Town Edition
Bristol County
Norton, Massachusetts
Photo: Kenneth C. Zirkel, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
For more than a century the Norton Reservoir belonged to somebody else. It was dammed in the 1860s to turn the wheels of a private mill, and residents who wanted the water kept asking the owners to sell it and kept getting nowhere. In 1986 the town stopped asking and voted, putting $2.1 million on the table to buy the reservoir outright, which is why more than 500 acres of it now belong to the Norton Conservation Commission, and to you. The same machinery is still running. On April 11, 2026, the 1,122 residents who cast a ballot re-elected a Select Board member and a School Committee member, chose the Moderator, filled Planning Board and Assessors seats, and approved an $11.4 million replacement of the Norton Middle School roof, 620 votes to 563. This guide shows you where the rooms are and how to get into them.
Norton at a Glance
Sources: Massachusetts DESE, district profile · US Census Bureau (data.census.gov) · Town of Norton.
- County: Bristol. Norton covers 27.8 square miles of land and another 1.5 of water, and two of its place names outrank any address: Norton Center, where the Municipal Center and Wheaton College sit, and Chartley, the village on the town’s western side.
- Government: open Town Meeting, with an elected five-member Select Board and an appointed Town Manager, Mark S. Gould, Jr.
- Schools: Norton Public Schools, about 2,277 students across five schools, led by Superintendent Jennifer O’Neill.
How Norton’s Government Works
Norton runs on an open Town Meeting, which means there are no elected Town Meeting members at all: every registered voter in Norton 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 Manager 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 Manager.
Town Meeting
The legislative body, and it is not a committee. Every registered voter in Norton 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 Manager.
Town Manager
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 Manager 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 Norton, 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 roughly every other Thursday evening, convening at 6:00 p.m. The board’s own page lists its meetings as remote via Zoom, and each agenda is posted in advance, so check it before you log on.
- Town Meeting: Norton holds two a year, an Annual Town Meeting each spring and a Fall Annual Town Meeting each autumn. The next is Monday, October 19, 2026, at 7:00 p.m. at Norton High School. The Moderator, John Conway, presides.
- Town elections: Norton votes on a Saturday in April. The 2026 Annual Town Election was held April 11. The next is in spring 2027.
- State and federal elections: even-numbered years. The 2026 primary and general are this fall.
Explore the Norton Edition
- Town Manager’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.
- Norton History1711, Wheaton College, and the reservoir
- DemographicsWho lives in Norton
- Non-ProfitsCommunity organizations
- Student DataNorton 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 Bristol 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 Norton. 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 Norton
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 roughly every other Thursday at 6:00 p.m., remote via Zoom per its own page, and each agenda is posted in advance on the town’s website.
- 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 plowing problem to the Highway Department, which is the department that owns the repair.
- Town Hall: Norton Municipal Center, 72 East Main Street, Norton, MA 02766. Select Board and Town Manager’s office (508) 285-0210.
- Town Clerk & agendas: 508-285-0230, with meeting agendas and minutes posted at nortonma.org.
- Public schools: Norton Public Schools, (508) 285-0100, norton.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 simply register to vote and take your seat at Town Meeting.