Town Edition
Middlesex County
Acton, Massachusetts
Photo: John Phelan, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
On a June night in 2013 a few hundred Acton residents walked into a room, argued, and voted 349 to 194 to dissolve their own school district and rebuild it, Pre-K through grade 12, as one system shared with Boxborough. Boxborough voters said yes too, and on July 1, 2014 the schools you know today came into being. If you go to an Acton-Boxborough school, it exists because your neighbors raised their hands. That is not an unusual amount of power for a room in this town to hold: Acton runs on open Town Meeting, so the legislature is not a body you elect, it is the registered voters who show up. On April 28, 2026, 1,995 of them filled the Select Board seats, the School Committee seats, the Moderator’s chair, the Housing Authority and the Library Trustees for a town of 24,021, which tells you exactly what one ballot is worth here. This guide shows you where the rooms are and how to get into them.
Acton at a Glance
Sources: Massachusetts DESE, school and district profiles · US Census Bureau (data.census.gov) · Town of Acton.
- County: Middlesex. Acton covers about 19.9 square miles between Concord and the Assabet River, and residents still name its parts: South Acton, West Acton, East Acton, North Acton and the Centre.
- Government: open Town Meeting, with an elected five-member Select Board and an appointed Town Manager, John S. Mangiaratti.
- Schools: the Acton-Boxborough Regional School District, about 5,005 students across nine schools shared with Boxborough, led by Superintendent Peter Light.
How Acton’s Government Works
Acton runs on an open Town Meeting, which means there are no elected Town Meeting members at all: every registered voter in Acton is a member, and any of them can walk in, speak, and vote on the budget. Voters also elect a 5 member Select Board to set policy between meetings and the School Committee that oversees the schools. The Select Board hires a professional Town Manager to run the town day to day. So the money is voted by whoever shows up, the direction is set by the Select Board, and the daily work is carried out by the Town Manager.
Town Meeting
The legislative body, and it is not a committee. Every registered voter in Acton is a member. Town Meeting adopts the annual budget, passes town bylaws, and approves major spending. This is direct democracy in its literal sense.
Select Board
5 members elected town-wide. They set policy, sign the warrants that decide what reaches Town Meeting, appoint residents to many town boards, and hire and supervise the Town Manager.
Town Manager
The appointed chief administrator. Runs the departments, builds the budget, and answers to the Select Board. Hired under contract, not elected.
School Committee
11 members, elected town by town rather than district wide: Acton voters fill seven of the seats at Acton’s annual town election and Boxborough voters fill four at Boxborough’s. It sets school policy, approves the school budget, and hires the Superintendent.
- Residents elect the 5 members of the Select Board and the School Committee.
- The Select Board hires the Town Manager and decides what goes on the Town Meeting warrant.
- Town Meeting votes the budget and the bylaws, and every registered voter present can vote.
- You take part: pre-register at 16. A pre-registrant is on the list but is not allowed to vote yet. Once you turn 18 that designation comes off on its own and you are a registered voter in Acton, which makes you a member of Town Meeting with a vote on the floor. If you never pre-registered, register with the Town Clerk, and do it well ahead: the rolls close at 5 p.m. on the tenth day before any election or Town Meeting.
Civic Calendar
- Select Board: meets every other Monday at 6:00 PM in Room 204 at Acton Town Hall, 472 Main Street, and monthly through the summer. Each agenda is posted in advance on the town’s Agenda Center, so check it before you go.
- Town Meeting: the Annual Town Meeting opens on the first Monday in May at Acton-Boxborough Regional High School, 36 Charter Road, and runs on consecutive nights until the warrant is finished. The Moderator, Jo-Ann M. Berry, presides. Two hundred registered voters can petition to call a Special Town Meeting of their own.
- Town elections: the Annual Town Election falls on the Tuesday immediately before the first Monday in May, across eight precincts. In 2026 it was held on April 28. The next is in spring 2027.
- State and federal elections: even-numbered years. The 2026 primary and general are this fall.
Explore the Acton Edition
- Town Manager’s OfficeThe town’s chief administrator
- Select BoardYour five board members
- School CommitteeSuperintendent & committee
- Town DepartmentsWho does what at Town Hall
- Boards & CommissionsWhere residents serve
- LegislatorsYour voice in Boston & D.C.
- Acton History1735, the mills, and the villages
- DemographicsWho lives in Acton
- Non-ProfitsCommunity organizations
- Student DataActon schools by the numbers
Your County Officials
Two of the people with the most direct power over your life are elected, and neither one sits on Beacon Hill. The district attorney decides who gets charged with a crime, and what they get charged with. The sheriff runs the county jail. The sheriff is elected by the voters of Middlesex County. The district attorney is elected by the voters of a prosecution district, and Massachusetts draws eleven of those across its fourteen counties, so a district attorney’s territory does not always follow a county line. Both appear on your ballot in Acton. Now you know what to look for.
District Attorney, Northern District (Middlesex County)Marian T. Ryan
Official site
Massachusetts elects fourteen sheriffs, one for each county, and eleven district attorneys, one for each prosecution district. The job is the same everywhere: the charging decisions, the jail. Look up any town in the state and see who holds these two offices there.
Your First Civic Action in Acton
You do not have to wait until you can vote to be heard in your own town. Here is how to take a real concern to the people who decide.
- Pick the right body. Town policy, roads, and police or fire go to the Select Board. Schools go to the School Committee. The budget and bylaws are voted by Town Meeting.
- Find the meeting. The Select Board meets every other Monday at 6:00 PM in Room 204 at Acton Town Hall, 472 Main Street, and the agenda is posted in advance on the town’s Agenda Center.
- Know your members. All five Select Board members are elected town-wide, so every one of them answers to you.
- Speak. You will not have to wait for an invitation. Every Select Board meeting opens by inviting residents to raise any concern that is not already on the printed agenda.
- Or skip the trip. Report a pothole, a broken light, or a missed pickup to the Department of Public Works, which is the department that owns the repair.
- Town Hall: 472 Main Street, Acton, MA 01720. Main line 978-929-6600, Select Board and Town Manager’s office 978-929-6611.
- Town Clerk & agendas: 978-929-6620, with meeting agendas and minutes posted at actonma.gov.
- Public schools: the Acton-Boxborough Regional School District, 978-264-4700, abschools.org.
Local government works best when residents show up. Find your Select Board, speak at a meeting on the town’s published calendar, or simply register to vote and take your seat at Town Meeting.
MassCivics last checked this page on September 13, 2026.
Sources
- Charter and bylaws: Town of Acton, The Charter of the Town of Acton, March 2021, as of March 2021.