Town Edition
Worcester County
Spencer, Massachusetts
Photo: John Phelan, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
In two years, 1888 and 1889, four Spencer men handed the town a high school, a library, a public park and the fairgrounds. Two of those gifts still carry their donors’ names on the buildings you use: David Prouty High School and the Richard Sugden Library. Everything that has happened to that inheritance since has been decided by Spencer’s own voters, in rooms any one of them can walk into. On May 12, 2026, 1,536 of them walked in and settled two tax questions on the same ballot, voting 900 to 622 to fund the fire department above the Proposition 2 1/2 cap and 894 to 627 against doing the same for the schools. Sixteen percent of the town’s registered voters made both of those calls for everybody. This guide shows you how to be in the room the next time.
Spencer at a Glance
Sources: Massachusetts DESE, school and district profiles · US Census Bureau (data.census.gov).
- County: Worcester. Spencer covers 32.9 square miles of land in the hills west of Worcester, with the Seven Mile River running through it, and the town votes in four precincts.
- Government: open Town Meeting, with an elected five member Board of Selectmen and an appointed Town Administrator, Jeffrey K. Bridges.
- Schools: Spencer does not run its own school district. It shares the Spencer-East Brookfield Regional School District with East Brookfield, about 1,443 students across four schools, led by Superintendent Paul S. Haughey.
How Spencer’s Government Works
Spencer runs on an open Town Meeting, which means there are no elected Town Meeting members at all: every registered voter in Spencer is a member, and any of them can walk in, speak, and vote on the budget. Voters also elect a 5 member Board of Selectmen to set policy between meetings and a Moderator to run the meeting itself. The Board of Selectmen 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 Board of Selectmen, 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 Spencer 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
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 Board of Selectmen. Hired under contract, not elected.
School Committee
7 members, five elected by Spencer and two by East Brookfield. It sets district policy, approves the school budget, and hires the Superintendent.
- Residents elect the 5 members of the Board of Selectmen, the Moderator, and Spencer’s five seats on the regional School Committee.
- The Board of Selectmen 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: register at 16, vote at 18, and once you are registered you are already a member of Town Meeting.
The Two Votes of May 2026
Proposition 2 1/2 caps how much more a Massachusetts town can raise in property taxes each year, at about two and a half percent above the year before. Going above the cap takes two separate yes votes: one at Town Meeting to appropriate the money, and a second at the ballot box to actually raise the tax. Spencer ran both halves of that machinery in the spring of 2026, and the results show you exactly how much a local ballot decides.
- Question 1, the firefighters’ override: 900 yes, 622 no. It passed.
- Question 2, the school override: 627 yes, 894 no. It did not pass.
- Same ballot, same day: May 12, 2026, with 1,536 ballots cast out of 9,686 registered voters, a turnout of 16 percent.
One ballot carried both questions and the town answered them differently. That is the clearest possible demonstration that a local election is not a single verdict on the town’s mood: it is a set of separate decisions, each one settled by the residents who filled out that line.
Civic Calendar
- Board of Selectmen: meets on Mondays, typically twice a month. The town posts each agenda, with the location, in advance on its own calendar.
- Town Meeting: the Annual Town Meeting is held in the spring. The 2026 warrant was for May 7, 2026, and the town can call a Special Town Meeting when business cannot wait.
- Town elections: Spencer votes in May, across four precincts. The 2026 Annual Town Election was held on May 12.
- State and federal elections: even-numbered years, at the same polling places.
Explore the Spencer Edition
- Town Administrator’s OfficeThe town’s chief administrator
- Board of SelectmenYour five board members
- School CommitteeSuperintendent & committee
- Town DepartmentsWho does what at Town Hall
- Boards & CommissionsWhere residents serve
- LegislatorsYour voice in Boston & D.C.
- Spencer HistoryShoes, wire, and the gifts of 1888
- DemographicsWho lives in Spencer
- Non-ProfitsCommunity organizations
- Student DataThe regional district 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 Spencer. 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 Spencer
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 Board of Selectmen. Schools go to the regional School Committee. The budget and bylaws are voted by Town Meeting.
- Find the meeting. The Board of Selectmen meets on Mondays, typically twice a month, and the town posts each agenda in advance with the location on it.
- Know your members. All five 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. The board’s own minutes carry a standing Citizens Input item, which is where a resident speaks.
- Or skip the trip. A pothole or a plow question goes to the Highway Department, a water or sewer question to those departments directly.
- Town Hall: 157 Main Street, Spencer, MA 01562, (508) 885-7500. Open Monday through Wednesday 7:30am to 4:30pm and Thursday 7:30am to noon.
- Town Clerk & agendas: 508-885-7500 Ext. 104, with meeting agendas and minutes posted at spencerma.gov.
- Public schools: the Spencer-East Brookfield Regional School District, 306 Main Street, 508-885-8500, sebrsd.org.
Local government works best when residents show up. Find your Board of Selectmen, speak at a meeting on the town’s published calendar, or simply register to vote and take your seat at Town Meeting.