Bobby ChristianNov 3

Nonpartisan · 5 seats · Tuesday, November 3, 2026

Bobby
Christian

for Detroit School Board

He’s been doing the work. Now he’s asking for the seat.

Bobby Christian has spent years with Detroit’s children — on the field, in the gym, and in the after-school room. He is running for the Board of Education because the decisions that shape their days are made in a room he has never been in.

Join the campaignWhere Bobby stands

Election day

Bobby Christian, candidate for Detroit School Board

Before you get to the booth

You get 5 votes in this race.

The Detroit school board race is nonpartisan and at-large — no party line, no primary, and every Detroit voter votes on every seat.

5 seats are open, and you may choose up to 5 names. Most people mark one and move on, which quietly throws four votes away.

Use all five. Make Bobby one of them.

What Bobby will work on

Four problems, named honestly.

Detroit families already know how their schools are doing. The useful thing a board member can offer is not reassurance — it is a clear account of what is wrong and what they intend to do about it.

Priority 01

Keep great teachers in Detroit

Detroit students need experienced, supported teachers who want to build their careers here — not start them here and leave.

Bobby will support competitive pay, real professional development, mentorship for new teachers, stronger support inside the classroom, and a serious strategy for recruiting and keeping good educators.

  • Competitive compensation that makes staying the easy choice
  • Mentorship pairing for every new teacher
  • Professional development teachers actually asked for
  • Stronger classroom support so teachers are not doing five jobs

Priority 02

Improve reading and math

Every Detroit student should be able to read and do math confidently before they reach high school.

Bobby will support early literacy intervention, evidence-based reading instruction, tutoring and small-group help, stronger math intervention, and straight talk with parents about how their child is actually doing.

  • Early literacy intervention, starting in the earliest grades
  • Evidence-based reading instruction — what the research supports
  • Tutoring and small-group academic support
  • Clear, honest progress reporting to parents

Every desk is one Detroit fourth grader

Five of every hundred can read at grade level.

2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress, Grade 4 reading, Detroit. The Michigan figure is 25% and the national figure is 30%.

7%

of Detroit fourth graders were proficient in math

Michigan: 37% · Nationally: 39%

Source: 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), Grade 4, Detroit

Priority 03

Get students back in the classroom

A student cannot learn from a seat they are not in. Attendance is the problem underneath every other problem.

Bobby will support earlier intervention with students and families, stronger parent communication, mentoring, transportation solutions, after-school programming, and community partnerships that deal with the real reasons children miss school.

  • Reach families early, before absences become a pattern
  • Transportation solutions — often the actual barrier
  • Mentoring and after-school programming that gives a reason to show up
  • Community partnerships that address what is happening at home

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; Michigan statewide comparison

Priority 04

Every student graduates with a next step

A diploma should come with a plan attached — college, a trade, an apprenticeship, a business, or a good-paying job.

Bobby will advocate for expanded career and technical education, skilled trades, apprenticeships, internships, dual enrollment, financial literacy, technology programs, and real partnerships with Detroit employers, unions, colleges and training programs.

  • Expanded career and technical education, and the skilled trades
  • Apprenticeships and internships with Detroit employers and unions
  • Dual enrollment so college credit starts in high school
  • Financial literacy, because earning it and keeping it are different skills

Who Bobby is

Bobby Christian in Eastside Colts colours at a community event in Detroit
Eastside Colts community day, Detroit.
President
Eastside Colts Inc., 501(c)(3) — youth football and cheer
Coach & mentor
Years on Detroit fields and in after-school rooms
Father
Raising children in the district he wants to serve

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

Youth football, after-school, and a lot of Saturdays.

Bobby Christian walking with young Eastside Colts players in their jerseys
With the Colts on community day
Bobby Christian greeting a volunteer at a neighbourhood cleanup in Detroit
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.

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

Register to vote

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.

Get involved

Five seats. Five weeks. This is decided by who turns up.

Donate

Yard signs and literature cost money

Links to the campaign’s existing ActBlue account — pending the exact page URL.

Volunteer

Knock doors, make calls, hand out literature

Direct contact moves more votes than anything else on this page.

Request a yard sign

Down-ballot races are won on name recognition

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Stay in the loop

Get a reminder before your ballot arrives

Ballots go out on 24 September. Tell us how to reach you and we will send one reminder before yours arrives, and one before Election Day. That is it.

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