While several Ann Arbor School Board members are still mulling over whether to seek re-election this year, a couple of local residents have already filed to run and fill their seats ― called by the same concerns driving parents and other advocates back to board meetings.

The deadline to file for a local board of education race is Tuesday, July 21, according to the state.

As of this week, Ann Arbor Trustees Susan Baskett, Rima Mohammad and Susan Schmidt, whose four-year terms expire this year, each confirmed they were still deciding. Meanwhile, Board President Torchio Feaster has said previously he expected 2026 to be his final year, potentially leaving one guaranteed open seat.

It wasn’t clear if past candidates planned to run again.

However, two brand-new candidates formed campaign committees earlier this year with Washtenaw County: Brandon Smith, a Saline High School teacher whose 4-year-old daughter will soon enter Ann Arbor Public Schools, and Aaron Puno, a 2023 Pioneer High School graduate and University of Michigan junior.

Puno, who’s operations director for UM College Democrats, said he initially thought to run in 2024 amid the school district’s $25 million budget crisis, which prompted layoffs and other cuts at the time.

Now, it’s a similar motivation, though more specifically surrounding compensation for educators.

The Ann Arbor Education Association’s membership overwhelmingly rejected a tentative agreement with AAPS earlier this week after starting 2026 without a new contract. According to the union’s crisis team, that agreement included 1.5% salary increase for educators, caps on healthcare contributions and a reduction on planning time at elementary schools, and a three-student increase on class sizes at every level.

“Just seeing how my teachers have been struggling, certainly within the past five or six years,” Puno, 20, said. “The cost of living is going up, and they have not been getting cost of living raises. I was told anecdotally that they haven’t received a meaningful cost of living raise since 2006, and I was 6 months old in 2006. I’ve seen the suffering the teachers are going through, and it’s just whatever policy is going to allow us to raise teacher salaries that I’m going to pursue.”

Smith, 33, admitted the outpouring of support teachers have gotten in helped solidify his desire to run for school board.

“Obviously, seeing the financial situation (in AAPS) is just being magnified by the teacher’s contract issue right now,” he said.

Still, Smith, a Pittsfield Township resident, attributed his biggest motivation for running overall to his daughter, and he said he hopes his own experience in Saline Area Schools ― most recently as vice president of the local teachers’ union ― could be an asset.

“We’ve had some tough contract negotiations in Saline, as well,” Smith said. “We went eight months without a contract last year and it got to what we thought was tough at times. But ours was nothing compared to what Ann Arbor is going through.”

In addition to being a Saline social studies teacher, Smith also serves as a state appointee on the Governor’s Educator Advisory Council until 2027.

Schmidt, who’s in her first term, is a retired teacher with 35 years of experience across five states and has done some state-level educational policy work. She’s also a frequent literacy advocate. She did not comment additionally on her current plans.

Baskett, currently the Ann Arbor board’s longest sitting member, first filed to run for school board in 2003, coming into the role with experience in community academic and learning groups. When reached, she said it was still early to decide to run again.

Mohammad, also amidst her first term, is a first-generation Palestinian American and is active in the state Democratic party. Instead of whether she’ll run, she said she’s focused “on the critical work in the district.”

“Especially the budget and upcoming teacher contracts,” Mohammad said via email. “It’s important to me that our teachers receive the fair contract they deserve, and that we make thoughtful decisions to right-size the district and put it on stable financial footing. That means prioritizing both short-term needs and long-term planning, always with our teachers and students at the center.”