Michigan school board elections, 2026

Michigan 2026 elections

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Elections

State profile

Additional elections

Statistics

School board elections in the largest cities and school districts

Ballotpedia covers tens of thousands of school board elections across the United States each year. This page contains links to this state's school districts where Ballotpedia is covering elections in 2026. The following table lists districts that overlap with the nation's 100 largest cities or that are among the nation's 200 largest school districts and for which Ballotpedia provides comprehensive coverage.

Editor's note: Some school districts choose to cancel the primary election, or both the primary and general election, if the number of candidates who filed does not meet a certain threshold. The table below does not reflect which primary or general elections were canceled. Please click through to each school district's page for more information.

2026 Michigan School Board Elections
District	Primary	Primary Runoff	General Election	General Runoff Election	Seats up for election	Total board seats	2023-2024 enrollment
Ann Arbor Public Schools	-	-	11/3/2026	-	4	7	16,978
Dearborn Public Schools	-	-	11/3/2026	-	4	7	19,621
Detroit Public Schools Community District	-	-	11/3/2026	-	5	7	48,271

Election rules

View election rules

Election dates and frequency

See also: Rules governing school board election dates and timing

School board general elections in Michigan are held on the first Tuesday after the First Monday in November every two years in even-numbered years.

See law: Michigan Statute Section 380.384

Recent or upcoming election dates for all local school districts in the state

Below are the recent/upcoming dates for all local school districts in the state. There may be exceptions to these dates for specific districts because of local charters and district-specific exceptions and carve-outs.

Filing deadline date: July 21, 2026
General election date: November 3, 2026

Election system

School board members in Michigan are elected through nonpartisan general elections without primaries.

See law: Michigan Statute Section 380.384

Party labels on the ballot

See also: Rules governing party labels in school board elections

School board elections in Michigan are nonpartisan, which means party labels do not appear on the ballot for school board candidates. Michigan Election Law on school board candidate nominating petitions states, "(2)The nominating petition must be substantially in the form prescribed in section 544c, except that the petition must be nonpartisan." It also states, "At any regular election, the names of the several nonpartisan offices to be voted for shall be placed on a separate portion of the ballot containing no party designation in the following order: [...], and in a year in which an election for the office is held, local school district board member, metropolitan district officer, and district library board member."

See law: Michigan Statute Section 168.303 and Section 168.699

Winning an election

The candidate or candidates that receive the most votes in the nonpartisan general election are elected to office.

See law: Michigan Statute Section 168.307

Term length and staggering

All school districts other community school districts in Michigan have board member terms of either four or six years depending on the board by-laws. As of 2022, 60% of school districts in Michigan had six-year board member terms, and 40% -- including community school districts -- had four-year board member terms.

Community school districts in Michigan have four-year board member terms. Initial terms for the first board members of newly organized community school districts are two, four, or six years to stagger elections.

See law: Michigan Statute Section 380.11a and Michigan Statute Section 380.384

For community school districts in Michigan, as close to half of school board members as possible for each district are elected every two years, which means either three or four seats are up for election at each even-year election. At the first board member election after community school districts are first organized, all seven board member seats are elected. Two members are elected to two-year terms, three members are elected to four-year terms, and two members are elected to six-year terms, with higher vote totals dictating longer initial terms. After initial terms, all board members have four-year terms, which results in staggered elections: four seats up in one election and three seats up in the next election.

Michigan statute requires that at least one board member must be elected every two years at each regular even-year election. Specific seat staggering details for school districts other than community school districts are determined at the local level by the district board's bylaws. Most districts with four-year board member terms elect as close to half of board members as possible every two years. Most districts with six-year board member terms elect as close to one-third of board members as possible every two years.

See law: Michigan Statute Section 380.384 and Michigan Statute Section 168.301

Representation: at large vs. by sub-district

School board members in Michigan are elected at large by all voters in the district.

See law: Michigan Statute Section 168.303, Section 168.307, and Section 380.384 (3)

Filing deadlines and swearing-in dates

School board candidates must file affidavits and nomination petitions or candidate filing fees by 4 p.m. on the 15th Tuesday before the November election. This means that the school board candidate filing deadline is in late July every even-numbered year.

See law: Michigan Statute Section 168.303

Newly elected school board members in Michigan officially take office on January 1 of the year following the election.

See law: Michigan Statute Section 380.384 and Section 168.302

Recalls

See also: Recall campaigns in Michigan and School board recalls

State	Specific grounds required?	Signature requirement	Petition circulation time	When recalls can start
Michigan	No	25% of voters in the jurisdiction in the last gubernatorial election	60 days between collection of first signature and collection of last signature; recall petitions are eligible to collect signatures for 180 days	For two-year terms, recalls cannot start until an official has been in office for six months, and they cannot start in the last six months of an officer's term For four-year terms, recalls cannot start until an official has been in office for one year, and they cannot start in the last year of an officer's term

2026 school board recalls

Michigan school board recall efforts, 2026
School district	Number of officeholders	Status of officeholders
Alpena Public Schools	3	Sarah Costain: Underway Monica Dziesinski: Underway Eric Lawson: Underway
Forest Park School District	2	Ryan Aho: Underway Troy Margoni: Did not go to a vote

State profile

Demographic data for Michigan
	Michigan	U.S.
Total population:	9,917,715	316,515,021
Land area (sq mi):	56,539	3,531,905
Race and ethnicity**
White:	79%	73.6%
Black/African American:	14%	12.6%
Asian:	2.7%	5.1%
Native American:	0.5%	0.8%
Pacific Islander:	0%	0.2%
Two or more:	2.6%	3%
Hispanic/Latino:	4.7%	17.1%
Education
High school graduation rate:	89.6%	86.7%
College graduation rate:	26.9%	29.8%
Income
Median household income:	$49,576	$53,889
Persons below poverty level:	20%	11.3%
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2010-2015) Click here for more information on the 2020 census and here for more on its impact on the redistricting process in Michigan. **Note: Percentages for race and ethnicity may add up to more than 100 percent because respondents may report more than one race and the Hispanic/Latino ethnicity may be selected in conjunction with any race. Read more about race and ethnicity in the census here.

Presidential voting pattern

See also: Presidential voting trends in Michigan

Michigan voted for the Democratic candidate in four out of the seven presidential elections between 2000 and 2024.

Pivot Counties (2016)

Ballotpedia identified 206 counties that voted for Donald Trump (R) in 2016 after voting for Barack Obama (D) in 2008 and 2012. Collectively, Trump won these Pivot Counties by more than 580,000 votes. Of these 206 counties, 12 are located in Michigan, accounting for 5.83 percent of the total pivot counties.^[1]

Pivot Counties (2020)

In 2020, Ballotpedia re-examined the 206 Pivot Counties to view their voting patterns following that year's presidential election. Ballotpedia defined those won by Trump won as Retained Pivot Counties and those won by Joe Biden (D) as Boomerang Pivot Counties. Nationwide, there were 181 Retained Pivot Counties and 25 Boomerang Pivot Counties. Michigan had 11 Retained Pivot Counties and one Boomerang Pivot County, accounting for 6.08 and 4.00 of all Retained and Boomerang Pivot Counties, respectively.

More Michigan coverage on Ballotpedia

Candidates

The following charts show the total number of school board races and candidates covered by Ballotpedia each year since 2023. The figures in this section include all school board elections covered by Ballotpedia, including both core local coverage of the largest school districts as well as any expanded coverage of smaller districts. Click here to learn more about Ballotpedia's election coverage scope.

Analysis

See also: School board election data analysis, 2025

Ballotpedia did not cover school board elections in school districts in the 100 largest cities or 200 largest school districts in Michigan in 2025. Click here to read the full report on school board election analysis across the country in 2025.

Footnotes

↑ The raw data for this study was provided by Dave Leip of Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections.

[1] The raw data for this study was provided by Dave Leip of Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections.

[1]

Michigan	School Boards	News and Analysis

Public education in Michigan List of school districts in Michigan School board elections in Michigan School board authority in Michigan	School board elections, 2026 School board elections, 2025 Michigan school board elections, 2025	Ballotpedia's school board candidate survey School board election data analysis, 2025

Michigan school board elections, 2026

Contents

School board elections in the largest cities and school districts

Election rules

Election dates and frequency

Election system

Party labels on the ballot

Winning an election

Term length and staggering

Representation: at large vs. by sub-district

Filing deadlines and swearing-in dates

Recalls

2026 school board recalls

State profile

Presidential voting pattern

Pivot Counties (2016)

Pivot Counties (2020)

Candidates

Analysis

See also

Footnotes

Information about voting

2026 Elections

2025 Elections

Election analysis

Trending

Public Policy

Information for candidates

Get Engaged

Services

Additional analysis

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