Town Edition
Dukes County
Aquinnah, Massachusetts
Photo: John Phelan, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
In May 1997, at Town Meeting, Aquinnah’s voters decided by three votes, 79 to 76, to retire the name Gay Head and take back the town’s Wampanoag name, which means land under the hill. Eighteen years later those same voters owned a lighthouse and moved it: the Gay Head Light, standing since 1844 on a cliff the ocean kept eating away, was hauled 129 feet inland in 2015 with roughly 3.5 million dollars the town and the island raised themselves. Both of those decisions were made the same way, in a room any registered voter of Aquinnah can walk into. This guide shows you how to get in.
Aquinnah at a Glance
Sources: Massachusetts DESE, school and district profiles · US Census Bureau (data.census.gov) · Town of Aquinnah.
- County: Dukes. Aquinnah is the westernmost town on Martha’s Vineyard, home of the Gay Head Cliffs and of the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), a federally recognized tribe. It was incorporated as Gay Head in 1870 and took the name Aquinnah in 1997.
- Government: open Town Meeting, with an elected three-member Select Board and an appointed Town Administrator, Jeffrey Madison.
- Schools: the Up-Island Regional School District, about 408 students, led by Superintendent Jaime L. Curley, Ed.D.
How Aquinnah’s Government Works
Aquinnah runs on an open Town Meeting, which means there are no elected Town Meeting members at all: every registered voter in Aquinnah is a member, and any of them can walk in, speak, and vote on the budget. Voters also elect a three-member Select Board to set policy between meetings, and they share the regional School Committee that oversees the up-island schools with Chilmark and West Tisbury. None of its five seats is voted on Aquinnah’s own May ballot: the committee’s own minutes put the whole committee before the voters in November. The Select Board hires a professional Town Administrator 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 Administrator.
Town Meeting
The legislative body, and it is not a committee. Every registered voter in Aquinnah 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
Three 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 Administrator.
Town Administrator
The appointed chief administrator. Runs the departments, builds the budget, and answers to the Select Board.
School Committee
Five seats on the Up-Island Regional district that Aquinnah shares with Chilmark and West Tisbury. No town election fills them: the committee’s own minutes put the whole committee before the voters in November 2026. It sets school policy, approves the school budget, and hires the Superintendent.
- Residents elect the three members of the Select Board and, with Chilmark and West Tisbury, the regional School Committee.
- The Select Board hires the Town Administrator 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 Aquinnah, 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 the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of each month at 5:00 pm at the Aquinnah Town Office Building, 955 State Road. The agenda is posted in advance, so check the town calendar before you go.
- Town Meeting: the Annual Town Meeting is held each spring, and the town can call a Special Town Meeting when business cannot wait. Any registered voter may attend, speak on the warrant articles, and vote.
- Town elections: Aquinnah holds its annual town election each May. At the election on May 14, 2026, 129 ballots were cast, a school-funding question passed 96 to 23, and a town parking-lot question passed 104 to 13.
- State and federal elections: even-numbered years. The 2026 primary and general are this fall.
Explore the Aquinnah Edition
- Town Administrator’s OfficeThe town’s chief administrator
- Select BoardYour three board members
- School CommitteeSuperintendent & committee
- Town DepartmentsWho does what at Town Hall
- Boards & CommissionsWhere residents serve
- LegislatorsYour voice in Boston & D.C.
- Aquinnah HistoryWampanoag land and the Gay Head Light
- DemographicsWho lives in Aquinnah
- Non-ProfitsCommunity organizations
- Student DataUp-Island Regional 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 Dukes 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 Aquinnah. Now you know what to look for.
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 Aquinnah
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 the 1st and 3rd Tuesday of each month at 5:00 pm at the Town Office Building, 955 State Road, and the agenda is posted in advance.
- Know your members. Three Select Board members are elected town-wide, so every one of them answers to you.
- Speak. Meetings are open to the public and residents may address the board. Check the agenda for how to sign up.
- Or skip the trip. Report a washed-out shoulder, a downed sign, or a problem at the town dump to the department that owns the repair.
- Town Office Building: 955 State Road, Aquinnah, MA 02535. Select Board office 508-955-9181, main town line 508-645-2300.
- Town Clerk & agendas: 508-645-2304, with meeting agendas and minutes posted at aquinnah-ma.gov.
- Public schools: the Up-Island Regional School District, mvyps.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
- Town records: Town of Aquinnah, Annual Report of the Town of Aquinnah, year ending June 30, 2025, as of June 30, 2025.
- School district records: Up-Island Regional School District, UIRSC minutes, March 16, 2026, as of March 16, 2026.