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Our call — see the breakdown

How we research: the LiberalMind standard — every candidate gets the same deep pass — service and voting record, campaign positions, local news, questionnaires and voter guides, endorsements, public statements, filings — and both columns of the ledger print: the dirt and the credits, each at the same standard of proof. What held up is stated as fact; what did not is labeled unproven or left out. Race roster: district and city filings as carried in our inventory, with the term split resolved as documented in The race below — grade: compilation over official district notices.

The race

Dearborn's Board of Education is unique in Michigan: its trustees govern both the Dearborn Public Schools and Henry Ford College, voting on two budgets and overseeing both a superintendent and a college president. Four seats are on the November 3 ballot. Three are full six-year terms (January 2027–December 2032), contested by incumbents Adel Mozip, Mary K. Petlichkoff and Nasri Sobh plus challengers Mallak Anani and Mohamed Ali Hammoud. The fourth is a partial term ending in 2028, contested by incumbent Ali Kamel Bazzi and Nofila Haidar. A note on the paperwork, because the sources conflict and voters deserve to see it handled in the open: the district's own First Bell notice describes the seat split the other way around (Bazzi among the full-term holders, Sobh in the partial seat). The term data points the other way — Bazzi was appointed in September 2025 to serve only until this election's certification, and Sobh's appointment likewise ran to 2026 with a full term now at stake — and Ballotpedia and GoodParty term records agree with the split used here. We follow the term records and print the conflict rather than hiding it.

The context is a board in transition: two trustees resigned in 2025 and were replaced by appointment (Sobh and Bazzi, September 2025); Superintendent Glenn Maleyko departed after nearly three decades of district service, and the board installed Lamis Srour as interim superintendent (effective December 5, 2025) while it runs a permanent search; and the board has placed a $1.51 billion bond on this same November 3 ballot — a 20-year program to replace or extensively remodel every school in the district, structured, per the district, as a zero net millage change for Dearborn homeowners. Whoever wins these four seats will hire the permanent superintendent and spend the bond.

The candidates

Adel Mozip (incumbent, full term). Credits: the board's president and its most documented member. A software developer, former instructor and community activist who came through Dearborn's bilingual program as a student and returned as a parent advocate; his long-standing campaign theme is an "independent voice" on the board that governs the schools and the college, and his campaigns have drawn civic endorsements (a city council member and a Wayne County commissioner spoke at his kickoff). As president he has presided over the superintendent transition and the bond decision. Dirt — one documented factional fact: when the board appointed Ali Bazzi to a vacant seat in September 2025 by a 4–1 vote, President Mozip was the lone no. We print it neutrally: it shows a president willing to vote against his own board's majority on a personnel call — independence or friction, depending on the reader — and it is the kind of specific, checkable record most school-board races never produce.

Mary K. Petlichkoff (incumbent, full term). Credits: a sitting trustee in the current board cohort, part of the majority that managed the 2025 vacancies, the interim-superintendent appointment and the bond placement; she voted with the 4–1 majority to appoint Bazzi. Dirt: none found — no adverse item surfaced in the coverage worked. The limit: her individual public file beyond her service and votes is thin in the sources we could reach.

Nasri Sobh (incumbent, full term). Credits: appointed in September 2025 to fill one of the two resigned seats, he has served a year on the dual board through the superintendent transition and now submits that appointed record to the voters for a full six-year term — the appointment-to-election path working as designed. Dirt: none found. The limit is the same as Petlichkoff's, thinner still: a year of appointed service and no retrievable campaign platform in the sources worked.

Ali Kamel Bazzi (incumbent, partial term). Credits: appointed September 2025 (the 4–1 vote above) to the seat vacated by resignation, explicitly to serve until this election's certification; he has a year of board service, and the partial-term race is the voters' ratification decision on the remainder of the term (through 2028). Dirt: the appointment itself was contested — the board president voted no, and at the appointment meeting the Dearborn Federation of Teachers' representative publicly urged the board to weigh conflicts of interest "when you have people who work in city government serving on the school board." We print that as what it is: a concern raised in public comment at the meeting that seated him, not a finding against him; no conflict finding, ethics action or adverse record against Bazzi surfaced in the coverage worked.

Mallak Anani and Mohamed Ali Hammoud (challengers, full term). Both filed for the six-year terms against three incumbents — a genuinely uphill choice that at least gives Dearborn voters an alternative on the ballot. Beyond their filings, no platform, biography, questionnaire answers or campaign coverage for either was retrievable in the sources worked.

Nofila Haidar (challenger, partial term). She filed for the partial term against Bazzi; her candidacy in that specific race is confirmed by the term records our inventory worked (including her own campaign's framing). Beyond that, no platform or coverage was retrievable in the sources worked.

Pros and cons

Record gaps

The deep pass on this race worked: the district's First Bell filing notice (the four seats, the six-year and partial terms, the incumbents as the district lists them — and the seat-split conflict printed above); Citizen Portal's Dearborn board coverage (Bazzi's September 2025 appointment, the 4–1 vote with Mozip dissenting, the DFT conflict-of-interest comment; the January 12, 2026 officer elections; the interim-superintendent appointment of Lamise Srour effective December 5, with Maleyko's departure and nearly three decades of service noted); the district's bond announcement (the $1.51 billion program, the millage structure, the June 22, 2026 ballot-language vote); Mozip's campaign site (his biography, kickoff and endorsements); and Ballotpedia / GoodParty term data as resolved in our inventory (Bazzi 2025–2028 as the partial seat; Sobh's appointment running to 2026). Named gaps: Anani, Hammoud and Haidar have no retrievable campaign records in anything worked, and Sobh's and Petlichkoff's individual platforms likewise. Those gaps are printed, not filled.

OUR CALL

Full six-year terms: ENDORSE Adel Mozip, Mary K. Petlichkoff and Nasri Sobh — the three incumbents (Sobh on-watch: an appointed year is a short record for a six-year term, and we mark it so) who carried the district through a superintendent transition and put a fully structured bond before the voters, against challengers who published nothing to weigh against them. Partial term: ENDORSE Ali Kamel Bazzi — a year of service in the seat, appointed in the open by a recorded vote; the voters' ratification is the system working, and his challenger filed without a record. The contested appointment is printed above in full, because it belongs in the voter's hands, not under our endorsement.

This article is part of our complete Election 2026 coverage — every race, researched the same way. Read the full breakdown on our website.

Vote early. Research your candidates. Choose the best moderates, whatever their party — no extremism from either side. And encourage your friends and family to do the same.

Sources

Election result — November 4, 2026

Result pending. No verified call (Associated Press or official) as of November 4, 2026. This page will be updated when the race is called or certified. The original article above is unchanged.

AI-assisted article — but the sources are human, and the facts are very real.

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