Town Edition
Worcester County
Oakham, Massachusetts
Photo: John Phelan, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
On March 23, 1907, the voters of Oakham stood up at Town Meeting and decided, unanimously, to build their new library out of fieldstone hauled off their own farms. Then they did it: neighbors gave the land, farmers graded the lot, the cornerstone came off the old Fobes farm, and the Fobes Memorial Library you can still walk into on Maple Street is made of the town that voted for it. That is where power in Oakham actually sits, in a room full of neighbors raising their hands, and it still works that way today. This guide shows you how to get into the room.
Oakham at a Glance
Sources: Massachusetts DESE, school and district profiles · US Census Bureau (data.census.gov) · Town of Oakham.
- County: Worcester. Oakham sits in the rolling hill country of northwest Worcester County, set off from Rutland in 1762, and roughly a third of its land lies in the state-held Quabbin Reservoir watershed.
- Government: open Town Meeting, with an elected three-member Board of Selectmen that serves as the town’s own executive. Michael Brunelle chairs the board.
- Schools: Oakham belongs to the Quabbin Regional School District, shared with Barre, Hardwick, Hubbardston, and New Braintree; Colleen Mucha is Superintendent.
How Oakham’s Government Works
Oakham runs on an open Town Meeting, which means there are no elected Town Meeting members at all: every registered voter in Oakham is a member, and any of them can walk in, speak, and vote on the budget. Voters also elect a three-member Board of Selectmen 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 Oakham is a member. Town Meeting adopts the annual budget, passes town bylaws, and approves major spending. This is direct democracy in its literal sense.
Board of Selectmen
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 Selectmen’s Office
The board’s own office at 2 Coldbrook Road carries the town’s daily paperwork, staffed by an executive assistant who works for the three elected members.
School Committee
Oakham 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 Board of Selectmen, the Moderator, the town’s School Committee representatives, and a long ballot of working town offices.
- The Board of Selectmen 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: 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 Oakham, 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
- Board of Selectmen: meets on Monday evenings every two weeks at 6:00 PM at the Oakham Town Hall, 2 Coldbrook Road, and each agenda is posted in advance.
- Town Meeting: the Annual Town Meeting is held in the spring, and the clerk posts the vote on the articles afterward.
- Town elections: the Annual Town Election was held May 18, 2026, when 398 residents filled a full ballot of town offices. The next is in spring 2027.
- State and federal elections: even-numbered years, with the state election in November. The clerk offers early voting and vote by mail.
Explore the Oakham Edition
- Selectmen’s OfficeThe board that runs the town
- Board of SelectmenYour three board members
- School CommitteeSuperintendent & committee
- Town DepartmentsWho does what at Town Hall
- Boards & CommissionsWhere residents serve
- LegislatorsYour voice in Boston & D.C.
- Oakham HistoryThe library the town built by hand
- DemographicsWho lives in Oakham
- Non-ProfitsCommunity organizations
- Student DataOakham 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 Oakham. 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 Oakham
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 Board of Selectmen. Schools go to the School Committee. The budget and bylaws are voted by Town Meeting.
- Find the meeting. The Board of Selectmen 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 Board of Selectmen 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 508-882-5556, which owns the repair.
- Town offices: Oakham Town Hall, 2 Coldbrook Road. The Selectmen’s office, 508-882-5549 extension 1, is open to the public Monday through Friday, 9:00 to noon.
- Town Clerk & agendas: 508-882-5549 extension 4, with meeting agendas and minutes posted at oakham-ma.gov.
- Public schools: Quabbin Regional School District, 978-355-4668, qrsd.org.
Local government works best when residents show up. Find your Board of Selectmen, speak at a meeting on a Monday evening, or simply register to vote and take your seat at Town Meeting.