Town Edition
Franklin County
Monroe, Massachusetts
Photo: John Phelan, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
Sixteen people stood up in Monroe’s Town Hall in 2025 and voted the entire town budget, all $975,941 of it, passing 28 of the 29 articles on the warrant. The single biggest line, $314,506, went to schools, because Monroe operates no school of its own and pays the towns of Florida and North Adams to teach its children. Monroe is the smallest town by population in mainland Massachusetts, roughly 118 people scattered along the Hoosac Range in the far northwestern corner of the state, and that is exactly why a seat at Town Meeting is worth so much here. The handful of residents in that room decide, every single year, what the town does and what its schooling is worth. This guide shows you how to get into the room.
Monroe at a Glance
Sources: Secretary of the Commonwealth, voter enrollment · US Census Bureau (data.census.gov) · Town of Monroe.
- County: Franklin. Monroe sits in the far northwestern corner of the state, on the Hoosac Range where the Berkshires reach up toward Vermont, with the Deerfield River forming its eastern boundary. At about 10.7 square miles it is the smallest town in Franklin County.
- Government: open Town Meeting, with an elected three-member Select Board that runs the town directly and serves as its chief executive. Alice Houghtaling chairs the board.
- Schools: Monroe operates no school of its own. Its children attend Abbott Memorial School in Florida through grade 8 and Drury High School in North Adams for grades 9 to 12, and Town Meeting votes the tuition every year.
How Monroe’s Government Works
Monroe runs on an open Town Meeting, which means there are no elected Town Meeting members at all: every registered voter in town is a member, and any of them can walk in, speak, and vote on the budget. Between those meetings the three elected members of the Select Board serve as the town’s chief executive officers. They set policy, approve the bills, make appointments to town offices, and carry the town’s business forward, working out of Town Hall themselves rather than through an appointed administrator. So in Monroe the money is voted by whoever shows up, and the direction and the daily work both belong to the board the voters elect.
Town Meeting
The legislative body, and it is not a committee. Every registered voter in Monroe is a member. Town Meeting adopts the annual budget, passes town bylaws, and approves major spending. This is direct democracy in its literal sense.
The Select Board
Three members elected town-wide. They set policy, sign the warrants that decide what reaches Town Meeting, make appointments to town offices, and serve as the town’s chief executive officers.
The Select Board’s Office
The board’s own office at Town Hall on School Street. It is where residents reach the town for records, licenses, and questions, and where the board carries out the day-to-day business itself.
Schooling
Monroe operates no schools. It pays Florida to teach its younger children and North Adams to teach its high schoolers, and Town Meeting votes that tuition every year as part of the budget.
- Residents elect the three members of the Select Board and the town’s other offices at the annual town election.
- The Select Board sets policy 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 Monroe, 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
- The Select Board: meets at Monroe Town Hall, 3 School Street. Call Town Hall at 413-424-5272 for the date and agenda of the next meeting.
- Town Meeting: the Annual Town Meeting is held in the spring. In 2025 it approved a $975,941 budget across 29 warrant articles, passing 28 of them.
- Town elections: Monroe holds its annual town election in the spring, when the seats on the Select Board and the town’s other offices are on the ballot.
- State and federal elections: even-numbered years, at Town Hall.
Explore the Monroe Edition
- The Select Board’s OfficeThe board that runs the town
- The Select BoardYour three board members
- School & SuperintendentHow Monroe schools its children
- Town DepartmentsWho does what at Town Hall
- Boards & CommissionsWhere residents serve
- LegislatorsYour voice in Boston & D.C.
- Monroe HistorySettled 1800, incorporated 1822
- DemographicsWho lives in Monroe
- Community ServicesWhere residents find help
- Student DataNorth Adams 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 Monroe. 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 Monroe
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. The budget and bylaws are voted by Town Meeting, where every registered voter has a say.
- Find the meeting. The Select Board meets at Monroe Town Hall, 3 School Street. Call 413-424-5272 for the date and agenda.
- 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.
- Town Hall: 3 School Street, Monroe, MA 01350. Select Board office 413-424-5272.
- Town Clerk & records: Monroe Town Hall, 3 School Street, 413-424-5272.
- Public schools: Monroe’s children attend Abbott Memorial School in Florida and Drury High School in North Adams.
Local government works best when residents show up. Find your Select Board, speak at a meeting, or simply register to vote and take your seat at Town Meeting.