Ann Arbor Public Schools continues to deal with numerous problems. While the budget has improved, there are still long-term issues. Contract talks with the teachers’ union will kick off again this spring, and some school closings may be on the horizon.
Rima Mohammad is the only incumbent on the ballot. She’s running for a second term. Mohammad says she's always tried to listen to the public and let them know what was going on.
“I was always in the community talking to parents, students, teachers, staff and community members. Putting every decision that I made, every action that I took was really putting students in classrooms first.”
There are actually two elections on the ballot for the Ann Arbor School Board. Besides Mohammad, eight other candidates are running for four full-term seats.
Brandon Smith is a public school teacher in Saline and served on Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s Educators Advisory Council. He says the district’s accounting errors from a few years ago revealed larger systematic issues.
“Looking at the way we spend our money and getting back to the basics and putting our money in front of kids, whether that is in the classroom, whether that's in the counseling office, and making sure that we are spending our money in the right places is key.”
Carolyn Siebers has been in education for 40 years, including 20 at Pioneer and Community high schools. She says the board needs to get back to listening to the public. Siebers says decision-making has lost its community voice.
“I think to restore trust and transparency, the district must reinstate our community-selected budget steering committee, so that that committee will prioritize the local needs, establish financial state safeguards and reform our budget process.”
Aaron J. Puno graduated from Pioneer High School in 2023, where he was the editor-in-chief of Pioneer Optimist, the student newspaper. He says he's running to ensure the teachers, staff and students in Ann Arbor schools get the treatment they deserve.
“I'm appalled at the state of disability services in this district. Our parents, our caregivers, our students feel like they have to have devote every fiber of their being in order to simply be heard.”
Becca Hogan is an AAPS parent and a former teacher with a background in finance and education policy. She grew up in Ann Arbor and graduated from Dexter Public Schools. Hogan says the district has completely lost the trust of the community.
“The community does not trust the district, the central administration and the board because of the way they've been operating over the past five, six, maybe more years. But I see a real possibility and opportunity to bring that trust back.”
Kelley Ellis is a pediatric nurse. She says that gives her a unique experience with skills that will translate well to the school board. She says transparency, accountability, communication and finances are the main issues facing AAPS. Ellis says one difficult issue the district will have to face is school closings.
“I can't really see a way around it. I think that it's not just the students that have left Ann Arbor, but overall, we have a declining population. And with that declining population, we have a lot of buildings in Ann Arbor, more than other districts do, and they're not filled to capacity.”
Andy Spencer is a scientist, AAPS parent and former coach. His parents and other family members have been educators across Michigan. He says his top priority would be to get the district’s financial situation back in order and use his background to evaluate policy.
“I want to prioritize evidence-based help to student achievement. And I really want to make the district what I think it should be and has been for most of its history, which is it's a preferred destination for teachers and families looking for a great education.”
Lynden Dibble is also a candidate for one of the full four-year terms on the ballot. At 19, he’s the youngest candidate in the race, having graduated from Pioneer in 2025. He currently attends the University of Michigan. Dibble says, as the candidate who has most recently been a student in an AAPS classroom, he understands what students are facing.
“I view it as an advantage because we need someone at the decision-making table in the administration office who understands what our current students are struggling with, what they're going through and modern-day problems, like technology use and AI use.”
Jennifer Oldham is the mother of three kids in the district. She holds a Master of Social Work degree from the University of Michigan. She says she wants to continue the work to get Ann Arbor schools proper funding from Lansing.
“Ann Arbor needs to know that we cannot tax ourselves locally to pay our teachers. So we must work together with our representatives in Lansing to ensure at least adequate, but hopefully generous, investment in our schools and our future.”
Another major concern of Oldham’s is the exponential rise in the use of artificial intelligence and other forms of technology in the classroom. She says the district needs to be investing in teachers and not AI.
“Big tech is selling us the false story that EdTech and AI are beneficial to teaching and learning when the evidence says the opposite. What the evidence is that gamified EdTech is inhibiting learning, and that AI is causing our kids to completely circumvent the learning process.”
Dibble can testify that AI use has grown tremendously in the classroom. He says literacy and the misuse of technology are some of the major issues for current students. Dibble says students are undercutting their own education.
“When I was at Pioneer, we had a test. Our teacher was using the online software the school provides to monitor all students' devices. And we had three students, three separate students, utilize ChatGPT, AI chatbots, to write the in-class essay for this exam.”
When the district and the Ann Arbor Education Association (AAEA) approved a collecting bargaining contract in September, it was only after several months of often difficult negotiations.
AAEA President Fred Klein noted the district is facing a crisis as many veteran teachers are leaving for nearby districts that are offering better compensation and treatment.
The experience drain is a major issue in the school board race. Spencer says it needs to be addressed.
“I think people have left for greener pastures at a pretty good rate lately because they haven't had a great deal in Ann Arbor for too long. You know, my father was the lead union negotiator when he was a teacher, so I can see it from their side of the table. And I can also see it from the superintendent’s side.”
Ellis says one reason veteran teachers are leaving is because they feel disrespected and aren’t allowed enough say in what goes on in their classrooms. She says that needs to change.
“People want to feel heard. They want to feel like what they're doing matters. And I don't know that always happens from the district. Teachers have said to me, 'I was doing these programs out of the kindness of my heart for my students, but the teacher next to me isn't doing it. And I am getting no extra benefits for that.' And at some point, that just becomes a burnout.”
Hogan agrees that teachers deserve to add their voices to the day-to-day operations of the schools. She says many are leaving because they don’t feel valued.
“One of the main things I'm running on is a goal to value our educators deeply. And that's in, yes, the way that we pay and compensate them, but that's also how we talk to them, how we treat them, how we involve them in decision-making.”
One long-running issue facing the district is its uneven test scores for students, particularly those who are people of color, disabled or from struggling socioeconomic backgrounds. It’s an issue that particularly strikes home for Puno.
“I am a kid who was diagnosed several years ago with autism spectrum disorder. And so I have personally witnessed the shortfalls of the disability services system. And, you know, even if it wasn't personal for me, it still remains the principal matter.”
As a former math teacher, Siebers says she too has seen the problems of the achievement gap close up. She says more must be done to improve test scores.
“Over the last decade, our SAT math readiness has dropped 23%. And our three through eighth grade performance in reading and math fell by nearly a full grade level. And 35% of our students are chronically absent.”
Smith says, as part of the Governor’s Educator Advisory Council, he knows that the help is available for students. He says the problem is the district isn’t communicating it very well.
“The state of Michigan and Ann Arbor District Library have free resources for tutoring, for test prep, for those state-level tests, but also in your own classroom. Free tutoring and free homework resources. And the district should be shouting those from the mountaintops.”
As the only incumbent running for re-election, Mohammad says there is clearly a lot more work to be done. But she also says major decisions should not be made in the next few months. Instead, she thinks they should wait until the new board arrives in January.
“It's important that they're not handed something from the prior board. It's that they have buy-in to our strategic plan. They have input to a lot of these decisions, because the work is not going to be finished by the end of the year.”
Along with the four full four-year terms, there is also one partial term to be decided. It’s the seat Don Wilkerson resigned from earlier this year due to personal reasons. Those issues have now been settled, and he seeks a return to his old seat. Wilkerson says he wants to bring his financial expertise back to the school board.
“I hold a master's and a bachelor's of business from the Ross School of Business. My master's is in accounting. Obviously, I work as an audit and compliance executive, and I hold three financial audit certifications.”
Two others are running for the partial term. John Benson is also a financial expert. He has 25 years of experience, particularly in risk monitoring and budget forecasting. Benson says the district’s numbers are skewed.
“Our revenue is up 25%, but our compensation packages to everybody under collective bargaining as a whole look like they've only gone up about 13 or 14%. And our savings balance has come down in the last five or six years. Those three things should not be happening together.”
The third candidate for the two-year partial seat is Kevin Hudson. He grew up in Ann Arbor. Until his retirement this spring, he was a longtime employee of the district, having last served as a class principal at Pioneer High School. He says he’s running for the partial term because he’s not a politician and doesn’t plan on spending many years on the board.
“I think that a lot of the teachers feel they're in the dark. A lot of parents also feel like they're the dark. The community feels like they are in the darkness. We want to know how is this money being spent and why is it that we don't have enough money to compete with the rest of the state in terms of bringing quality, effective teachers in?”
Early voting in Ann Arbor begins tomorrow and runs daily through Nov. 1. You can vote for up to four candidates for the full-term seats on the ballot but only one for the partial term seat.
This story is part of a series previewing major local races in the 2026 midterm elections. Click here for more of WEMU's local election coverage.
Non-commercial, fact based reporting is made possible by your financial support. Make your donation to WEMU today to keep your community NPR station thriving.
Like 89.1 WEMU on Facebook and follow us on X (Twitter).
Contact WEMU News at 734.487.3363 or email us at studio@wemu.org.
