Preschool
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/topics/preschool.json
Families’ preschool tuition goes to the Town, not the schools; in FY2025 the Town had budgeted for 24% of it.
Who carries what
Tuition, to the Town
A Town general fund receipt
What it means: Pays into the Town’s general fund, not the school budget.
IDEA preschool grant
A federal grant to the schools
What it means: Federal money, awarded to the district year by year.
Rostered preschool staff
Every fund; pay only, no benefits
What it means: The grant may pay part of this pay, so the two do not add.
FY2025, from three different records and payers. None of them is what the preschool costs.
| Tuition received, a Town receipt | Town’s estimate of the tuition | IDEA preschool grants spent | Pay of staff rostered under preschool, our match | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2011 | $29,404 | not published | not published | not published |
| FY2012 | $31,780 | not published | not published | not published |
| FY2013 | $35,852 | not published | not published | not published |
| FY2014 | $22,799 | not published | not published | not published |
| FY2015 | $25,180 | not published | not published | not published |
| FY2016 | $24,950 | not published | not published | not published |
| FY2017 | $38,697 | not published | not published | not published |
| FY2018 | $37,126 | not published | not published | not published |
| FY2019 | $16,590 | not published | not published | not published |
| FY2020 | $18,633 | $16,590 | not published | $234,348 |
| FY2021 | $11,649 | not published | not published | $237,861 |
| FY2022 | $36,883 | not published | not published | not published |
| FY2023 | not published | not published | $22,512 | not published |
| FY2024 | not published | not published | $13,325 | not published |
| FY2025 | $70,247 | $16,590 | $13,373 | $278,946 |
| FY2026 | not published | not published | $0 | not published |
Side by side, never added: the grant may pay some of the same staff. A gap is a year no record we hold prints. No general fund cost is identifiable.
1 · The facts
$70,247
tuition received by the Town, FY2025
$16,590
the Town’s estimate of it, FY2025
$16,590
tuition received, FY2019
$13,373
IDEA preschool grant spent, FY2025
$278,946
pay of 6 staff rostered under preschool, FY2025, ours
our estimate
—
general fund cost of the preschool
not published
2 · What it shows
- 1
Families paid $70,247 in preschool tuition in FY2025; it went to the Town’s general fund, not the schools.
What it means: The school budget carries the preschool at full cost; the tuition offsets none of it there.
- 2
The Town estimated $16,590 of it, and received 4.2 times that.
What it means: The difference reaches the Town as unbudgeted receipts. Why the estimate is low is not recorded.
- 3
The FY2020 estimate and the FY2025 one were both $16,590: FY2019’s tuition, cents dropped.
What it means: The figure looks carried forward from one year; nothing written says how it was set.
- 4
The IDEA preschool grant spent $13,373 in FY2025; no general fund cost is identifiable at all.
What it means: What taxes carry for the preschool cannot be read from any public record we hold.
What could be identified
The school budget names no preschool line. No account, organization or budget line is named for it, and the account codes put the preschool in with the whole Primary School. A “P.S.” in a line name is the Primary School, never the preschool.
Only the IDEA preschool grants are identifiable: DESE codes 262, 264 and 298, each on its own fund page.
Staff pay is our match: the annual report’s Primary School roster lists teachers and paraprofessionals under a preschool heading, and its wage list prints each name’s gross pay. We matched the two and publish only the total. A year is shown only when every post matched.
The preschool is integrated: children on education plans and tuition-paying children share it, so even a full staff cost would not separate the two.
How the tuition is set
The School Committee votes the rate each year. On 7 February 2024 it raised the FY2025 rate by 4%: two days a week to $1,897.11, four days to $3,548.58. It approved 4% again for FY2026 on 22 January 2025, and for FY2027 on 21 January 2026, adding a five-day option.
Sources
- Town of Lunenburg — annual town reports, receipts schedules, FY2011–FY2022
- Town of Lunenburg — MUNIS revenue report, FY2020 year end (Finance Committee files)
- Town of Lunenburg — MUNIS local receipts report, FY2025 (Finance Committee files)
- Lunenburg Budget Project — school-fund-flows.csv (every school fund, FY2023–FY2026)
- Town of Lunenburg — annual town reports, Primary School rosters and gross wage lists
- School Committee minutes, 7 February 2024 (the FY2025 tuition rate)
- Lunenburg Budget Project — the Town general fund page: every school receipt it books