Chalkbeat Detroit breaks down who’s running for five open DPSCD board seats

There are 34 people vying for the five open seats on the Detroit Public Schools Community District Board. Hannah Dellinger has been reporting on candidates for Chalkbeat Detroit. She spoke with WDET’s Sascha Raiyn about the race and what they’ve learned about some of the candidates’ backgrounds.

Hannah Dellinger: There are quite a few candidates that want to see big changes in the district, and quite a few that want Superintendent Nikolai Vitti out of the district. Everyone is watching to see what the results will be because it really could change the future of Michigan’s largest school district for years to come. 

Sascha Raiyn: We should note that Chalkbeat has a whole guide that voters can use to familiarize themselves with the candidates. 

HD: Each election cycle, our bureau chief Lori Higgins puts together this this candidate guide and questionnaire. We ask the candidates to answer questions everywhere from what they think the district should be doing to reduce chronic absenteeism to what needs to change in the district’s curriculum to whether or not parents should be held more accountable for student outcomes.

SR: I understand that from your reporting, you found that some of the candidates have a criminal background. 

HD: Yes. Chalkbeat and Bridge Detroit regularly partner to background all of the candidates. We reviewed records for all 34 names that will appear on the ballot.

We found four candidates that had criminal felony convictions. We did not include charges that were dismissed or convictions related to marijuana possession or distribution.  

SR: What kinds of crimes did you find? 

HD: In alphabetical order:

Bobby Christian

HD: He’s an after-school program coordinator and youth football coach. He plead guilty to attempting uttering and publishing, or trying to pass off a forged, altered or counterfeit document in 2011.

I spoke with Christian. He said that he was charged because he was the sole owner of a company involved in an incident in which a client’s check was stolen.

The publicly available court documents didn’t have those details about the circumstances leading up to the charge.

Duane Grigsby Jr.

HD: He’s a business owner and property manager. He’s been convicted of multiple felonies, including receiving stolen property, assaulting a police officer and domestic violence.

All of his convictions are from 20 or more years ago in Ohio.

The forgery charge was in 1996, and then in 1998 he was convicted of assault on a police officer and failure to comply with an order of a police officer in Butler County, Ohio.

When we asked him about that particular conviction, he said, “Yeah, I did. That’s me. I’m not saying I’m violent right now, but I could become violent if someone pushed me, and if they do something to these kids, I’m going to show out. I’m not saying I’m going to put hands on somebody, but I’m going to show out and I’m going to step up.”

Then, in 2005, Grigsby was convicted of domestic violence. He said that those allegations were false.

Darius Morris*

HD: He’s currently the District 3 representative of the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners. Because of that, his past has been reported on pretty extensively.

He was convicted of forgery and falsely impersonating a public officer in 2009 in Wayne County. Then in 2011, he was convicted of conducting criminal enterprises. He was also convicted in 2023 of assaulting, resisting, or obstructing a police officer.

*Editor’s note: school board candidate Darius Morris has dropped out of the race.

Dannetta Simpson

HD: She previously ran for mayor. Her past has also been pretty extensively reported on.

She was convicted of assault with intent to murder in 1996 in Oakland County. It was previously reported that she made threatening phone calls and then later fired a gun near a woman during. An altercation in which no one was injured, and she pleaded no contest to to that charge.

She told us that she was wrongfully convicted and denies everything.

All of the candidates with these convictions say that this one thing doesn’t define who they are as people, and that in fact, their experiences with the criminal justice system can help inform their interactions with youth or some of the volunteer work that they’re already doing. 

SR: Can I ask you to flesh out a little bit more some of the discussions around Vitti? 

HD: Sure. You know, there’s always criticisms of the superintendent. The district; their community members want more urgency.

Their three major asks are improving early literacy scores faster, improving facilities and then having more administrative transparency.

If you talk to researchers who review the MStep scores for the district, over time they will tell you that there has been sustained improvement that is significant since Dr. Vitti began nine years ago.  They say that points to the curriculum and the strategies working.

Researchers will say that a lot of these changes take a lot of time, especially given all of the challenges, including systemic racism and poverty, that Black children in Detroit face.

No matter what, we’re going to have a new majority on the DPSCD board. You know, if a new board wants sweeping change, that could mean not only Vitti would leave, but possibly a lot of his cabinet, a lot of administrators. A lot is left unknown right now as we’re going into the Nov. 3 election.