Detroit school board previews $1.1 billion budget with raises and a warning about the years after

Detroit's school board got its first look this week at a proposed $1.1 billion budget for the 2026-27 school year. The plan funds pay raises across the district, adds high school counselors, and widens a yellow bus pilot. It also comes with a caution about what happens once the next year ends. The full board is set to vote in June.

The proposal keeps the district's current programs in place and adds salary increases and one-time bonuses for all employees. The district serves a little over 49,000 students and projects roughly 1 percent enrollment growth, in line with statewide trends. Superintendent Nikolai Vitti framed the year as a hold rather than a reset. "Everything is funded as it was last year," he told the board, per Bridge Detroit. "There's not going to be any major changes."

The warning is about the budgets that follow. The $94 million the district received from the settlement of a literacy lawsuit ends after the 2026-27 fiscal year, and the programs built on that money have no guaranteed replacement. The district is also set to return to a traditional funding model that leans on operating millage revenue, which means a drop in collections would pull the budget down with it.

Several initiatives expand under the plan. A yellow school bus pilot that began this year at Henry Ford High School and East English Village Preparatory Academy at Finney would extend to Pershing High School and Cody High School, an effort aimed at chronic absenteeism. The budget also adds seven high school counselors, which the district says would bring the ratio to one counselor for every 250 students, the level recommended by the American School Counselor Association. Michigan schools averaged one counselor for every 565 students in 2024-25.

The district's attendance incentive, which paid high school students for each week of perfect attendance earlier this year, would extend to middle schoolers at a lower weekly rate. The budget also raises funding for classroom materials and sets a minimum supply standard across schools. Vitti said the board has been clear that "families should not be required to give extra supplies to individual teachers or classrooms."

Board members pressed for more. President LaTrice McClendon asked about matching the city's $21.45 hourly minimum wage for district employees; Vitti said an analysis was done but the figure "exceeded what we thought we could afford in the next two years." McClendon also pushed for a higher enrollment growth target, arguing the district should aim bigger because, she said, "we have kids who want to come back." Board member Bessie Harris called for more visibility for neighborhood schools, naming several that she said get overlooked next to the district's better-known buildings.

The official budget figures and presentation are part of the public board record, posted through the district's board document portal and its budget transparency page. The board votes next month.