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Detroit Public Schools Community District, Michigan, elections (2024)
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Voters elected incumbent Sherry Gay-Dagnogo, Monique Bryant, and Ida Carol Short in the November 5, 2024, general election for Detroit Public Schools Community District school board.
Twenty-two candidates ran for three of the board's seven seats up for election. Board members are elected at large. Gay-Dagnogo was the only incumbent who ran for re-election. Misha Stallworth and Sonya Mays did not seek re-election. The Michigan Chronicle’s Donald James wrote that Stallworth and Mays declined to run for personal reasons.[1]
This was the largest number of candidates to run for the school board since 2016 when 63 candidates ran. From 2018 to 2022, an average of 13.7 candidates ran for school board. There were 7.3 candidates running per seat up for election. Between 2016 and 2022, an average of 5.7 candidates ran per seat up for election.
Chalkbeat's Alex Klaus wrote, "New members could determine whether Superintendent Nikolai Vitti’s direction for improving student achievement, school climate and culture, and increasing teacher pay will move forward, or be stalled by board division. Members have strongly supported Vitti since his hiring in May 2017, just a few months after the first DPSCD board was seated, and nearly a year after a historic legislative initiative created the district as part of a broad effort to address mounting debt."[2] Klaus also wrote, "Board members are responsible for hiring and firing superintendents, and Vitti’s evaluations could change as new members replace long-standing ones who’ve served throughout Vitti’s entire tenure." In an interview with Chalkbeat, political analyst Mario Morrow said, “New board members tend to have a higher bar for superintendents because they want to prove they are making a difference sooner than later.”[2]
On March 20, 2024, the board voted 6-1 to renew Vitti’s contract through 2028.[3] Gay-Dagnogo was the only dissenting vote. Gay-Dagnogo said she took issue with the timing of the vote and that the board should have waited until after the election to consider Vitti’s contract.[3] Chalkbeat's Lori Higgins and Micah Walker wrote that Gay-Dagnogo also said she believed there were culture and climate issues in the district.[3]
Detroit Public Radio’s Jerome Vaughn wrote that district staff and community members mentioned “insufficient staffing and classroom materials, poor maintenance of school buildings, and toxic work environments for educators” during the public comment period of the March 20 meeting.[4]
Vitti was hired in 2017, one year after the board regained control of the district from a state-appointed emergency manager. The state of Michigan appointed the emergency manager to oversee the district's operations and resolve $305 million in lingering debt in 2009.[5]
On July 1, 2016, a state law divided Detroit Public Schools (DPS) into two districts: DPS and the Detroit Public Schools Community District. DPS was transitioned into a legal entity to pay down more than $400 million in debt. The Detroit Public Schools Community District managed day-to-day operations for public schools in conjunction with the state-appointed Detroit Financial Review Commission.[6]
Among the candidates who ran were two former Detroit school board members: Ida Carol Short and Tawanna Simpson. Short and Simpson both lost in 2016. Simpson completed Ballotpedia’s Candidate Connection survey that year. Click here to read her responses. For a full list of candidates, click here.
Ballotpedia covered all school board elections in Michigan in 2024. Detroit Public Schools Community District is the largest district in the state, with around 48,500 students. For more information about Ballotpedia's 2024 school board coverage click here.
Elections
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Candidates and results
General election
General election for Detroit Public Schools Community District, At-large (3 seats)
The following candidates ran in the general election for Detroit Public Schools Community District, At-large on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Sherry Gay-Dagnogo (Nonpartisan) | 12.5 | 57,228 |
| ✔ |  | Monique Bryant (Nonpartisan) | 9.3 | 42,928 |
| ✔ |  | Ida Carol Short (Nonpartisan) | 9.0 | 41,181 |
| Sherisse Butler (Nonpartisan) | 8.3 | 38,351 | ||
| Aliya Moore (Nonpartisan) | 7.9 | 36,407 | ||
| Boyd White III (Nonpartisan) | 7.3 | 33,592 | ||
 | Tawanna Simpson (Nonpartisan) | 5.9 | 27,252 | |
| Nicole Conaway (Nonpartisan) | 5.5 | 25,167 | ||
 | Toson Jewell-Knight (Nonpartisan) | 4.8 | 21,996 | |
| Christopher Johnson (Nonpartisan) | 3.2 | 14,498 | ||
| Marie Hill-Nixon (Nonpartisan) | 3.1 | 14,333 | ||
| Victor B. Gibson (Nonpartisan) | 3.1 | 14,125 | ||
 | Kenneth Snapp (Nonpartisan) | 2.7 | 12,628 | |
| Eugene Lewis (Nonpartisan) | 2.7 | 12,360 | ||
| Jason Malone (Nonpartisan) | 2.3 | 10,371 | ||
| Jeremiah Steen (Nonpartisan) | 2.0 | 9,036 | ||
| Faustine Onwuneme (Nonpartisan) | 2.0 | 9,003 | ||
 | Richard Clement (Nonpartisan) | 1.8 | 8,187 | |
| Jen Nixon (Nonpartisan) | 1.6 | 7,366 | ||
| Benjamin Royal (Nonpartisan) | 1.5 | 6,865 | ||
 | Tabrian Joe (Nonpartisan) | 1.3 | 5,823 | |
| R. Amir Short (Nonpartisan) | 1.1 | 4,914 | ||
| Other/Write-in votes | 1.3 | 5,803 | ||
| Total votes: 459,414 | |||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Jaylin Harris (Nonpartisan)
Additional elections on the ballot
- See also: Michigan elections, 2024
January 30, 2024
April 16, 2024
August 6, 2024
- United States Senate election in Michigan, 2024
- Michigan's 10th Congressional District election, 2024
- Michigan's 12th Congressional District election, 2024
- Michigan's 13th Congressional District election, 2024
- Michigan House of Representatives elections, 2024
- Michigan intermediate appellate court elections, 2024
- Municipal elections in Wayne County, Michigan (2024)
- Detroit, Michigan, Proposition L, Property Tax Renewal for Public Libraries Measure (August 2024)
- Grosse Pointe, Michigan, Issue Stormwater Sewer Separation and Improvements Bond Measure (August 2024)
- Grosse Pointe, Michigan, Operating Property Tax Restoration and Extension Measure (August 2024)
- Wayne County, Michigan, Proposition A, Independent External Auditor Terms Measure (August 2024)
- Wayne County, Michigan, Proposition P, Parks and Facilities Rollback Rate Reauthorization Measure (August 2024)
November 5, 2024
- United States Senate election in Michigan, 2024
- Michigan's 10th Congressional District election, 2024
- Michigan's 12th Congressional District election, 2024
- Michigan's 13th Congressional District election, 2024
- Michigan State Board of Education election, 2024
- Michigan State Board of Regents election, 2024
- Michigan House of Representatives elections, 2024
- Michigan Supreme Court elections, 2024
- Michigan intermediate appellate court elections, 2024
- Michigan $15 Minimum Wage Initiative (2024)
- Dearborn Public Schools, Michigan, elections (2024)
- Municipal elections in Wayne County, Michigan (2024)
- Detroit Public Schools Community District, Michigan, Proposal S, Tax Measure (November 2024)
What was at stake?
Report a story for this election
Ballotpedia researches issues in school board elections across the United States, but information availability is a challenge for us in many school districts. Please contact us about the issues that impact your local school district. Note that not all submissions may meet Ballotpedia's coverage requirements for inclusion.
Candidate survey
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Ballotpedia invites school board candidates to participate in its annual survey. |
About the district
Detroit Public Schools Community District is located in Wayne County, Michigan. The district served 48,548 students during the 2022-2023 school year.[7]
See also
| Detroit Public Schools Community District | Michigan | School Boards |
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External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Michigan Chronicle, "22 Candidates Vie for 3 DPSCD School Board Seats in November General Election," September 13, 2024
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Chalkbeat Detroit, "Filing deadline for the school board election is approaching. Here’s what it could mean for DPSCD," July 12, 2024
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Chalkbeat, "DPSCD Superintendent Vitti’s contract extended until 2028," March 20, 2024
- ↑ Detroit Public Radio, "Detroit Evening Report: Detroit school board extends superintendent’s contract 3 years," March 20, 2024
- ↑ Detroit Free Press, "Nikolai Vitti is the choice for Detroit superintendent, April 19, 2017
- ↑ Detroit Free Press, "Detroit's new school system officially begins today," July 1, 2016
- ↑ National Center for Education Statistics, "Local Education Agency (School District) Universe Survey Data," accessed June 26, 2024
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