Town Edition
Essex County
Danvers, Massachusetts
The Salem witch trials did not start in Salem. They started here, in the part of town that was then called Salem Village, in the parsonage of the Reverend Samuel Parris, in 1692. Danvers has been living with that history ever since, and it wears an even stranger badge on its seal: the words “The King Unwilling,” put there by Town Meeting in 1893 to recall that King George II disallowed the 1757 act making Danvers a town. Danvers went on governing itself anyway. That stubborn, run-it-ourselves streak still shapes how the place is governed. A Representative Town Meeting votes the budget, an elected five-member Select Board sets policy, and an appointed Town Manager runs the town day-to-day. This guide shows you how all of it works, and where an ordinary resident can push on it.
The Danvers Civics Handbook
A plain-language guide to how your town works: who represents you, how decisions get made, and how to make your voice heard. Read it online.
Danvers at a Glance
Sources: Massachusetts DESE, district profile · US Census Bureau (data.census.gov) · Town of Danvers.
- County: Essex. Danvers sits on the North Shore, a few miles inland from Salem and Beverly, close enough to Boston to commute and old enough to have named a witch-trial site or two.
- Government: representative Town Meeting with an elected five-member Select Board and an appointed Town Manager, Jill Cahill.
- Schools: Danvers Public Schools, about 3,123 students across eight schools, led by Superintendent Dan Bauer.
How Danvers’s Government Works
Danvers runs on a representative Town Meeting, an old New England form scaled up for a busy town. Voters in each of the town’s eight precincts elect eighteen Town Meeting members each, and with the five Select Board members they make 149 in all; those neighbors hold the final vote on the budget and the bylaws. Voters also elect a five-member Select Board to set policy and a School Committee to oversee the schools. The Select Board hires a professional Town Manager to run the town day-to-day. So the levers are split on purpose: residents elect the people, Town Meeting votes the money, the Select Board sets direction, and the Town Manager carries it out.
Town Meeting
The legislative body. Its 149 members, eighteen elected from each of the town’s eight precincts plus the five Select Board members, adopt the annual budget, pass town bylaws, and approve major spending. It meets each year on the third Monday in May, and Special Town Meetings can be called at other times.
Select Board
Five members elected at-large to three-year terms. They set policy, grant licenses, appoint many 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. Appointed by the Select Board and serves at its pleasure, not elected.
School Committee
Five members elected at-large. It sets school policy, approves the school budget, and hires the Superintendent.
- Residents elect Town Meeting members, the five Select Board members, and the School Committee.
- The Select Board hires the Town Manager and sets town policy.
- Town Meeting votes the budget and the bylaws up or down.
- You take part: run for Town Meeting at 18, speak at a Select Board meeting, or testify at Town Meeting.
Explore the Danvers 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.
- Danvers HistoryFrom Salem Village to a town of its own
- DemographicsWho lives in Danvers
- Non-ProfitsCommunity organizations
- Student DataDanvers Public Schools by the numbers
Civic Calendar
- Select Board: meets the first and third Tuesday of each month at 6:30 p.m. in the Toomey Room at Danvers Town Hall, 1 Sylvan Street, and the meetings are open to the public.
- Town Meeting: the representative Town Meeting meets each year on the third Monday in May to vote the budget and the bylaws, and Special Town Meetings can be called at other times.
- Town elections: Danvers holds its annual town election in the spring, in early May.
- State and federal elections: even-numbered years. The 2026 state election is on Tuesday, November 3.
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 Essex 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 Danvers. 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 Danvers
You do not have to wait until you can vote to be heard in Danvers. Here is how to take a question from your kitchen table into the room where it gets decided.
- Pick the right body. A pothole, a park, or a license is the Select Board and the Town Manager. A class size or a school program is the School Committee. A town budget or a bylaw is Town Meeting.
- Find the meeting. The Select Board meets the first and third Tuesday of each month at 6:30 p.m. in the Toomey Room at Town Hall. Agendas are posted in advance at danversma.gov.
- Know your members. Read who sits on the board before you go, so you can speak to the people who will actually vote.
- Speak. Most meetings set aside time for public comment. Say your name, say where you live, and make one clear ask.
- Follow up. Ask when the vote happens, then come back for it. Officials remember the residents who return.
- Town Hall: 1 Sylvan Street, Danvers, MA. Main line 978-777-0001.
- Clerk & agendas: Town Clerk 978-777-0001 ext. 3046, agendas and records at danversma.gov.
- Public schools: Danvers Public Schools, danverspublicschools.org.
Local government works best when residents show up. Find your Select Board, speak at a Tuesday meeting, or run for Town Meeting in your precinct.
MassCivics last checked this page on October 15, 2026.
Sources
- Population and demographics: US Census Bureau, Census profile of Danvers town, Essex County (American Community Survey 5-year estimates 2020-2024 and the 2020 Census), as of April 1, 2020.
- Schools and districts: Massachusetts DESE, district profile, Enrollment Data (2025-26), as of October 1, 2025.
- Elections and voter enrollment: Secretary of the Commonwealth, Upcoming Elections, as of October 2026.
- Town records: Town of Danvers, Calendar, Select Board Meeting, October 6, 2026, as of October 2026.
- Town records: Town of Danvers, Danvers Archival Center, The Creation of Danvers, as of July 2026.
- Town records: Town of Danvers, Select Board, as of October 2026.
- Town records: Town of Danvers, Town Meeting, as of September 2026 and September 26, 2026.
- Town records: Town of Danvers, Your Government, as of August 2026.
- History and incorporation: Secretary of the Commonwealth, City and Town Incorporation and Settlement Dates, as of October 2026.
- School district records: Danvers Public Schools, Danvers Public Schools, home, as of October 2026.
- School district records: Danvers Public Schools, School Committee, as of October 2026.
- County offices: Essex District Attorney, Essex District Attorney’s Office, as of October 2026.