Town Edition
Worcester County
Northborough, Massachusetts
Photo: Daderot, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.
On the night of April 27, 2026, Northborough voters sat down in the Algonquin Regional High School auditorium and worked through 63 warrant articles, one at a time. The biggest count of the evening ran to 386 cards in the air. They approved a $32,013,104 town budget and a $32,076,841 school budget. Then they came to three Department of Public Works purchases, a van, a dump truck and a street sweeper, and rejected each one 78 to 79. Later they took up a park project on Blake Street, and that one finished 79 to 79, an exact tie, which under Town Meeting rules means it did not carry. Four decisions in one evening turned on a single vote. That is the arithmetic of an open Town Meeting, and in Northborough every registered voter is already a member of it. This guide shows you how to take your place in that room.
Northborough at a Glance
Sources: Massachusetts DESE, district profile · US Census Bureau (data.census.gov) · Town of Northborough.
- County: Worcester. Northborough covers 18.472 square miles along the tributaries of the Assabet River, and was carved first out of Marlborough and then out of Westborough before it became a town of its own.
- Government: open Town Meeting, with an elected five-member Select Board, an elected Moderator and an appointed Town Administrator, Stephanie Bacon, all under the town’s own home rule charter.
- Schools: the Northborough Public Schools run PreK through grade 8 with about 1,588 students in five schools, and Algonquin Regional High School is run jointly with Southborough. Superintendent Gregory Martineau leads both.
How Northborough’s Government Works
Northborough runs on an open Town Meeting, which means there are no elected Town Meeting members at all: every registered voter in Northborough is a member, and any of them can walk in, speak, and vote on the budget. Voters also elect a 5 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 Northborough 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
5 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
5 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 the 5 members of the Select Board and the School Committee.
- The Select Board hires the Town Administrator 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 Northborough, 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: meets Monday evenings at 6:30 pm, generally twice a month, in the Select Board Meeting Room on the second floor of Town Hall at 63 Main Street. The agenda is posted in advance, so check the town calendar before you go.
- Town Meeting: the Annual Town Meeting is held on the fourth Monday in April. In 2026 it met on April 27 at Algonquin Regional High School and worked through 63 articles. The town can also call a Special Town Meeting when business cannot wait.
- Town elections: Northborough votes in May. The 2026 Annual Town Election was held on Tuesday, May 12, with the polls open from 7:00am to 8:00pm, and all four precincts vote at the Senior Center, 119 Bearfoot Road.
- State and federal elections: even-numbered years. The clerk posts the current state primary and state election dates.
Explore the Northborough 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.
- Northborough HistoryMeeting houses, mills, and a library gift
- DemographicsWho lives in Northborough
- Non-ProfitsCommunity organizations
- Student DataNorthborough 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 Worcester 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 Northborough. 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 Northborough
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 Monday evenings at 6:30 pm in the Select Board Meeting Room on the second floor of Town Hall, 63 Main Street, and the agenda is posted 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 is the department that owns the repair, and the town runs an online Report an Issue form for exactly that.
- Town Hall: 63 Main Street, Northborough, MA 01532. Administration office (508) 393-5040 x 1.
- Town Clerk & agendas: (508) 393-5001, with meeting agendas and minutes posted at northboroughma.gov.
- Public schools: the Public Schools of Northborough and Southborough, (508) 486-5115, nsboro.k12.ma.us.
Local government works best when residents show up. Find your Select Board, speak at a Monday evening meeting, or simply register to vote and take your seat at Town Meeting.