East Bridgewater Civics Online
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East Bridgewater town seal
Town Edition

Plymouth County

East Bridgewater, Massachusetts

Photo: John Phelan, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

On Saturday, November 15, 2025, East Bridgewater went to the polls to answer one question: should the town exempt from Proposition 2 1/2 the borrowing for a new Central Elementary School at 107 Central Street? The town said yes, and the site work started the following spring. Six months later, on Saturday, May 16, 2026, 693 residents filled every seat on the ballot, from the Moderator who runs Town Meeting to a seat on the Select Board, four on the School Committee and three on the Planning Board. Those 693 ballots settled the year for a town of 14,440, which tells you exactly what one vote is worth here. East Bridgewater has been deciding its own business this way since 1823, the year it separated from Bridgewater and became a town of its own. This guide shows you how to get into the room.

East Bridgewater at a Glance

14,440Residents (2020)
1823Incorporated
3Select Board Members
1,982Students

Sources: Massachusetts DESE, district profile · US Census Bureau (data.census.gov) · Town of East Bridgewater.

  • County: Plymouth. The town’s own history calls it an early industrial inland town on the northern portion of the Taunton River system, and it covers 17.2 square miles of land. Town Hall sits at 175 Central Street.
  • Government: open Town Meeting, with an elected three-member Select Board and an appointed Town Administrator, Charles Seelig.
  • Schools: East Bridgewater Public Schools, about 1,982 students across three schools, led by Superintendent Dr. Gina Williams.

How East Bridgewater’s Government Works

East Bridgewater runs on an open Town Meeting, which means there are no elected Town Meeting members at all: every registered voter in East Bridgewater is a member, and any of them can walk in, speak, and vote on the budget. Voters also elect a 3 member Select Board to set policy between meetings and the School Committee that oversees the schools. 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 East Bridgewater 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

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 Select Board. Hired under contract, not elected.

School Committee

6 members, elected by the voters of the district the schools serve. It sets school policy, approves the school budget, and hires the Superintendent.

  1. Residents elect the 3 members of the Select Board and the School Committee.
  2. The Select Board hires the Town Administrator and decides what goes on the Town Meeting warrant.
  3. Town Meeting votes the budget and the bylaws, and every registered voter present can vote.
  4. 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 East Bridgewater, 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: 6 pm on the second and fourth Mondays of most months, in the first floor conference room at Town Hall, 175 Central Street. Dates can shift around holidays, and each agenda is posted in advance.
  • Town Meeting: the Annual Town Meeting is held each spring in the Junior Senior High School auditorium at 143 Plymouth Street, and the 2026 session met on May 11. The town can also call a Special Town Meeting when business cannot wait, as it did most recently on October 7, 2026.
  • Town elections: East Bridgewater votes on a Saturday in the spring, across four precincts. The 2026 Annual Town Election was held on May 16. A Special Town Election was held on November 15, 2025 at the Mitchell Middle School, 435 Central Street.
  • State and federal elections: even-numbered years, on the state calendar rather than the town’s. East Bridgewater voted in the state primary on September 1, 2026, and the state election is November 3, 2026, at the Junior Senior High School.

Explore the East Bridgewater Edition

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 Plymouth 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 East Bridgewater. Now you know what to look for.

District Attorney, Plymouth District

Timothy J. Cruz

In office since 2001
Official site
Sheriff, Plymouth County

Joseph D. McDonald Jr.

In office since 2005
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.

Officials for any Massachusetts town

Your First Civic Action in East Bridgewater

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.

  1. Pick the right body. Town policy, roads, licences and public safety go to the Select Board. Schools go to the School Committee. The budget and the bylaws are voted by Town Meeting.
  2. Find the meeting. The Select Board meets at 6 pm on the second and fourth Mondays of most months at Town Hall, 175 Central Street, and the agenda is posted in advance.
  3. Know your members. All three Select Board members are elected town-wide, so every one of them answers to you.
  4. Speak. Meetings open with a public forum and residents may address the board. Check the agenda for how to sign up.
  5. Or skip the trip. A pothole, a broken street light or a missed pickup goes to the Department of Public Works, which is the department that owns the repair.
  • Town Hall: 175 Central Street, East Bridgewater, MA 02333. Select Board office 508-378-1601.
  • Town Clerk & agendas: 508-378-1606, with meeting agendas and minutes posted at eastbridgewaterma.gov.
  • Public schools: East Bridgewater Public Schools, 508-378-8200, ebps.net.

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.

Meet Your Select Board

Take Action in Your Town

MassCivics last checked this page on October 16, 2026.

Sources