Town Edition
Norfolk County
Holbrook, Massachusetts
Photo: John Phelan, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The school you walk into every morning exists because your neighbors voted for it. In the 2010s Holbrook decided to replace its three aging school buildings with one modern complex, the state School Building Authority put up a grant of as much as $55.7 million toward the cost, and students walked through the doors for the first time in 2017. A decision that large runs through a representative Town Meeting: voters in each of the town’s four precincts elect Town Meeting members, and those neighbors cast the votes that decide what the town spends. About 11,405 people live here, a five-member Select Board runs the town between meetings, and this guide shows you how to reach every part of it.
Holbrook at a Glance
Sources: Massachusetts DESE, district profile · US Census Bureau (data.census.gov) · Town of Holbrook.
- County: Norfolk. Holbrook is a compact town of about seven square miles, incorporated in 1872 from land that had once been part of Braintree.
- Government: representative Town Meeting with an elected five-member Select Board and an appointed Town Administrator, Anne Mahoney.
- Schools: Holbrook Public Schools, about 1,323 students, led by Superintendent Julie Hamilton.
How Holbrook’s Government Works
Holbrook runs on a representative Town Meeting, an old New England form scaled up so a town this size can still govern itself in one legislative body. Voters in each of the four precincts elect Town Meeting members, and 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 Administrator 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 Administrator carries it out.
Town Meeting
The legislative body. Members elected from the precincts adopt the annual budget, pass town bylaws, and approve major spending. It is the closest thing to direct democracy at scale.
Select Board
Five members elected town-wide. They set policy, sign warrants, appoint many 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
Five 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 Town Meeting members, the five Select Board members, and the School Committee.
- The Select Board hires the Town Administrator 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.
Civic Calendar
- Select Board: meets on weekday evenings at Town Hall, 50 North Franklin Street, on the dates the board posts each year. Check the town calendar before you go.
- Town Meeting: the representative Town Meeting holds its Annual session in April or May, at least twenty-one days after the Annual Town Election, and can be called back for a Special Town Meeting when business requires it.
- Town elections: Holbrook votes in the spring. The 2026 Annual Town Election was held on Saturday, April 4. The next Annual Town Election is in spring 2027.
- State and federal elections: even-numbered years. The 2026 primary and general are this fall.
Explore the Holbrook Edition
- Town Administrator’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.
- Holbrook HistoryA shoe town, and its benefactor
- DemographicsWho lives in Holbrook
- Non-ProfitsCommunity organizations
- Student DataHolbrook Public 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 Norfolk 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 Holbrook. 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 Holbrook
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 weekday evenings at Town Hall, 50 North Franklin Street, on the dates the board posts, and the agenda goes up in advance.
- 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 owns the repair.
- Town Hall: 50 North Franklin Street, Holbrook, MA 02343. Main town line 781-767-1800.
- Town Clerk & agendas: 781-353-5560, with meeting agendas and minutes posted at holbrookma.gov.
- Public schools: Holbrook Public Schools, holbrook.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 run for Town Meeting in your precinct.