Town Edition
Worcester County
New Braintree, Massachusetts
Photo: John Phelan, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
New Braintree exists because of a vote. In 1669 the people of the original Braintree, southeast of Boston, stood up at their town meeting and decided to split 6,000 acres out west into equal shares for their households, land they called Braintree Farms. The farms that grew on that ground were joined with pieces of Brookfield and Hardwick and incorporated as a town of their own in 1751. The same lever still runs the place: New Braintree governs itself by open Town Meeting, where every registered voter, and not a council, is the legislature. That is where power in New Braintree actually sits, in a room full of neighbors raising their hands. This guide shows you how to get into the room.
New Braintree at a Glance
Sources: Massachusetts DESE, school and district profiles · US Census Bureau (data.census.gov).
- County: Worcester. New Braintree is a small rural farming town in central Worcester County, granted as Braintree Farms in 1669 and incorporated in 1751, and it is still home to a working dairy farm, a commercial orchard, and produce and beef-cattle farms.
- Government: open Town Meeting, with an elected three-member Select Board that serves as the town’s own executive. Dennis Letendre, Jr. chairs the board.
- Schools: New Braintree belongs to the Quabbin Regional, shared with Barre, Hardwick, Hubbardston, and Oakham; Colleen Mucha is Superintendent.
How New Braintree’s Government Works
New Braintree runs on an open Town Meeting, which means there are no elected Town Meeting members at all: every registered voter in New Braintree is a member, and any of them can walk in, speak, and vote on the budget. Voters also elect a three-member Select Board and the town’s representatives to the regional School Committee. The Selectmen serve as the town’s chief executive officers: they set policy, approve the bills, make appointments to town boards and offices, and carry the town’s business between Town Meetings, working out of an office staffed by an executive assistant rather than through an appointed administrator. So 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 New Braintree 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 to staggered three-year terms. They set policy, sign the warrants that decide what reaches Town Meeting, appoint residents to many town boards, and serve as the town’s chief executive officers.
The Select Board Office
The board’s own office at the New Braintree Town Hall, 20 Memorial Drive, carries the town’s daily paperwork, staffed by an Executive Secretary who works for the three elected members.
School Committee
New Braintree elects its own representatives to the Quabbin Regional School Committee, which is chosen by the voters of the five member towns. It sets policy for the regional schools, approves the budget, and hires the Superintendent.
- Residents elect the three members of the Select Board, the Moderator, the town’s School Committee representatives, and a long ballot of working town offices.
- The Select Board runs the town between meetings: it sets policy, decides what goes on the Town Meeting warrant, and carries out what Town Meeting votes.
- Town Meeting votes the budget and the bylaws, and every registered voter present can vote.
- You take part: register at 16, vote at 18, and once you are registered you are already a member of Town Meeting.
Civic Calendar
- Select Board: meets on the second and fourth Monday of the month at 7:00 PM at the New Braintree Town Hall, 20 Memorial Drive, and each agenda is posted in advance.
- Town Meeting: the Annual Town Meeting is held in early June, and the clerk posts the vote on the articles afterward.
- Town elections: the Annual Town Election is held in early May, when New Braintree’s registered voters fill the town’s elected offices.
- State and federal elections: even-numbered years, with the state election in November. The clerk offers early voting and vote by mail.
Explore the New Braintree Edition
- Select Board OfficeThe board that runs the town
- 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.
- New Braintree HistoryHow a 1669 land vote made a town
- DemographicsWho lives in New Braintree
- Non-ProfitsCommunity organizations
- Student DataNew Braintree schools by the numbers
Your County Officials
Two of the people with the most direct power over your life are elected countywide. The district attorney decides who gets charged with a crime, and what they get charged with. The sheriff runs the county jail. Both of them answer to the voters of Worcester County, and that includes New Braintree. They appear on your ballot. Now you know what to look for.
Every county in Massachusetts elects its own, and 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 New Braintree
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 licenses 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 Monday evenings every two weeks at 6:00 PM at the Town Hall, 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.
- Or skip the trip. Report a pothole, a broken sign, or a plowing problem to the Highway Department at 508-867-2451, which owns the repair.
- Town offices: New Braintree Town Hall, 20 Memorial Drive, (508) 867-2071, where the Select Board office handles town business between meetings.
- Town Clerk & agendas: Town Clerk Jessica A. Bennett, (508) 867-2071 extension 102, with meeting agendas and minutes posted at newbraintreema.us.
- Public schools: Quabbin Regional, 978-355-4668, qrsd.org.
Local government works best when residents show up. Find your Select Board, speak at a meeting on a Monday evening, or simply register to vote and take your seat at Town Meeting.