Town Edition
Berkshire County
Clarksburg, Massachusetts
Photo: John Phelan, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
In September 2017, 453 Clarksburg voters crowded into their own elementary school to decide a $19 million plan to rebuild it, and the plan lost by a single vote: 287 yes to 144 no, one short of the two thirds the law demands. Eight years later the same town came back, put $613,000 toward a new roof, and then walked to the ballot box and approved the tax increase to pay for it, 200 to 50, which is what self government looks like in a town of 1,657 people. This guide shows you where that room is, who is in it, and how you get a seat.
Clarksburg at a Glance
Sources: Massachusetts DESE, district profile · US Census Bureau (data.census.gov).
- County: Berkshire. Clarksburg is the northwest corner of Massachusetts, 12.7 square miles running up from North Adams to the Vermont line, with Clarksburg State Forest, Mauserts Pond and the ridge called The Dome at the top of it.
- Government: open Town Meeting, with an elected three-member Selectboard and an appointed Town Administrator, Ron Boucher.
- Schools: the Clarksburg School District, one building and about 211 students, led by Superintendent John Franzoni of the North Berkshire School Union.
How Clarksburg’s Government Works
Clarksburg runs on an open Town Meeting, which means there are no elected Town Meeting members at all: every registered voter in Clarksburg is a member, and any of them can walk in, speak, and vote on the budget. Voters also elect a 3 member Selectboard to set policy between meetings and the School Committee that oversees the schools. The Selectboard 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 Selectboard, 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 Clarksburg is a member. Town Meeting adopts the annual budget, passes town bylaws, and approves major spending. This is direct democracy in its literal sense.
Selectboard
3 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 Selectboard. Hired under contract, not elected.
School Committee
3 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 3 members of the Selectboard and the School Committee.
- The Selectboard 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: register at 16, vote at 18, and once you are registered you are already a member of Town Meeting.
Civic Calendar
- Selectboard: typically the first and third Mondays at 5:00 pm at Clarksburg Town Hall, 111 River Road. Start times move, and recent sessions have opened at 4:30 pm, so check the calendar on the town website before you go.
- Town Meeting: the Annual Town Meeting is held in the spring, and the town can call a Special Town Meeting when business cannot wait. The 2026 Annual Town Meeting was held on May 27, 2026.
- Town elections: Clarksburg votes in May. The 2026 Annual Town Election was held on May 12, 2026, and it filled the Selectboard, School Committee, Planning Board, Library Trustee and War Memorial Trustee seats on the ballot. The town posts the certified result at clarksburgma.gov/2026-town-election-results.
- Ballot questions: a town election can carry more than names. At the Annual Town Meeting in May 2025 the town voted to put a new roof on the elementary school, borrowing $500,000 under one article and drawing $113,371 from the school roof stabilization fund under the next, and then sent the borrowing to a special election on June 25, 2025 to exclude it from Proposition 2 1/2. It passed.
- State and federal elections: even-numbered years. The 2026 state primary and general are this fall, and the Town Clerk runs them out of Town Hall.
Explore the Clarksburg Edition
- Town Administrator’s OfficeThe town’s chief administrator
- SelectboardYour three board members
- School CommitteeSuperintendent & committee
- Town DepartmentsWho does what at Town Hall
- Boards & CommissionsWhere residents serve
- LegislatorsYour voice in Boston & D.C.
- Clarksburg HistorySeth Hudson, the Clarks, and 1798
- DemographicsWho lives in Clarksburg
- Non-ProfitsCommunity organizations
- Student DataClarksburg 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 Berkshire County, and that includes Clarksburg. 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 Clarksburg
You do not have to wait until you can vote to be heard in a town this size. Sixty residents cast ballots in the May 12, 2026 annual town election, and those sixty filled five town offices for everyone, which tells you exactly what one more person in the room is worth here. 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 Selectboard. Schools go to the School Committee. The budget and the bylaws are voted by Town Meeting.
- Find the meeting. The Selectboard usually meets the first and third Mondays at Town Hall, 111 River Road, and the agenda is posted in advance on the town website and on the public posting board at Town Hall.
- Know your members. All three Selectboard 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 washed out shoulder, or a water or sewer problem to the Department of Public Works, which is the department that owns the repair.
- Town Hall: 111 River Road, Clarksburg, MA 01247. Main line (413) 663-7940, open Monday to Thursday, 8:30 am to 4:30 pm.
- Town Clerk & agendas: Amber J. Holland, (413) 663-8255, with meeting agendas and minutes posted at clarksburgma.gov.
- Public schools: Clarksburg Elementary, 777 West Cross Road, (413) 663-8735, with the Superintendent’s office at the North Berkshire School Union in North Adams, (413) 664-9292.
Local government works best when residents show up. Find your Selectboard, speak at a meeting on the town’s published calendar, or simply register to vote and take your seat at Town Meeting.