Vote Tuesday, November 3, 2026 · Detroit

Bobby
Christianfor DPSCD School Board

Putting Students First.Preparing Detroit’s Future.

A lifelong Detroiter, entrepreneur, husband and father. President of the Eastside Colts youth football team and an after-school programme coordinator across multiple Detroit sites. Bobby has spent years creating places where young people can learn, grow, lead and succeed.

Join the campaign Where Bobby stands

Election day

Families
Special Needs
Career Readiness
Attendance
Accountability

Why Bobby

He didn’t start caring in an election year.

Bobby Christian is a Detroit father, coach and mentor who has spent years doing the unglamorous work of showing up for other people’s children.

Every name on a school board ballot promises to put students first. Bobby Christian has the receipts — years of Saturdays, practices, programme sites and parents who already have his number.

More about Bobby

President

Eastside Colts

Youth football and cheer on Detroit’s east side, run by volunteer parents.

Multiple sites

After-school coordinator

Running programmes across Detroit — the hours after the bell, every week.

Lifelong

Detroiter

Entrepreneur, husband and father, raising his children in this district.

What Bobby will work on

Five priorities, named plainly.

Detroit families already know how their schools are doing. What a board member owes them is a clear account of what he intends to do about it.

Priority 01

Supporting parents and strengthening families

Parents want to be involved in their children’s education. What stops them is usually a work schedule, a bus route, or a missing laptop — not a lack of caring.

Bobby will build stronger partnerships between DPSCD and trusted Detroit community organisations, and bring parent engagement into neighbourhoods and community spaces rather than expecting every family to come to a school building.

The goal: When parents have the support they need, students have a stronger foundation for success.

Stronger partnerships between DPSCD and trusted Detroit community organisations
Connect families with resources that remove the barriers to being involved
Academic, technology, financial, workforce and family-support resources for parents
Parent engagement in neighbourhoods and community spaces, not only school buildings
Clearer communication between parents, teachers, school leaders and the district

Priority 02

Expanding support for students with special needs

Every child deserves to learn somewhere they are supported, respected, and given the tools they actually need.

Bobby will push for the staffing that makes inclusion real — classroom assistants and paraprofessionals — and will listen directly to the parents who know best what their children are up against.

The goal: No child should have to fight for the support they need to learn.

Increased funding for classroom assistants and paraprofessionals
Adequate support staff in classrooms
Stronger resources for students with disabilities and exceptional learning needs
Training and resources so teachers can serve diverse learners well
Listen directly to parents of students with special needs

Priority 03

Career readiness and workforce development

A diploma should open doors. Students should leave with skills, experience, connections and a plan for what comes next.

Bobby will expand partnerships between DPSCD high schools and Detroit employers across technology, the skilled trades, healthcare, manufacturing, construction, hospitality, finance, transportation and the creative industries — and strengthen entrepreneurship education so students can see themselves as owners, not only employees.

The goal: Every student should graduate with a pathway — not just a diploma.

More partnerships between DPSCD high schools and Detroit businesses
Internships, apprenticeships, job shadowing and work-based learning
Industry-recognised credentials and practical experience
Mentors and professionals who open doors students would not otherwise find
Entrepreneurship education, so students can see themselves as business owners

Priority 04

Increasing student attendance

Students have to be in the classroom to benefit from the classroom. Absence is usually a symptom, not a choice.

Absenteeism is tied to transportation, healthcare, family circumstances, housing instability and disengagement. Bobby will make attendance a community priority and treat the causes, not just the record.

The goal: Every day in school is a chance to learn, connect, and move closer to graduation.

Community partnerships that identify and address the real barriers
Early intervention when a student starts missing school regularly
Stronger communication between schools and families
Community-based attendance initiatives, mentorship and student engagement
Use attendance data to find where resources are actually needed

60.9%

of DPSCD students were chronically absent in 2024–25

Michigan average: 28%

In Michigan a student is “chronically absent” after missing 18 days of a 180-day school year — about two days a month.

Source: DPSCD reported rate, 2024–25 school year

Priority 05

Transparency, accountability and community voice

Parents and Detroit residents deserve to know what is happening in their school district — before it has already happened.

Bobby will push for district decisions that families can actually follow, for input gathered before major decisions rather than after, and for a board member willing to ask difficult questions when results do not match what was promised.

The goal: No parent should have to hear about a decision affecting their child’s education after it has already been made.

Make district decisions easier for families and residents to understand
Clear information on major policy, budget, staffing and academic decisions
Regular communication from district leadership on progress and problems
Input from parents, educators, students and community before decisions are made
Ask difficult questions when results do not match expectations

Bobby’s vision

Education is a community responsibility.

Schools cannot do this work alone. Parents need support. Teachers need resources. Students need opportunity. Businesses need pathways to connect with the next generation. Community organisations need a seat at the table. And the district must be accountable to the people it serves.

Who Bobby is

Bobby Christian in Eastside Colts colours at a community event in Detroit — Eastside Colts community day, Detroit.

President: Eastside Colts youth football team
After-school coordinator: Multiple programme sites across Detroit
Coach & mentor: Years on Detroit fields and in after-school rooms
Husband and father: Raising children in the district he wants to serve
Entrepreneur: Lifelong Detroiter

He has been doing this work without the title.

Bobby Christian is a Detroit father, coach and mentor who has spent years doing the unglamorous work of showing up for other people’s children.

He is the President of Eastside Colts Inc., a 501(c)(3) youth football and cheer organization on Detroit’s east side. Hundreds of children have come through it — for practice, for structure, for a hot meal, for somewhere to be on a Saturday and someone to answer to on a Tuesday. It is run by volunteers, mostly parents, mostly out of their own pockets.

That work is the whole argument for this campaign. Bobby has spent years on the receiving end of decisions made by people who never meet the children those decisions land on — and he has watched what it costs when adults get it wrong. He is not running to learn about Detroit’s young people. He already knows them by name.

The board sets the direction. Bobby has spent years on the receiving end of those decisions — in gyms, on fields and in after-school rooms, with the children the decisions land on.

Already doing the work

Classrooms, sidelines, and a lot of Saturdays.

He was doing this before there was a ballot to be on.

In the classroom

Coaching the Eastside Colts

Neighbourhood cleanup, east side

Everything you need, in order

How and when to vote on November 3, 2026

In Michigan you can vote by mail, vote early in person, or vote on the day — and you can register right up to 8pm on Election Day. Here are the dates that matter.

September 24
Absentee ballots start going out
Clerks begin mailing ballots to everyone who asked for one. This is also the first day you can vote in person at your clerk’s office.
October 19
Last day to register online or by mail
After this you can still register — but you have to do it in person at your clerk’s office and bring proof of where you live.
October 24 – November 1
Early voting, statewide
Every community has to offer in-person early voting at a designated site during this window. Some open earlier and some add Monday November 2.
October 30, 5:00 pm
Deadline to request an absentee ballot by mail or online
Cutting it this close is risky — there is no guarantee the ballot reaches you in time to send it back.
November 3, 8:00 pm
Election Day — polls close
Every absentee ballot has to be in your clerk’s hands by 8:00 pm, not postmarked by then. You can also still register and vote in person all day.

Michigan Voter Information Center

See your actual ballot

Check your registration and preview what you will be handed

Find your clerk and drop box

Where to hand-deliver an absentee ballot

Also on your ballot

There is also a school funding question on your ballot

Separately from the candidates, DPSCD is asking voters to approve an operating millage — a property tax that funds the district’s day-to-day operations. The proposal would set an 18-mill maximum annual levy for 20 years, running 2026 through 2045, and is estimated to raise about $112 million in its first year for general operating purposes.

It is a separate question from the board race. You vote on both.

Awaiting Bobby’s position

This section publishes his stance in his own words. It stays empty until he gives it — nearly the whole field is silent on the millage, so saying something clear here is an opportunity, but it has to be his sentence.

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BobbyChristianfor DPSCD School Board