A Student’s Guide to Local Government Around Cambridge
By James W. Sweeney, Mayor, Village of Cambridge
As another school year begins, students across the Cambridge Central School District are coming to the same school from a lot of different places.
I know that school pretty well. I went there myself.
Some students live in the Village of Cambridge. Others live outside the village, along country roads, on farms, and in neighborhoods spread across a pretty big area. Some live in Washington County and some in Rensselaer County. They ride the same buses, sit in the same classrooms, play on the same teams, and eventually graduate together.
Once they go home, though, they may be living under different local governments.
That can turn what sounds like a simple question into a surprisingly complicated one: Who do I ask?
Who do you call about a pothole? What if you have a question about a park, a school bus route, a new building or a public record? Who actually makes those decisions?
If you’ve ever been confused by this, you’re in good company. Adults are welcome in this article too. New York local government isn’t exactly famous for being self-explanatory.
Fortunately, you don’t have to memorize the entire system. It helps to understand two things. First, several different government boundaries can overlap in the same place. Second, which one matters depends on what you’re asking about.
Once you get that, the rest becomes a lot less mysterious.
Imagine a Stack of Maps Over Your House
Picture your house on a map.
Now imagine laying a clear sheet over it showing the Cambridge Central School District. Another sheet could show your town. If you live in the Village of Cambridge, add the village boundary. There is a county map too.
Put them together and you’ll notice something fairly quickly: the lines don’t all match.
You can live in a town and a village at the same time. Your school district can cross several town boundaries. A county line can run right through what most of us think of as one school community.
Cambridge is a good example.
The Village of Cambridge sits within two towns. About one-third of the village is in the Town of Cambridge and about two-thirds is in the Town of White Creek. Two students can both correctly say, “I live in the Village of Cambridge,” even though one lives in the Town of Cambridge and the other lives in the Town of White Creek.
The school district covers a much larger area. Cambridge Central School District stretches across about 104 square miles and includes parts of eight towns in two counties: Cambridge, Easton, Jackson, Salem and White Creek in Washington County, along with Hoosick, Pittstown and Schaghticoke in Rensselaer County.
A student from Hoosick might sit next to somebody from Easton in science class. A student from White Creek might play on the same team as somebody from Pittstown.
At school, they’re all Cambridge students. At home, different local governments may represent them.
There’s nothing unusual about that. Those maps were created for different purposes. School district lines define a school district. Town lines define towns. Counties have their own boundaries, and villages have theirs.
Sometimes the lines cooperate nicely.
Sometimes they most definitely don’t.
Which Map Matters?
Usually, the question tells you.
Take a pothole outside your house. Before anyone can tell you who should fix it, somebody may need to know whose road it is. A village street, town road, county road and state highway can all have different people responsible for them.
A school bus question is different. That probably starts with the school district.
If you’re asking about playground equipment or something happening in a park, first figure out who operates the park. A question about a new building may lead to whichever government has planning or land-use authority at that location.
And assumptions can get you into trouble.
Water is a good local example. Someone might reasonably assume that the Village of Cambridge operates the local water system. It doesn’t. The Cambridge water system is operated by Liberty Utilities, a private company.
So if you’re not sure who handles something, don’t worry about solving the jurisdictional puzzle before you ask. Start somewhere. A decent public office should either be able to help you or point you toward somebody who can.
The Governments Around You
Once you separate the maps in your head, the different governments become easier to understand.
The Town
Every home in the Cambridge area is located in a town. If you live in the Village of Cambridge, you’re still in a town too, either Cambridge or White Creek.
Towns are governed by elected town boards. The board includes the town supervisor and elected council members.
The title “supervisor” occasionally causes confusion because it sounds as if one person is in charge of the whole town. That isn’t really how town government works. The supervisor has an important role but also serves as a member of the town board. The board discusses issues and makes decisions together.
Depending on the community and the service involved, a town may deal with roads, recreation, property assessment, planning, local laws and other services.
There isn’t one identical menu of services for every town in New York, which is another reason it is perfectly reasonable to ask who handles something.
The Village
A village is another form of local government, but it is still located within a town. Cambridge happens to be located within two.
The Village of Cambridge has an elected mayor and four elected trustees. Together, we make up the Village Board of Trustees.
Being mayor does not mean I make village decisions by myself. The board discusses issues, asks questions, considers proposals and votes.
Village government handles many of the things residents encounter in everyday life, including village streets and sidewalks, parks, police services and other municipal operations.
If you live inside the village, your town government does not somehow vanish. You live in both jurisdictions. Remember those overlapping maps.
The School District
The school district is separate from both the village and the towns.
Cambridge Central School District has its own elected Board of Education. The mayor doesn’t run it. Neither does the Town of Cambridge supervisor or any of the other town supervisors whose communities fall within the district.
The Board of Education governs the school district, while the superintendent and school staff manage its day-to-day educational operations.
That doesn’t mean local governments operate in isolation. Officials talk to one another and governments cooperate on issues when it makes sense. We serve many of the same families, use many of the same roads and share the same broader community.
We just don’t all have the same jobs or legal authority.
Who Actually Makes the Decisions?
Government is often talked about in terms of individual officeholders: a mayor, a supervisor, a school board member.
In practice, many local decisions are made by boards.
A town supervisor serves as part of a town board. I serve with four trustees on the Village Board. School board members make decisions together as the Board of Education.
That means local government involves discussion. People ask questions, propose ideas, disagree, change their minds occasionally and eventually vote.
It can take a while.
Democracy isn’t especially famous for its speed.
A Current Snapshot
As of September 4, 2026, elected local leadership serving areas within the Cambridge Central School District includes:
Village of Cambridge: Mayor James W. Sweeney
Town of Cambridge: Supervisor Catherine “Cassie” Fedler
Town of Easton: Supervisor William Herrick
Town of Jackson: Supervisor Jay B. Skellie
Town of Salem: Supervisor Evera Sue Clary
Town of White Creek: Supervisor Lance Allen Wang
Town of Hoosick: Supervisor Eric Sheffer
Town of Pittstown: Supervisor Matthew Curley
Town of Schaghticoke: Supervisor Tim Salisbury
The current Cambridge Central School District Board of Education members are Joseph Hamilton, David Shay Price, Rachel Burr, Jillian Herrington and Dillon Honyoust.
Knowing the names is useful. Understanding the structure is more important.
None of us governs alone.
If You Have a Question, Ask It
You don’t need to write like a lawyer or know the exact office responsible before you pick up the phone.
Maybe you want to know why a certain road keeps getting potholes. Maybe there’s a building going up nearby and you’re curious about what was approved. You could be wondering how a park decision was made, why a school bus follows a certain route or what some government project costs.
You might simply wonder what a mayor, supervisor, trustee, council member or school board member actually does.
Those are all reasonable questions.
If you have a good idea which government handles the subject, its website is often the easiest place to begin. Check the meeting calendar. Look at an agenda or some recent minutes. You may find the answer yourself, and even if you don’t, you’ll probably know a little more about the issue before you contact anyone.
Then call or send an email.
If you reach the wrong office, there is nothing wrong with saying, “Can you tell me who I should contact about this?”
That sentence can take you surprisingly far in local government.
Helping somebody find the right door is part of the job.
Can Students Go to Government Meetings?
Yes.
New York’s Open Meetings Law generally requires meetings of public bodies, including village boards, town boards and school boards, to be open so members of the public can attend and observe.
Students are members of the public.
There is no requirement that you own property, pay property taxes or be old enough to vote before you can attend. You also don’t need to understand everything on the agenda. Plenty of adults are still working on that part.
What Happens at a Meeting?
Your first meeting may sound a little formal because government has its own vocabulary.
If someone “makes a motion,” a board member is formally proposing that the board take some action. Depending on the rules of that board, another member may second the motion. There can be questions and discussion before a vote is taken.
Minutes are kept as the official record of the meeting. They document motions, resolutions, votes and other matters acted upon, but they are not necessarily a word-for-word transcript of everything everyone said.
You may also hear the term “executive session.” That refers to a portion of a meeting that can be closed to the public for certain limited subjects allowed by law.
One distinction is worth knowing before you attend: being allowed to attend a public meeting does not automatically mean anyone can speak whenever they want. Many boards have public comment periods and rules for how those periods work. If you would like to speak, check the rules beforehand.
If you’d rather sit in the back and watch the first time, do that. You’ll learn quite a bit just by seeing who asks questions, how an issue gets discussed and what happens before a vote.
Researching Your Local Government
Sometimes you start with one question and discover three more. That’s normal.
For a school project, or just because something caught your attention, meeting agendas and minutes are usually good places to begin. They can tell you what a board planned to discuss, what it decided and, if you go back through several meetings, how an issue developed over time.
New York also has the Freedom of Information Law, commonly called FOIL. It gives members of the public a way to request many existing government records. Some records, or parts of records, can be withheld under exemptions in the law.
It also helps to understand the difference between asking a question and requesting a record.
“What are you planning to do about this road?” is a question.
“Can I get a copy of last month’s road report?” is a request for an existing record.
You don’t need to become a FOIL expert to research something for school. Just knowing that local governments create records, and that many of those records are available to the public, already puts you ahead of where I was at that age.
Government Is Pretty Close to Home
Mention “government” and people often picture Washington, D.C., or Albany. Those governments obviously matter, but they can feel far away.
Local government usually isn’t.
It’s the road you travel every day, the sidewalk somebody has to repair and the park where kids play. It’s the snowplow you hear before sunrise after a storm. It’s the town board arguing over a proposal, the school board considering a budget, or a village employee answering the phone when someone isn’t sure where to start.
None of this is particularly glamorous, and the process isn’t perfect.
Officials disagree with one another. Residents disagree with officials and with each other. Meetings sometimes run longer than anyone hoped. Complicated problems tend to remain complicated even after somebody gets elected.
Government gets things wrong too. Then somebody has to figure out how to make it right.
I went to Cambridge Central. I live in this community, and now I serve part of it as mayor. One thing I wish more people learned when they were young is how accessible local government actually is.
You can read what your board is working on. You can attend its meetings. You can ask why something happened. You can disagree with a decision. You can request records. And when you don’t know where to begin, you can simply ask.
A Cambridge Area Civic Challenge
If you’re a student and want to see how all of this works, start with your own address.
Figure out which town you live in. If you live inside the Village of Cambridge, see whether your home is on the Cambridge side or the White Creek side. Then find the website for that government and see when its next public meeting is.
Take a look at the agenda if one is available. You probably won’t understand every item. Pick one that catches your attention and see whether you can figure out what it means.
If you want to go farther, attend a meeting. Bring a parent, grandparent, teacher, neighbor or friend. There’s no requirement to speak, and there’s no quiz afterward. Just watch for a while.
Pay attention to who asks questions. Notice what happens when board members disagree. Listen for a motion and see how it eventually becomes a vote.
Then, on the way home, think of one question you still have.
That’s really enough to begin.
You may not be old enough to vote yet, but you already live here. The decisions being made by your local governments affect your roads, schools, parks, neighborhoods and community.
Knowing who to ask is a pretty good first step.
James W. Sweeney
Mayor
Village of Cambridge, New York
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