Don’t spoil your ballot: What you need to know about the school board race

When voters open their absentee ballots or head out to the polls on Election Day, they may notice something different when selecting candidates for Detroit’s school board. 

Instead of one race for the Detroit Public Schools Community District board, there are two: 31 candidates are running for four seats with 4-year terms and another three are seeking one seat with a partial term that will end in 2028. Those three candidates are home health aide Ijazz Jackson, education advocate Aliya Moore and By Any Means Necessary (BAMN) organizer Shawn Vaughn. 

The partial term is for a seat formerly held by Sherry Gay-Dagnogo, who left the board last year to become the ombudsman for the city of Detroit, superintendent Nikolai Vitti told BridgeDetroit. The former teacher and state lawmaker was reelected to the board in 2024, which leaves two more years of her term, he said. 

While retired special education teacher and principal Bessie Harris filled Gay-Dagnogo’s seat last October, she is only allowed to serve through the end of 2026 instead of completing the entire term. A Michigan Association of School Boards policy requires appointed board members to run if there is already a set board election the following November. 

Longtime board member Angelique Peterson-Mayberry also resigned from the board last year after being appointed to the Wayne County Commission. Her term does not appear on the ballot because it expires at the end of the year. Pastor Steven Bland was appointed in July 2025 to take Peterson-Mayberry’s place. 

Daniel Baxter, chief of operations for the Detroit Department of Elections, said candidates were able to select whether they wanted to run for the two-year or four-year term. 

The 34 total candidates running are the largest slate since 2016, the year DPSCD was created, and more than 60 people ran to serve on the new district’s board. 

This race could be consequential because only two incumbents — Harris and Bland — are running for reelection. Voters will elect a new majority to the board in an election that could shape the future of Michigan’s largest district for years to come.

The board’s current leaders — Board President LaTrice McClendon and Board Vice President Corletta Vaughn — are not running for re-election. The fifth open seat belonged to Iris Taylor, who died in July.

Sheila Cockrel, CEO of civic nonprofit CitizenDetroit, shared concerns that the  two board races could confuse voters. 

“We have to let Detroit voters know that if you want to learn about who the candidates are, you have to learn about them in the context of which race they’re in,” she said. “I’m afraid that people are going to find the five folks they like out of the four-year term group and not look at the two-year term group and hurt themselves by voting for five as opposed to four.”

To educate voters on the school board races, CitizenDetroit has released a YouTube series with 25 of the candidates. The organization will also host a sold-out speed-dating-style event on Oct. 1, where 16 of the school board candidates will participate, Cockrel said. 

“There are a set of six questions that we’re going to share with the candidates in advance that they might be asked at one of the tables,” she said. “The people who are at the table will review the questions and select which questions they want to ask on each of the rotations.” 

Additionally, Cockrel plans to publish posts for CitizenDetroit’s social media pages to talk about the differences between the four-year and two-year terms. 

View your sample ballot by putting your information in at the Michigan Voter Information Center. Get more information on this race and all of the issues at bridgedetroit.com and chalkbeat.org/detroit.