Student volunteers and officers from the Arab American Political Action Committee celebrate with newly-elected Dearborn School Board member Roxanne McDonald on Tuesday, Nov. 8 at Habib’s Cuisine in Dearborn.                                   PHOTOS: Nafeh AbuNab/TAAN

“I’ve been very impressed by all of you, you did a great job this year and we hope you’ll stay involved,” said AAPAC President Mariam Bazzi. 

“And hopefully tomorrow because of your hard work, Roxanne (McDonald) will be on the school board.” 

The AAPAC contingent didn’t have to wait much longer to find out that McDonald had made it however, it was revealed that she almost certainly had won a seat through the city of Dearborn’s website, causing cheers to go up from the crowd. 

“I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart, I saw people out there for 12-13 hours working,” McDonald said of AAPAC’s presence at the polls passing out slates.

“I came out and helped because it’s important for people to know about the issues and to vote for the right things in the best interest of the community,” said volunteer Rima Zalghout. 

McDonald took second place in the school board race, finishing with 5,922 votes, 30.75% of the total, and beating out incumbent Mary Petlichkoff, who finished with 1,138 less votes in a race that many thought would be much closer.

AAPAC-endorsed candidate Joseph A. Guido also won on the afternoon, taking first place with 5,988 votes, 31.09% of the total. 

The race for school board was considered one of the most important of the election, especially for Arab Americans considering their children make up the majority of the Dearborn Public Schools population, estimated at about 65 percent.

AAPAC officers Rashid Baydoun (L-R, foreground), Mariam Bazzi and Ali Hammoud confer and discuss pending results shown on Dearborn’s website at Habib’s on Tuesday.

The light turnout of the election (Just 21.02% of registered voters cast their ballots) meant that each vote was more important than ever for the school board race and others including two millage proposals in the city. Last year’s election in the city had a turnout of just over 43%, but it included key state races for Governor and Attorney General. 

While the turnout reached as high as 29.28%, on Dearborn’s west side at Duvall School, east side precincts in neighborhoods with high concentrations of Arab Americans, saw turnouts of less than 10% across the board.

The low among all precincts was Salina School, another area with a high concentration of Arab Americans, with just 93 votes for a total of 4.16%,. Other precincts with low turnouts on the east side included McDonald School with 7.18% and Oakman School with 7.24%. Lowrey School checked in at 9.13%, rounding out what seemed to be a disappointing day for Arab Americans in terms of voter participation.  

McDonald was thankful for the support of the students, many of whom she got to know well during the process. 

“I was so impressed with their enthusiasm and desire to be involved in the political process and I know that contributed to my success; they also gave me faith in the future,” she said. 

“All of Dearborn’s students are our children and it will take a team effort to help them all reach their full potential and become responsible, confident and successful adults.” 

Bazzi was also enthused to see McDonald win.

“We’re going to bring to the Dearborn School Board a voice that is truly in the best interest of all children.” 

Rashid Baydoun of AAPAC, who helped coordinate the volunteers, was proud of their efforts.

“Once you remove the self aspect out of it, you’ll see progression, if you unite together in the best interest of the whole community whether you’re Yemeni, Lebanese, Fordson, Edsel Ford…the results speak to that.” 

Proposals 1, 2 pass, Civil Service 

Commission to remain 

Dearborn residents also faced key decisions affecting their economic and civil futures as they voted on Proposal 2, which authorized a raise in the city’s millage by 3.5 mills in its first year that lasts for no more than five years, translating to about $50.00 per year extra per $50,0000 worth of State Equalized Value on homes and/or other properties.

The measure passed by a wide margin of  7,420 votes to  4,860, or 60.42% to 39.58%. The library millage of a 1 mill increase also passed by a similar margin of 59.81% to 40.19%, 7,379 to 4,959. 

For Dearborn Mayor Jack O’Reilly, the passing of the proposals was more than welcome.

“For me it’s a wonderful relief that we’ll be able to make the transition to reducing structural spending in a way that’s more measured and thoughtful, the changes won’t be as abrupt and disruptive,” he said.

O’Reilly said the new taxes will be on next summer’s bill. Despite the new incoming source of revenue, the city still has key decisions to make in order to reduce a $20-million deficit going forward. 

“For every budget each year we have to talk about what to change, we’ll start analyzing how the year is going…it used to be, ‘What can we add to the spending mix, now it’s all about what we can reduce.'”

In the past, he and other officials weren’t able to make any commitments to keeping all of the city’s libraries open including the struggling Esper branch on the city’s east side. 

“The 1 mill won’t pay the cost we’re currently spending on libraries but it will guarantee the baseline, we’re still spending general fund money from them to keep the services up,” he said. 

Prop 3 on the other hand did not pass as it was defeated by a total of 51.11% to 48.89%, or 6,158 “no” votes to 5,891 “yes” votes. 

Proponents of the measure, which would have eliminated the Civil Service Commission, said that the body is not necessary because of union contracts superseding its decisions in regards to hiring. 

But opponents, who rallied to defeat the measure, were concerned about the change’s potential to open the door for cronyism among city hires, including AAPAC.