Town Edition
Middlesex County
Ashland, Massachusetts
Photo: John Phelan, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
In May 2026 Ashland’s budget needed two rooms to say yes. On Wednesday the 6th the Annual Town Meeting took up a budget that depended on a $2.75 million operating override for the schools, and then it did something you rarely see a legislature do: instead of finishing, it adjourned itself to June 3, holding the meeting open so it could reconsider the budget if the voters turned the override down at the ballot box two weeks later. On Tuesday the 19th, 2,914 of Ashland’s 13,163 registered voters walked into Ashland High School and approved it, 1,778 to 1,128. The June 3 session opened for one purpose, to dissolve. That is the shape of power here: an override has to win in a hall where every registered voter can stand up and speak, and then again on a ballot every registered voter can mark. A little more than one registered voter in five settled a whole town’s budget year, which tells you what a single ballot is worth in Ashland. This guide shows you where those rooms are and how to get into them.
Ashland at a Glance
Sources: Massachusetts DESE, district profile · US Census Bureau (data.census.gov).
- County: Middlesex. Ashland packs 18,832 residents onto 12.3 square miles of MetroWest, which is about 1,526 people per square mile.
- Government: open Town Meeting, with an elected five-member Select Board and an appointed Town Manager, Michael D. Herbert
- Schools: Ashland Public Schools, about 2,910 students across five schools, led by Superintendent James E. Adams.
How Ashland’s Government Works
Ashland runs on an open Town Meeting, which means there are no elected Town Meeting members at all: every registered voter in Ashland 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 Ashland 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
5 members, elected by the voters of the district the schools serve. 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: register at 16, vote at 18, and once you are registered you are already a member of Town Meeting.
Civic Calendar
- Select Board: meets on the first and third Wednesday of the month, usually at 7pm, at Ashland Town Hall, 101 Main Street. Meetings are hybrid, and each agenda is posted in advance on the town’s Agenda Center, so check it before you go.
- School Committee: meets on the second and fourth Wednesday of the month through the school year, with agendas posted by the district.
- Town Meeting: the town bylaw sets the Annual Town Meeting on the first Wednesday in May at Ashland High School, continuing the following Monday evening and after that until the warrant is dissolved, unless the meeting votes otherwise. The town can also call a Special Town Meeting when business cannot wait, and it did on November 19, 2025. The Moderator, Adam B. Shuster, presides.
- Town elections: the bylaw sets the Annual Town Election on the third Tuesday in May. Polls run 7am to 8pm across six precincts. The 2026 election was Tuesday May 19; the next is in May 2027.
- State and federal elections: even-numbered years, in September and November.
Explore the Ashland 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.
- Ashland History1846, the mills, and the marathon
- DemographicsWho lives in Ashland
- Non-ProfitsCommunity organizations
- Student DataAshland schools by the numbers
Your County Officials
Two of the people with the most direct power over your life are elected countywide. The district attorney decides who gets charged with a crime, and what they get charged with. The sheriff runs the county jail. Both of them answer to the voters of Middlesex County, and that includes Ashland. They appear on your ballot. Now you know what to look for.
Every county in Massachusetts elects its own, and 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 Ashland
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 on a published calendar at Ashland Town Hall, 101 Main Street, and the agenda is posted in advance on the town’s Agenda Center.
- Know your members. Five 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 pothole, a broken light, or a missed pickup to the Department of Public Works, which is the department that owns the repair.
- Town Hall: 101 Main Street, Ashland, MA 01721. Main line 508-881-0100, Select Board and Town Manager’s office 508-881-0100 ext. 2021.
- Town Clerk & agendas: 508-881-0100 ext. 7127, with meeting agendas and minutes posted at ashlandmass.com.
- Public schools: Ashland Public Schools, 87 West Union Street, ashland.k12.ma.us.
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.