Town Edition
Franklin County
Leyden, Massachusetts
Photo: John Phelan, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
On a Monday evening in June 2026, seventy six people walked into the Town Hall on West Leyden Road and settled the entire town budget in one sitting. The Select Board had pulled the school bills out into their own warrant articles on purpose, so nobody could miss them: the roughly one million dollar assessment from the Pioneer Valley Regional School District, a bill that costs Leyden more than running the whole rest of its government, passed 47 to 27. That is how a town of about 700 people decides its future, in a room where any registered voter can stand up and be counted. This guide shows you how to get into that room.
Leyden at a Glance
Sources: Massachusetts DESE, school and district profiles · US Census Bureau (data.census.gov) · Town of Leyden.
- County: Franklin. Leyden is a rural hilltown at the top of the Pioneer Valley, a few miles from the Vermont line, with about 18 square miles of land and roughly 700 year round residents.
- Government: open Town Meeting, with an elected three-member Select Board and an appointed Town Coordinator, Michele Giarusso.
- Schools: the Pioneer Valley Regional School District, about 560 students, led by Superintendent Patricia Kinsella.
How Leyden’s Government Works
Leyden runs on an open Town Meeting, which means there are no elected Town Meeting members at all: every registered voter in Leyden is a member, and any of them can walk in, speak, and vote on the budget. Voters also elect a three-member Select Board to set policy between meetings and three of the nine seats on the regional School Committee. The Select Board appoints a Town Coordinator to manage the daily work of the town. 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 Coordinator the board appoints.
Town Meeting
The legislative body, and it is not a committee. Every registered voter in Leyden 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
Three 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 Coordinator.
Town Coordinator
The appointed administrative officer. Manages the daily operations of the town, prepares the budget, and answers to the Select Board. Appointed under contract, not elected.
School Committee
Nine members, three elected by the voters of each member town, overseeing the schools Leyden shares with Bernardston and Northfield. It sets school policy, approves the school budget, and hires the Superintendent.
- Residents elect the three members of the Select Board and Leyden’s three seats on the regional School Committee.
- The Select Board appoints the Town Coordinator 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: 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 Leyden, 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: generally meets on Mondays at the Leyden Town Office, alternating evening meetings open to public comment with morning working sessions. Each agenda is posted in advance, so check the town calendar 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. This is where Leyden votes its budget and its bylaws.
- Town elections: Leyden votes in the spring. The 2026 Annual Town Election was held on Tuesday, June 2, with a Town Caucus in March to nominate candidates. The next is in spring 2027.
- State and federal elections: even-numbered years. The clerk posts the current State Primary and State General dates.
Explore the Leyden Edition
- Town Coordinator’s OfficeThe town’s chief administrator
- Select BoardYour three board members
- School CommitteeSuperintendent & committee
- Town DepartmentsWho does what at Town Hall
- Boards & CommissionsWhere residents serve
- LegislatorsYour voice in Boston & D.C.
- Leyden HistoryFall Town, 1809, and Leiden of the Pilgrims
- DemographicsWho lives in Leyden
- Non-ProfitsCommunity organizations
- Student DataPioneer Valley Regional School District 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 Franklin 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 Leyden. 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 Leyden
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 public safety go to the Select Board. Schools go to the regional School Committee. The budget and bylaws are voted by Town Meeting.
- Find the meeting. The Select Board meets at the Leyden Town Office on West Leyden Road, generally on Mondays, and the agenda is posted in advance.
- Know your members. All three 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 road problem to the Highway Department, which maintains the town’s 32 miles of road, or reach the Town Coordinator’s office for anything else.
- Town Hall: 7 Brattleboro Road, Leyden, MA 01301. Town Coordinator’s office 413-774-4111 Ext. 1.
- Town Clerk & agendas: 413-774-4111 Ext. 3, with meeting agendas and minutes posted at townofleyden.com.
- Public schools: the Pioneer Valley Regional School District, 413-498-2931, pvrsdk12.org.
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.