Analysis: Town and Schools
What a family actually pays
Set your household and read the year off the table: every charge a Lunenburg family meets to have children in school, over and above what it pays in property tax.
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/what-families-pay.json
If you read nothing else
Two high schoolers, one sport each, the bus and a club: $1,110 a year.
Athletic fees, the bus and student activity fees. Several other charges have no published amount.
Two Lunenburg high schoolers, one sport each, riding the bus and joining a club, cost their family $1,110 in FY2027: $700 in athletic fees, $270 for the bus and $140 in student activity fees. The athletic fee is charged per child per season — $400 for the first child and $300 for the second, the 25% sibling discount the School Committee voted, compounding. The bus is one charge for the whole family however many children ride. The activity fee is $70 a child and was last set in public for an earlier year. And $1,110 is a FLOOR: 9 further charges a Lunenburg family can meet — preschool, extended day, field trips, device repair among them — are sold by the district with no published amount anywhere in this archive, so no family and no committee can total a school year exactly.
both sides of the athletics money → · every rate, with the document that set it →
What it rests on The athletic rate for the year now running is the superintendent’s August 2026 email to families, as `athletic_fee_schedule` records it; the bus tiers are the superintendent’s transport email for the same year; the student activity fee is the School Committee’s own vote, in the minutes, and has not been restated since. Every rate is held in `rate_register` with the document and the quoted line it came from.
What it does not show What the schools cost. A fee is money in, and the budget lines it offsets are already recorded net of it, so what a family pays and what the town is spared are two different questions and only the first is answered here. It also does not say whether this is too much: that is the argument, and this is the arithmetic under it.
Three children playing one sport each pay $812.50 a year at the full rate.
Another family pays a fraction of that for the same children. Parents are not one group.
The same 3 children playing one sport each cost one Lunenburg family $812.50 a year and another $150 — a factor of 5.42 between two households at the same school. FY2026 is the most recent year in which both rates are published. A family that qualifies pays a flat $50 a child a season with no sibling ladder at all, and a family whose fee is waived pays $0. So the argument that “parents should pay more” is really an argument about which parents: the same children in the same uniforms are a completely different bill depending on the household they belong to, and the argument is usually made without any of these figures in it.
what the fees bring in against what the town appropriates → · the rates nobody publishes →
What it rests on The School Committee’s vote of 26 February 2025, in the minutes, which sets the full rate, the reduced rate and the sibling discount in one motion; and the LHS Athletics FAQ, which is the only document in this archive stating that a fee can be waived to nothing.
What it does not show How many families are in each tier. Nothing published counts them, so this prices the three households and cannot weight them. The full-paying family’s second and third children are priced by the discount the committee voted rather than by a printed rate, and for the year now running the district publishes no reduced or waived rate at all, so the cheaper half of the comparison cannot be drawn for the current year.
A second child adds $460 to a family’s school bill.
Not another full share: the bus is one charge per family, and each athlete after the first pays less.
A second child costs a Lunenburg family $460 more and a third $295 more — not another $650 each — because the bus is one charge for the whole family and every athlete after the first pays 25% less than the one before. One high school child playing a sport, riding the bus and joining a club is $650 in FY2027. Two are $1,110 and three are $1,405. The bus is $180 for one child and $270 for any number, so the second child adds $90 there and the third adds nothing; athletics falls $400, $300, $225 down the ladder; only the activity fee, at $70 a child, is flat. Which charges are per family and which are per child is what decides what a larger household pays, and it is the part of the schedule nobody argues about.
what a fourth child pays, and the rest of the register → · every rate, with the document that set it →
What it rests on The three bills are computed from the same rates as the rest of this page — the athletic ladder as the superintendent’s August 2026 email publishes it, the bus tiers from the transport email, and the student activity fee from the School Committee vote — one household at a time, and differenced.
What it does not show A fourth child. The published ladder stops at the third, and the rung below it is produced by carrying the voted discount on rather than by any document. It also assumes every child plays and every child rides, which is a household a reader chooses on the page rather than a typical one.
Those are the answers this report could reach from the documents behind it. If the one you came for is not among them, ask us — no name or email needed.
Read the full analysisThe full version27 min
Set your household, and read the year off the table
Year
FY2027 is the year now running and the only account of it is an email to families this archive does not hold. FY2026 is the last year published in full.
School
A high school student may play only one sport a season — the LHS Athletics FAQ (rschoolteams.com) says so — which is what makes a season fee also a per-sport fee there. It states no such rule for middle school.
Children
The question as it was asked: families of one, two, three and four.
Sports each, over the year
There are 3 seasons, and a child plays at most one sport in each.
What the family pays
The ladder, first child down to third.
Bus
Charged per family for the year, not per child — and the town said so in those words when it set it. Grades 7-12 are all charged; K-6 only inside two miles.
Clubs and student activities
The School Committee voted this fee to its current amount on 7 May 2025. The motion names an amount and no period, so whether it is charged once a year, once a term or once per activity is not established.
Drives to the high school
The figure is a resident stating in public comment what they paid, not a schedule. The district's payment portal sells a parking permit and prints no amount.
2 children at the high school in FY2027, 1 season of sport each, riding the bus, in at least one club. $970 of that is an amount a document states for FY2027. It is a floor: 9 further charges this family can meet have no published amount at all, and they are listed under the total rather than guessed at.
| charge | footing | a year |
|---|---|---|
Athletics 2 children, 1 season each, one fee per child per season who pays it: each child who plays a sport, each season they play | priced | $700 |
Bus to school one charge for the whole family, however many children ride who pays it: grades 7-12, and K-6 living under two miles from school | priced | $270 |
Student activity fee $70.00 a child, 2 children who pays it: a child who joins a club or a student activity Voted to $70 on 7 May 2025 and not restated for FY2027. The motion names an amount and no period, so whether this is once a year, once a term or once per activity is not established. | carried | $140 |
…and 9 charges above that, with no published amount
charged, and no amount is published anywhere in this archive. Each is real — the district sells it or a family has said they paid it — so the total above is a floor rather than a bill. Nothing here estimates one: beside each is the document that would price it.
Afterschool Activity Fee charged — no amount published who pays it: Lunenburg Public Schools what would price it the afterschool activity fee schedule for 2026-27, per child and per session, and whether it is charged per programme or per term | unpriced | not published |
Chromebook Repair Fee charged — no amount published who pays it: Lunenburg Public Schools what would price it the device damage and repair fee schedule, per incident, and whether a deductible or an insurance option exists | unpriced | not published |
Extended Day & ELC charged — no amount published who pays it: Lunenburg Public Schools what would price it the Extended Day and Early Learning Center rate card for 2026-27 — per day, per week or per month, with any sibling rate | unpriced | not published |
Field Trips charged — no amount published who pays it: Lunenburg Public Schools what would price it the field trip charges billed to families by school and grade for 2026-27, and the policy where a family cannot pay | unpriced | not published |
LHS Parking Permit charged — no amount published who pays it: Lunenburg Public Schools what would price it the published high school parking permit rate for 2026-27 and the period it covers — a resident states $50 in public comment and no schedule is published | unpriced | not published |
Primary Preschool Program charged — no amount published who pays it: Lunenburg Public Schools what would price it the preschool tuition rate card for 2026-27, per session and per week, with the sliding scale if there is one | unpriced | not published |
a la carte and second meals charged — no amount published who pays it: School meals what would price it the cafeteria a la carte price list — the items a family pays for even though the standard meal is free | unpriced | not published |
instruments, reeds and supplies charged — no amount published who pays it: Music what would price it whether the district charges any music fee or instrument rental at all, and its rate per student per year if it does | unpriced | not published |
online payment processing fee charged — no amount published who pays it: RevTrak payment portal what would price it the RevTrak processing rate — a percentage, a flat amount per transaction, or both — since it is added to every fee above | unpriced | not published |
What a family is not charged for
a charge a family might expect and does not pay.
School meals free to every student who pays it: every child, every school day Massachusetts funds universal free school meals, and the district takes the programme. This row is $0 because a family is not billed for the standard meal — not because nothing was looked for. | no charge | $0 |
What this establishes
What the table says, in sentences a reader could repeat at a meeting. Every figure is the model’s, looked up rather than typed.
Two children at the high school, one sport each, riding the bus and in a club pay $1,110 for the year.
A second child costs $300 more in athletics and $90 more on the bus.
9 charges a Lunenburg family can meet have no published amount anywhere.
School meals cost a family nothing, and that is a real reduction in the household bill.
The same 3 athletes cost one family $812.50 a year and another $150. Both families are “parents”.
FY2026 high school, 3 children with 1 sport each — the full ladder against the reduced fee a qualifying family pays, $50 a child a season. A family whose fee is waived pays $0. That is a factor of 5.42 between two households in the same school, and the argument this page answers is usually made without either figure in it.
It can only be shown for FY2026. FY2027 publishes no reduced rate, no waived rate and no middle school rate — so for the year now running, the cheaper half of this comparison cannot be computed at all. That is registered below.
What this does not show
Nothing here says any family is over- or under-paying. It states what is published, what is not, and what a scenario comes to under each reading. Whether that is too much or too little is the argument, and this page is the arithmetic under it.
It is also not a measure of what the schools cost. A fee is money in; the budget lines it offsets are already net of it. What a family pays and what the town is spared are different questions and only the first is answered here.
And no growth rate is computed across the caps. $475 and $1,500 are not like for like: one states a period, the other states none, and one is recorded against HS and the other against ANY. Dividing them would produce a rise that is partly a rise and partly a change of unit.
The sibling ladder, and where it stops being published
One sport each, one season, adding a child at a time — against the FY2027 cap. Columns past the third child are hatched because no document publishes a rate for them; the hatched extension is the difference between the two ways of carrying the ladder on, and the conclusion holds on either.
FY2027 high school athletics, one sport each, one season
| Children | This child pays | Running total | If the discount stops | Under the cap? |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $400 | $400 | $400 | yes — $1,100 to spare |
| 2 | $300 | $700 | $700 | yes — $800 to spare |
| 3 | $225 | $925 | $925 | yes — $575 to spare |
| 4 * | $168.75 | $1,093.75 | $1,150 | yes — $350 to spare |
| 5 * | $126.56 | $1,220.31 | $1,375 | yes — $125 to spare |
* not published. the published rates are 400, 400 x 0.75 and 400 x 0.75^2, to the cent — the 25% sibling discount the School Committee voted for FY2026, compounding down the ladder. Two ways of carrying it past the third child are shown: the same 25% keeps compounding past the third child (the running total), and the discount stops descending and every further child pays the third-child rate — the more expensive of the two (the fourth column). Neither is published; the page reports both because the conclusion has to survive the choice between them.
Measured, and then inferred — the line between them
Measured: under a per-season reading the cap does not bind in any scenario on this page at all. Under a per-year reading it binds at 3 children with 3 sports each, and the same family pays $1,275 less.
Inferred, and this is the part nothing tests: a cap no ordinary family can reach is not doing what a cap does, so the arithmetic makes the per-season reading hard to believe. That is an argument, not a finding. No document in this archive states the period, and the one that would is the district’s fee schedule as published to families.
What each cap’s own source says about its period
| Year | Cap | Applies to | Period | How we know | The words |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FY2025 (2024-25) | $475 | HS | per family, per season | stated | Total Cap per season=$475.00 |
| FY2026 (2025-26) | $1,500 | ANY | not established | not established | family cap of $1500 |
| FY2027 (2026-27) | $1,500 | ANY | not established | not established | — source not held — |
The FY2025 cap equals its own ladder exactly: $250 + $140 + $85 = $475, the printed cap. A cap set at the sum of the ladder binds the moment a fourth child appears. The FY2027 cap sits $575 above the same sum, so whatever it is doing, it is not that.
Athletics, in detail — the one fee with a schedule
Athletics is one row of the table above and the only charge here with a published schedule, a recorded vote and a sibling ladder behind it. That is a fact about what the district publishes rather than about what a household pays, and it is why this section is longer than the others — not because it is the largest thing a family is charged. It reprices the household you set above, both ways the family cap can be read.
the cap does not bind — the family pays the full ladder · includes $270 of bus fee · plus 8 named fees with no published amount
the cap does not bind · includes $270 of bus fee · plus 8 named fees with no published amount
The same thing as a table, every family size and every number of sports
FY2027 high school, full fee — athletics only, before the bus
| Children | Sports each | Before any cap | Cap read per season | Cap read per year | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | $400 | $400 | $400 | — |
| 1 | 2 | $800 | $800 | $800 | — |
| 1 | 3 | $1,200 | $1,200 | $1,200 | — |
| 2 | 1 | $700 | $700 | $700 | — |
| 2 | 2 | $1,400 | $1,400 | $1,400 | — |
| 2 | 3 | $2,100 | $2,100 | $1,500 | $600 |
| 3 | 1 | $925 | $925 | $925 | — |
| 3 | 2 | $1,850 | $1,850 | $1,500 | $350 |
| 3 | 3 | $2,775 | $2,775 | $1,500 | $1,275 |
| 4 * | 1 | $1,093.75 | $1,093.75 | $1,093.75 | — |
| 4 * | 2 | $2,187.50 | $2,187.50 | $1,500 | $687.50 |
| 4 * | 3 | $3,281.25 | $3,281.25 | $1,500 | $1,781.25 |
* includes at least one rate not stated in any document. In FY2027 it is produced by the ratio the three published rates happen to follow. Nothing says the ladder continues, so that is an inference and it is marked as one. Rows reading “not published” are the family sizes this archive cannot price at all. The widest difference between the two readings where every rate is published is $1,275.
What this does not show
A season is not a sport, and the town’s own word is “per student”. No document here states these fees as a charge per sport. The LHS Athletics FAQ (rschoolteams.com) heads them “Per Season Breakdown:”, and per sport and per season coincide at the high school only because the same document says “Only one sport per season is allowed.”. It states no such rule for middle school, so a middle school family playing two sports in one season is priced here on an assumption.
Nor does it show what any family actually paid. These are schedules. Nothing published counts how many children play, in which tier, or how many families reached the cap under either reading.
What would make this number complete
The total above is a floor because these charges are real and unpriced. This is the list of things to ask for, in the form the answer has to take — a schedule, a rate, a period. It is not a list of what anybody failed to publish; it is what would turn a floor into a bill, and most of it is one document each.
Afterschool Activity Fee
RevTrak payment portal navigation (lunenburg.revtrak.net) — the portal renders in JavaScript and serves no amounts to a plain fetch
Ask for: the afterschool activity fee schedule for 2026-27, per child and per session, and whether it is charged per programme or per term
Chromebook Repair Fee
RevTrak payment portal navigation (lunenburg.revtrak.net) — the portal renders in JavaScript and serves no amounts to a plain fetch
Ask for: the device damage and repair fee schedule, per incident, and whether a deductible or an insurance option exists
Extended Day & ELC
RevTrak payment portal navigation (lunenburg.revtrak.net) — the portal renders in JavaScript and serves no amounts to a plain fetch
Ask for: the Extended Day and Early Learning Center rate card for 2026-27 — per day, per week or per month, with any sibling rate
Field Trips
RevTrak payment portal navigation (lunenburg.revtrak.net) — the portal renders in JavaScript and serves no amounts to a plain fetch
Ask for: the field trip charges billed to families by school and grade for 2026-27, and the policy where a family cannot pay
LHS Parking Permit
RevTrak payment portal navigation (lunenburg.revtrak.net) — the portal renders in JavaScript and serves no amounts to a plain fetch
Ask for: the published high school parking permit rate for 2026-27 and the period it covers — a resident states $50 in public comment and no schedule is published
Primary Preschool Program
RevTrak payment portal navigation (lunenburg.revtrak.net) — the portal renders in JavaScript and serves no amounts to a plain fetch
Ask for: the preschool tuition rate card for 2026-27, per session and per week, with the sliding scale if there is one
a la carte and second meals
Outside the universal meal programmes. No price list is held here
Ask for: the cafeteria a la carte price list — the items a family pays for even though the standard meal is free
instruments, reeds and supplies
School Committee minutes, 26 February 2025 — public comment. Named as a real cost to families and paid to shops rather than to the district
Ask for: whether the district charges any music fee or instrument rental at all, and its rate per student per year if it does
online payment processing fee
Superintendent's email, 17 August 2026
Ask for: the RevTrak processing rate — a percentage, a flat amount per transaction, or both — since it is added to every fee above
Every rate in the register with no amount attached
The same thing as the register holds it, including the rates that are not a household bill at all — a contract cost-of-living figure and a facilities hire schedule are here because the register is one list.
| Fee | Where it appears | State |
|---|---|---|
| fee increase | School Committee minutes, 26 February 2025 | not_adopted |
| student activity fee | Charged. No 2026-27 rate is restated anywhere in this archive; the last rate set in public is the $70 voted 7 May 2025 | not_published |
| one student, reduced | Not restated in the 17 August 2026 email, which gives three tiers | not_published |
| cost-of-living adjustment | Lunenburg school employee contracts | not_published |
| cost-of-living adjustment | Lunenburg school employee contracts | not_published |
| increase on prior schedule | School Committee minutes, 26 February 2025 | not_published |
| a la carte and second meals | Outside the universal meal programmes. No price list is held here | not_published |
| Afterschool Activity Fee | RevTrak payment portal navigation (lunenburg.revtrak.net) | not_published |
| Chromebook Repair Fee | RevTrak payment portal navigation (lunenburg.revtrak.net) | not_published |
| Extended Day & ELC | RevTrak payment portal navigation (lunenburg.revtrak.net) | not_published |
| Field Trips | RevTrak payment portal navigation (lunenburg.revtrak.net) | not_published |
| LHS Parking Permit | RevTrak payment portal navigation (lunenburg.revtrak.net) | not_published |
| Primary Preschool Program | RevTrak payment portal navigation (lunenburg.revtrak.net) | not_published |
| instruments, reeds and supplies | School Committee minutes, 26 February 2025 | not_published |
| online payment processing fee | Superintendent's email, 17 August 2026 | not_published |
What was said in the room
Found with scripts/search_minutes.py and asserted verbatim against the named file on every build. The coverage beside this is the scope those searches actually ran over — School Committee, 2024 onward — rather than the archive average, because a board-level search is compromised by that board's own scans and not by everybody else's. Nothing here claims that nobody else said anything: a grep that finds nothing prints nothing, and nothing reads as though nobody said it. It means nobody said it in the documents that can be read.
Searched: 193 of the 193 School Committee documents published since 2024-01-01 (100%). None is a scan we cannot read, and none the town lists is missing.
“A slideshow presentation of athletic user fees is presented to increase fee for high school up to $325 and $275 for Middle School. A 25% discount for siblings. Reduced fee for high school to $50 and $40 for middle school with a family cap of $1500.”
School Committee, moved and approved by roll call · School Committee, 2025-02-26 · the text we hold · the town’s copy
The whole of what any document in this archive says about the family cap. It is one sentence, it names an amount, and it names no period. Everything on this page about the cap runs off this sentence and the one it replaced.
“As far as the student activities is concerned, when I looked at the list, I personally participate in 6 of them. That would cost $450 which is more than any of the athletic fees were raised.”
Kara Harunkiewicz, in public comment at the same meeting · School Committee, 2025-02-26 · the text we hold · the town’s copy
Said in the room where the athletic fees were voted, and it is the point this page is built to test: athletics is the fee everybody argues about and it is not the only one a family pays. IMPORTANT, AND THIS CORRECTS AN EARLIER VERSION OF THIS PAGE: the $450 is this resident’s arithmetic on the fee structure PROPOSED that night — a base fee with a further fee per activity — and that structure is not what the committee adopted. On 7 May 2025 it took a single universal rate instead, quoted below. Under what was actually voted, joining six activities costs what joining one costs. The earlier version of this page recorded the activity fee as discussed and never voted, which was wrong: it was voted, the minute is in this archive, and the fee has been charged since.
“The fee for 1 child is $180 and the family cap is $270 for the year.”
the Finance Committee, on the bus fee set eight days earlier · Finance Committee, 2025-03-20 · the text we hold · the town’s copy
The same district, the same budget cycle, a family cap — and the period stated in so many words. Four weeks before this, the athletic cap was voted with no period at all. That does not establish what the athletic cap means. It does establish that stating the period is something the town does when it has one in mind, so the omission is not a convention of minute-taking.
“Dr. Gilson discusses some options for an increase and the committee ultimately decides for a universal increase from $55 to $70 Mr. Sculimbrene makes a motion to approve the increase to $70, Mr. Beardmore seconds the motion, all approve”
the School Committee, adopting the student activity fee · School Committee, 2025-05-07 · the text we hold · the town’s copy
This is the fee being ADOPTED, and it is the sentence that settles a question this page used to get wrong. In February the committee had been shown a base fee plus per-activity fees; what it took in May was a single universal rate instead. Quoting the February proposal as the charged rate would be a proposal restated as an outcome. Note also what the motion does NOT say: it names an amount and no period, so whether $70 is a year, a term or an activity is not established here.
“Our students would not see any difference”
the School Committee, choosing between the two free-meal programmes · School Committee, 2024-06-26 · the text we hold · the town’s copy
Said while the committee picked the Community Eligibility Provision for Turkey Hill over the Universal Meals Program. The choice is about which scheme reimburses the district more; the point for a household is the half the sentence takes for granted — that the student is not billed either way. A charge families used to meet, and no longer do.
“Athletic fees would need to be raised by $75 per student. This would generate $120,000.”
the Finance Committee, on the FY2027 budget · Finance Committee, 2026-03-26 · the text we hold · the town’s copy
A year later, the same fee is being modelled as a way to close a budget gap — so what a family pays is not a settled schedule but a live variable. Note the unit the town itself uses when it talks about the fee: PER STUDENT. Not per sport, not per season.
Every rate, with its source and what its period rests on
| Year | Level | Fee | Amount | Period | How we know | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-24 | ANY | unified track | $100 | not established | not established | quoted in source |
| 2023-24 | HS | family cap | $475 | per family, per season | stated | quoted in source |
| 2023-24 | HS | full pay | $250 | per student, per season | structural | Spring!E3 |
| 2023-24 | HS | reduced fee | $32.50 | per student, per season | structural | Spring!Q3 |
| 2023-24 | HS | second child | $140 | per student, per season | structural | Spring!H3 |
| 2023-24 | HS | third child | $85 | per student, per season | structural | Spring!K3 |
| 2023-24 | MS | full pay | $200 | per student, per season | stated | quoted in source |
| 2023-24 | MS | reduced fee | $26 | per student, per season | structural | Spring!T3 |
| 2023-24 | MS | second child | $150 | per student, per season | stated | quoted in source |
| 2024-25 | ANY | unified track | $100 | not established | not established | quoted in source |
| 2024-25 | HS | family cap | $475 | per family, per season | stated | quoted in source |
| 2024-25 | HS | full pay | $250 | per student, per season | structural | Spring!F3 |
| 2024-25 | HS | reduced fee | $32.50 | per student, per season | structural | Spring!R3 |
| 2024-25 | HS | second child | $140 | per student, per season | structural | Spring!I3 |
| 2024-25 | HS | third child | $85 | per student, per season | structural | Spring!L3 |
| 2024-25 | MS | full pay | $200 | per student, per season | stated | quoted in source |
| 2024-25 | MS | reduced fee | $26 | per student, per season | structural | Spring!U3 |
| 2024-25 | MS | second child | $150 | per student, per season | stated | quoted in source |
| 2025-26 | ANY | family cap | $1,500 | not established | not established | quoted in source |
| 2025-26 | HS | full pay | $325 | per student, per season | structural | quoted in source |
| 2025-26 | HS | full pay confirm | $325 | per student, per season | structural | Spring!G3 |
| 2025-26 | HS | reduced fee | $50 | per student, per season | structural | quoted in source |
| 2025-26 | HS | reduced fee confirm | $50 | per student, per season | structural | Spring!S3 |
| 2025-26 | HS | sibling discount pct | $25 | percent of the fee, for an additional child | stated | quoted in source |
| 2025-26 | MS | full pay | $275 | not established | not established | quoted in source |
| 2025-26 | MS | reduced fee | $40 | per student, per season | structural | quoted in source |
| 2025-26 | MS | reduced fee confirm | $40 | per student, per season | structural | Spring!V3 |
| 2026-27 | ANY | family cap | $1,500 | not established | not established | source not held |
| 2026-27 | HS | full pay | $400 | not established | not established | source not held |
| 2026-27 | HS | second child | $300 | not established | not established | source not held |
| 2026-27 | HS | third child | $225 | not established | not established | source not held |
The period column used to be one constant string on every row — including the family cap, where “per student per sport” means nothing. It is now read off each source: stated where the document names the period, structural where the document’s own construction fixes it, and not established where nothing does. the schedule as a CSV.
The bus, FY2027
| Tier | Amount | State | The words |
|---|---|---|---|
| one student | $180 | verified | One child: $180.00 |
| one student, reduced | not published | not_published | |
| qualifying families | $0 | verified | Free-Families that have qualified |
| two or more students | $270 | verified | Family rate (2+ children): $270.00 |
| two or more, reduced | $75 | verified | $75 Families w/2+ children that qualify for a reduced fee |
Per family for the year, not per child.
What this page could not answer
Each one is a row in the gap register, so it appears on what we cannot answer and in the API as well as here. Every one closes on a document somebody could send.
What period the school athletic family cap covers
money_inThe $1,500 family cap was set by the School Committee on 26 February 2025 and the minutes state the amount and no period: "with a family cap of $1500". The cap it replaced did state one — the LHS Athletics FAQ prints "Total Cap per season=$475.00" — so the schedule has moved from a stated period to none. The district workbook obtained by records request carries the per-student rates on three worksheets named for the three seasons and carries no family cap in any cell, so the corroboration that dates the other rates does not reach this one. Read per season and read per year, $1,500 is a different bill for the same family. The arithmetic argues for the annual reading — with the published FY2027 ladder a family of five children playing one sport each in one season reaches $1,375, still under the cap — but that is an inference from the cap being unreachable, not a statement in any document.
Closes with: the district’s athletic fee schedule as published to families for 2026-27, which is the document the Superintendent’s August 2026 email to families attached or described.
What the six fees the district’s payment portal sells actually cost
money_inThe district’s RevTrak portal offers an Afterschool Activity Fee, a Chromebook Repair Fee, Extended Day & ELC, Field Trips, an LHS Parking Permit and a Primary Preschool Program. The portal renders in JavaScript and serves no amounts to a plain fetch, and no fee schedule for any of them appears in a budget book, a warrant or a set of minutes in this archive. So the existence of each fee is established and the amount of every one of them is not, and any total of what a Lunenburg family pays the schools in a year is a floor with six named items sitting above it.
Closes with: the district’s published schedule of student fees for the current year, listing every fee the portal charges with its amount.
What a fourth child in one family pays for high school athletics
money_inThe FY2027 schedule names a first, second and third child — $400, $300 and $225 — and stops. The FY2024 and FY2025 schedules did the same, and there the cap resolved it: the three published rates sum to exactly the $475 the FAQ prints as the cap, so a fourth child added nothing. That identity does not hold in FY2027, where the three rates sum to $925 against a $1,500 cap, so the fourth child is neither priced nor obviously free. A family of four children — the case residents ask about most often — therefore cannot be costed from anything published.
Closes with: the district’s athletic fee schedule as published to families for 2026-27, stating the rate for each additional child or the point at which the ladder stops.
How the $1,500 athletic family cap was arrived at, and over what period
money_inThe School Committee minutes of 26 February 2025 record the decision and not the derivation: "A slideshow presentation of athletic user fees is presented ... with a family cap of $1500. ... all approve via roll call vote". A slideshow WAS presented, so the arithmetic exists somewhere; this archive does not hold it, and the only athletics presentation material here is two Athletic Advisory Council agendas from the preceding weeks. Minutes summarise, so the absence of arithmetic in them is not evidence that there was none — what is established is that no document we hold derives the figure or states the period it covers. The figure itself is unreachable per season by family size alone: five children at one sport each come to between $1,220 and $1,375 depending on how the sibling discount is carried past the third child, both under $1,500.
Closes with: the athletic user fee presentation given to the School Committee on 26 February 2025, which is the slideshow the minutes name.
What FY2027 athletic fees are for anyone other than a full-paying high school family
money_inThe only account this archive has of the 2026-27 athletic fees is a Superintendent’s email to families in August 2026 that we do not hold, reported as four figures: a first, second and third child and a family cap. FY2026 published more than that — a middle school rate, a reduced rate for high school and for middle school, and a sibling discount — and none of those has an FY2027 successor in any document here. So a middle school family, a family paying the reduced fee and a family whose fee is waived cannot be priced for the year now running.
Closes with: the district’s athletic fee schedule as published to families for 2026-27, in full, including the reduced and waived rates and the middle school schedule.
How many children play sports
peopleTwo town documents give 593 and 649 for the same year and count different things: one counts fee categories, the other counts participations by sport, and a participation is not a child — one student playing three seasons is three of them. Some workbook rows are negative, subtracting out-of-district athletes back out, so a season total is a net figure rather than a headcount of bodies. Nothing published is an unduplicated count.
Closes with: an unduplicated athlete roster, or a participation report that states whether it counts students or participations.
Bus fees
money_incharged by published policy · no destination found in any ledger
What the student activity fee is for 2026-27, and what period the $70 covers
money_inThe School Committee voted a universal student activity fee of $70, up from $55, on 7 May 2025 — the motion carried and the minute records the amount and no period. So whether a family pays $70 a child once a year, once a term, or once for each activity joined is not established, and those are a threefold difference on the same household. Nothing in this archive restates the fee for 2026-27 at all, and it is charged.
Closes with: the adopted student activity fee schedule for the 2026-27 school year, stating whether the fee is per student per year, per activity, or a base fee with activity fees on top, and any family cap or free/reduced provision.
Whether the district charges anything for music, and what an instrument costs a family
money_inA resident told the School Committee on 26 February 2025 that "Instruments cost a lot, you need reeds and that can cost $50 a semester", and that band families "just aren’t paying anything directly to the school". That establishes music as a real household cost and establishes nothing about a district charge: no music fee, instrument rental rate or materials fee appears anywhere in this archive. A cost paid to a shop and a fee paid to the district are different things and neither is currently priced.
Closes with: the district’s music program fee schedule for 2026-27, or a statement that it charges no music fee and rents no instruments.
What the processing fee is on every school payment made online
money_inThe Superintendent’s email of 17 August 2026 tells families paying online that "RevTrak charges a small processing fee" and does not say what it is. It is added to every other fee a family pays through the portal, so it scales with the rest of the bill rather than sitting beside it, and a household paying athletics, bus and activity fees online pays it three times. "Small" is not a rate.
Closes with: the RevTrak merchant agreement or the portal’s own fee disclosure, stating whether the charge is a percentage, a flat amount per transaction, or both.
What a family spends in the cafeteria when the standard meal is free
money_inMassachusetts funds universal free school meals and the district takes the programme, so the standard reimbursable meal is not billed to a household — that much is established and it is a real reduction in what families pay. What is outside the programme is not: a la carte items, snacks and second meals are charged, and no price list for them is held here. The School Lunch fund’s own revenue cannot separate the two.
Closes with: the district’s cafeteria a la carte price list for 2026-27.
What a single-child family pays for the bus at the reduced rate in 2026-27
money_inThe Superintendent’s May 2025 email states five bus tiers for FY2026 including $50 for a single-child family qualifying for a reduced fee. The August 2026 email for FY2027 states three tiers and does not restate that one. Whether the tier was dropped or simply omitted from the email is not established, and the difference decides whether a qualifying single-child household pays $50, $180, or nothing.
Closes with: the adopted transportation fee schedule for 2026-27, with every tier and the free/reduced provision, as approved by the School Committee.
Read next
Town budget and fee fund
Both sides of the athletics money — what the fees bring in against what the town appropriates, and why an appropriation is not a cost
Fee fund ledger
The revolving fund the athletic fees are paid into, at transaction level
Connecting the school budget to the Town's books
Why a fee paid cannot be followed to anything it bought
Generated by scripts/build_what_families_pay.py from sources/data/lunenburg.db — athletic_fee_schedule, rate_register, money_gaps; sources/district-budget/text/lhs-athletics-faq.txt; sources/meetings/text/. Published as /data/what-families-pay.json.