passed through the schools,” never as a figure to compute a rate from.

Everything that comes in, and who draws it out

Sources on the left, grouped in the middle, and the pot they all land in. From that pot sixty-seven departments draw, and the school is one of them — it takes 50.5%. Nothing ties a source to a department, so the green figures beside each source are a distribution: what that source would contribute if the school’s share were drawn evenly from all of them.

EACH SOURCE GROUPED ONE POT WHO DRAWS FROM IT Chapter 70 $9,229,410 Circuit breaker $318,424 Charter reimbursement $26,136 STATE AID FOR EDUCATION $9,573,970 ≈$4,833,187 of it to schools Unrestricted aid (UGGA) $1,316,438 Meals tax, abatements, land $312,960 STATE AID, GENERAL MUNICIPAL $1,629,398 ≈$822,562 of it to schools Property tax $35,276,996 ≈$17,808,737 to schools Free cash, transfers in $2,614,344 ≈$1,319,788 to schools Motor vehicle excise $1,875,000 ≈$946,548 to schools Local receipts (56 kinds) $1,245,624 ≈$628,823 to schools TOWN REVENUE $52,215,332 every source on the left, mixed — no record ties a source to a department the school draws 50.5% of it School Department 300 + 301 $26,359,645 one vote, with all 66 others + its own Funds $1,736,376 Insurance $3,713,520 Police $2,477,841 Regional refuse assessment $2,392,572 Fire $1,721,086 Debt — principal $1,506,369 Monty Tech assessment $1,334,521 Transfer to capital $1,057,117 Debt — interest $1,039,840 State assessments $1,028,529 …and 57 more departments $8,900,159 The green figures are a DISTRIBUTION, not a record. They show what each source would contribute if the school’s $26,359,645 were drawn evenly from all of them, at 50.483%. Nothing establishes that it is drawn evenly, and there is reason to think it is not — Chapter 70 is education aid against a state-set minimum the town must spend on schools, so its true share is probably higher. Fees from families $1,184,493 Federal & state grants $514,410 Choice, circuit breaker, gifts $37,473 THE SCHOOL’S OWN FUNDS $1,736,376 never enters the pot — straight to the school, no vote
One pot, sixty-seven draws, and an estimated split. Sources are FY2026 budgeted revenue; departments the revised budget at period 9; the school’s own Funds actual spending at Q3. The distribution uses 50.483% — the appropriation as a share of all revenue — so the estimated parts sum exactly to $26,359,645.
Why a distribution rather than a figure. The town raises $52,215,332 and spends it across 67 departments, and no accounting entry assigns a revenue source to a department — the school sits inside Article 10, the omnibus, which the town raises and appropriates as one sum. So the funding source is recorded per article, never per department, and the school is not its own article.

The exception proves it: the FY2027 override was voted as its own article and split explicitly — $1,600,000 to the School Department and $757,651.68 to town departments at Tier 1. That money is attributable, because the town chose to vote it separately.

And the even split is probably wrong. Chapter 70 is education aid measured against a minimum the Commonwealth requires the town to spend on its schools, so its real share is likely higher than 50.5% — while excluded debt is raised for named debt and is not general at all. Getting past the estimate needs the Town Accountant’s year-end statements, which is why the annual town reports are being ingested.

How much of it is education money

The diagram above cannot answer this, and the reason is the finding rather than a flaw in the drawing: Chapter 70 has no arrow to the school budget because there is no such arrow. It enters the town’s single pot and stops being that money. But the question is a fair one and it does have an answer — just a different kind of answer, so it gets a different kind of mark.

EVERYTHING REACHING THE SCHOOLS, FY2026 $28,096,021 …OF WHICH, MONEY THE STATE OR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT COMPUTED FOR EDUCATION $9,573,970 — into the town’s pot $518,415 into school Funds $10,092,385 of $28,096,021 — 35.9% Chapter 70 $9,229,410 · circuit breaker $318,424 · charter reimbursement $26,136 dashed because it mixes on arrival and cannot be followed one step further #240, SOA, Titles, circuit breaker Fund solid because each keeps a Fund of its own AND THE ONE COMPARISON WORTH MAKING Chapter 70, $9,229,410 is the same size as 35.0% of the $26,359,645 appropriation appropriation That is a RATIO, not a route. It says how big the aid is beside the budget. It does not say the aid paid for any part of it, and no document does.
Two different questions, two different marks. Solid boxes are money that can be followed. The dashed box is money that is education money by origin and untraceable by path — computed by DESE from this district’s own foundation budget, then paid to the town, where it becomes indistinguishable from a property tax dollar.
Why this is worth being careful about. Massachusetts sets a minimum the town must spend on its schools, and Chapter 70 is calculated from the district’s foundation budget — so the aid is education money in every sense except the one that would let you trace it. Above that minimum the allocation is the town’s to make, and nothing in the archive establishes what Lunenburg’s requirement is or where it sits against the $26.4M. That is a document we do not have, not a calculation we have not done.

Follow one dollar, six levels down

Four dollars enter the school budget by four different doors. Each passes through the same six levels, and each stops being followable at a different one. The level where a trail ends is the whole finding of this project — every standing question is a question about a level below the one we can reach.

LEVEL 1 · origin LEVEL 2 · who collects it LEVEL 3 · which Fund LEVEL 4 · what authorises it LEVEL 5 · what it appears as LEVEL 6 · what it actually buys A PROPERTY TAX DOLLAR A CHAPTER 70 DOLLAR A GRANT DOLLAR A FEE DOLLAR A Lunenburg homeowner The Commonwealth US Dept of Education A family, for lunch Town Collector Cherry sheet, to the Town DESE, passed through The school office General Fund 0100 mixed with everything General Fund 0100 no Chapter 70 Fund exists Fund 2814 its own Fund, kept apart Fund 2200 its own Fund, kept apart Town Meeting omnibus vote $26,359,645 to depts 300 and 301 Nothing. No vote at all the Fund’s own statute is the authority One of ~350 budget lines net of fees and reimbursements Nothing. No line, no document a Fund balance, and no detail under it Payroll and vendors Payroll and vendors ◀ TRAIL GOES COLD both mix into one pot and cannot be told apart again ◀ AND HERE EVERY TRAIL GOES COLD ▶ Level 6 needs the Account Detail journal, and we hold it for one Fund out of sixty-two Fund 1301, athletics, 277 rows. For the appropriation, the general fund report reaches accounts once — FY2026 period 12, and only because that one arrived as a spreadsheet. Every other period we hold shows the whole school district as a single row. Nothing anywhere maps a grant, a fee or a reimbursement onto the budget line it paid for. No document does this.
Four dollars, six levels, two places the trail ends. A tax dollar and a Chapter 70 dollar stop being distinguishable at level 3 — the general fund is one pot, and no report un-mixes it. Grant and fee dollars stay separable all the way down and then stop at level 6, where the only document that would carry them has been provided once, for athletics.

Which is why the questions are the questions

Every standing question this project has is a request to see one level lower than the archive reaches. Did a grant pay for those paraprofessionals? is level 6 on the grant column. What did Chapter 70 buy? is level 3 on a trail that ended two levels up. Were the budgeted positions filled? is a level below 6 that nothing records at all.

WHERE IT COMES FROM WHICH FUND IT LANDS IN HOW IT IS RELEASED WHAT THE SCHOOL GETS ROUTE 1 — APPROPRIATED, AND IN THE BUDGET DOCUMENT The town’s whole revenue, mixed property tax · Chapter 70 · excise · UGGA free cash · local receipts · 222 accounts $52,215,332 budgeted FY2026 — the TOWN’s, not the school’s GENERAL FUND 0100 one pot for the entire town and no longer separable by source TOWN MEETING VOTE the omnibus article — one vote for all 67 departments at once Dept 300 + 301 $26,359,645 51.2% of the omnibus about 350 named budget lines THE SCHOOL BUDGET DOCUMENT covers this box and nothing else ROUTE 2 — THE SCHOOL’S OWN FUNDS. NEVER VOTED, NEVER IN THE BUDGET DOCUMENT Fees paid by families lunch · extended day · athletics · after school Federal & state grants #240 SPED · Title I, II, IV · SOA · ESSER Circuit breaker reimbursement the state’s share of high-cost SPED places School choice, gifts, facility hire tuition in from other towns · donations · rent 61 NAMED SCHOOL FUNDS 2200 lunch · 1312 extended day · 1301 athletics 1308 choice · 1311 gifts · 1305 after school 2813 · 2814 #240 · 2778 SOA · 2640 circuit breaker 21 had FY2026 activity. 40 sat still. each Fund keeps its own balance, year to year NO VOTE spent straight out of the Fund no appropriation, no transfer Real staff, real programmes $1,736,376 spent in FY2026 in no budget line, on no ballot A budget line is NET of Route 2 Fees and reimbursements are subtracted before the line is printed. If paras cost $1.5M and the state pays $500K, the line reads $1M — and nothing on the page says $1.5M, or marks the line as net. Chapter 70 cannot be followed to anything $9.2M of education aid enters the general fund and mixes. It has no Fund of its own — unlike every grant, which does — and 0 of 222 revenue accounts carry a function code. No report says what it paid for.
Two routes in. Route 1 is a budget figure at FY2026 period 9; Route 2 is actual spending at FY2026 Q3. The general fund box is the town’s revenue, not the school’s — the school’s share of it is decided by the vote, not by which tax paid for what.

Every Fund the school has, and what moved through it

Twenty-one of the sixty-one had FY2026 activity. A Fund keeps its balance year to year, which is why several spent money without taking any in — and why four end the period negative, awaiting a reimbursement that has not landed.

FundNameWhat feeds itInOutBalance
2200School lunch revolvingMeal payments$572,231$739,586$287,771
2640Special ed circuit breakerState reimbursement$325,970$4,005$615,301
1312Extended day revolvingFees from families$192,943$233,350$54,161
1301Chapter 658 — athleticsAthletic fees, gate$160,164$100,467$169,945
1305After school activitiesFees from families$111,376$95,196$148,578
1308School choice revolvingTuition in from other towns$83,116$30,558$299,461
2672FY26 Family & Community 237State grant$48,558$13,372$35,186
1311School gift fundDonations$22,486$2,911$109,398
1306School facilities useHall and field hire$18,670$12,354$71,559
2681Comprehensive school healthGrant$10,775$5,120$5,655
1302Adult education revolvingCourse fees$4,000$2,880$12,744
1300Lost books / technologyCharges$2,860$661$16,665
2813FY25 #240 special educationFederal grant$0$229,398−$88,503
2814FY26 #240 special educationFederal grant$0$179,637−$179,637
2778FY25 Student Opportunity ActState grant$0$68,647−$91,220
2832FY25 #274Grant$0$5,427$0
2690FY26 #309 Title IV part AFederal grant$0$3,240−$3,240
2728FY24 Title II part A #140Federal grant$0$3,217$5,108
2622FY25 Family & CommunityState grant$0$2,477$70,800
2800FY25 #140Grant$0$2,208$0
2758FY23 #240Federal grant$0$1,666−$8,167
All 61 Funds40 of them dormant in FY2026$1,553,151$1,736,376$1,592,572
Two things worth stopping on. Fund 2640 took in $325,970 of circuit breaker reimbursement and spent $4,005 of it, sitting on $615,301 — the state’s share of high-cost special education places, banked rather than spent in-year. And four grant Funds close the period negative, which is what a grant looks like when the district spends first and is reimbursed after.

And the rest of the town

The same vote that gives the school $26.4M gives every other department its money at the same moment, in one article. This is what the omnibus splits into.

THE FY2026 OMNIBUS — $51,531,199, ONE VOTE, 67 DEPARTMENTS Lunenburg Public Schools $26,359,645 · 51.2% 2.6% Every other department — 64 of them $23,837,033 · 46.3% Monty Tech assessment, $1,334,521 — vocational school, a separate district The largest of the other 64 Insurance $3.71M · Police $2.48M · Wachusett regional refuse $2.39M · Fire $1.72M Debt principal $1.51M · Transfer to capital $1.06M · Debt interest $1.04M · State assessments $1.03M Facilities $730K · Highway $1.29M across two departments · Library $639K
One article, 67 departments. A resident voting the omnibus votes all of this at once. Figures are the revised budget at FY2026 period 9.

Other departments have Route 2 money too — and we cannot see it

The enterprise funds are visible because they appear in the same ledger report:

FundNameRevenueExpense
6000Sewer enterprise$1,454,671$1,726,394
7900Solid waste / recycling enterprise$1,000,000—
5000Sewer betterments$436,667$184,920
6200PEG access enterprise$225,927$225,928
6100 · 5100Water enterprise, water betterments$0$0
But the 61-Fund report we hold is school Funds only. Other departments will have revolving and gift Funds of their own — the library, the council on aging, recreation, cemetery and inspectional services all typically do — and none of them is in anything we have. So the picture above is complete for the schools and demonstrably incomplete for everybody else, and this page says so rather than drawing a tidy diagram over the gap.