Dearborn Public Schools is asking voters to approve a transformational bond for the district on Nov. 3, 2026.
This is a critical time for the district because we can raise $1.5 billion without changing the total tax rate for Dearborn homeowners. This money will be used to build new schools, improve safety across the district, add hands-on STEAM learning spaces, renovate at every school, and eventually ensure that every school is air-conditioned.
No mill increase for Dearborn homeowners
The bond question will ask voters to approve a 3.14 mill increase on their tax bills. For City of Dearborn homeowners, that entire increase will be offset by reductions in other taxes collected by Dearborn Public Schools and the City of Dearborn. If the bond is approved, the tax rate for Dearborn homeowners will stay at 26.30 mills total for the city and school district.
Dearborn Heights homeowners would see school millage increase 0.96 mill with the bond. (Technically, their millage would fall from the corrected 2026 rate. See the FAQs for more details) For homeowners, the total school millage would still be less than they paid in 2024 and less than half what they paid in 2021.
Twenty years of transformational change
Bond work would be issued in four phases over the twenty years. Plans call for building six new preschool through eighth grade buildings (preK-8) and major renovations for all of the remaining elementary and middle schools. Fordson, Dearborn and Edsel Ford high schools would keep their current buildings and see extensive renovations. Every wave of work would help any building that hasn’t already been rebuilt or fully renovated. Phase 1 would include adding secure vestibules at 24 schools, improving restrooms, expanding career and technical educations, refurbishing athletic facilities, updating technology, fixing roofs, and replacing buses. In the first two phases of the bond, the district plans to refurbish every group restroom in every school that is not being replaced. The bond also would fund urgent repairs for boilers, roofs, HVAC and more at schools across the district.
For more details, see the Facilities Master Plan report to the board from June 22, 2026.
Why preK-8 schools?
Combining existing buildings into new schools will allow the district to reduce its total footprint to less than 2 million square feet. Instead of maintaining two buildings only blocks apart, the district would have one new, larger facility for students. Elementary and middle school students would be separated for classes, meals, recess, lineup, and dismissal, but all students could use special spaces like STEM labs, music rooms, and gymnasium-auditoriums. Students and families would benefit from staying in the same neighborhood school for GSRP preschool through eighth grade.
Community input at every stage
At each phase of the bond, the district would gather community input on the plans for the next stage. Plans can and will evolve to adapt to any changes in community or education needs over the 20 years. The district will also provide regular public updates on how bond money is being spent and the plans and status of different projects.
How have the district’s tax rates changed over the years?
When the district last asked voters for a bond in 2019, the district’s total tax rate was 10.99 mills, including 6.17 for the operating millage, then called the hold harmless.
Since then the district has paid off one bond and the state slashed how much funding the district is allowed to collect in its operating millage on homeowners.
For 2025, the district’s total millage was 3.40 mills for both operating and debt millage. That is one-third of the millage rate the last time the district asked for a bond.
Other resources
Check back here for more resources as they become available
Facilities Planning page – This site contains lots of historical data about facilities work and planning in the district.
Frequently Asked Questions
Unfortunately, that’s even more complicated than usual.
In the simplest terms, homeowners in Dearborn Heights would see their district property taxes with the bond climb by 0.96 mills. For homeowners in the City of Dearborn, that part of the bond is being offset by the end of the city’s millage for the combined sewer overflow project, which is why those residents have a no-millage increase with the bond.
However, in actual bills, Dearborn Heights homeowners would see their school millage under the new bond fall by almost a mill from this year to next year (the 2026-27 billing cycle to the 2027-28 cycle).
Due to an error at the Dearborn Heights City Clerk’s office, homeowners were not assessed the district’s 2.18 operating millage on the summer 2025 and winter 2026 tax bills. As a result, those homeowners in the 2026-27 tax cycle will see two years of operating millage for a total of more than 4 mills plus the district’s existing debt millage. Combined, those millages are about a mill higher than the total district tax rate Dearborn Heights homeowners would pay if the bond is passed.
A few studies of our buildings in recent years show the district should spend more than $1.5 billion to meet all of the structural and educational needs. (See this December 2025 report from Quinn Evans.) Those costs would increase over time with inflation.
We are at a unique position in 2026 where we can issue $1.51 billion in new bonds to make transformational changes – building new schools and major renovations at every remaining building – without raising taxes for homeowners in the City of Dearborn.
By state law, non-homestead property is always taxed at 18 mills for the district operating millage. This includes businesses, rentals, second homes, and any other property besides a person’s primary home. So these properties would not benefit from the district waiving the 2.18 mills on homeowners.
For non-homestead properties in Dearborn, their total city and school tax rate would go up by 2.18 mills. They will still see the end of the city’s CSO millage, offsetting part of the increase from the bond.
Non-homestead properties in Dearborn Heights would see the full 3.14 mills increase.
The district’s total debt millage if the bond is approved would be about 4.36 mills including the new millage and the remaining debt millage from the 2013 bond. For comparison, the debt millage rate was 4.82 mills in 2019 when the district last asked for a bond.
City of Dearborn homeowners would save 0.96 mills a year without the bond because the City of Dearborn sewer millage would fall off the tax bill. This figures to about $96 for a home worth about $200,000.
Dearborn Heights homeowners would not see any change to their district tax bill if the bond fails.
While the bond would add 3.14 mills to homeowners’ tax bills, Dearborn Public Schools will offset most of that amount by not collecting its 2.18 mill operating millage if the bond passes. If the bond does not pass, the district will continue to collect the 2.18 operating millage from homeowners.
The district collected 1.22 mills for debt in the 2025-26 tax year. That is far below most districts in the area. Districts such as Troy, Novi, and Crestwood collect more than 6 mills for school debt.
Dearborn Schools is also well behind many other districts in how much it has bonded for school infrastructure. In the last 20 years, Dearborn Schools has bonded only $76 million for school infrastructure. Many smaller districts have bonded more than four times that amount including Livonia, Plymouth-Canton, Walled Lake, Novi, Troy, and Ann Arbor.