Ann Arbor's school board ratified a new teacher contract Wednesday, Sept. 9, ending eight months without a deal.

The agreement gives more than 1,000 Ann Arbor Public Schools (AAPS) teachers a 1.5% raise retroactive to the 2025-26 school year. Teachers on the first 11 steps of the salary schedule get an additional 1.5% for 2026-27, and a new step 12 carries a 4% bump. The district will also increase its contribution to teachers' medical insurance by 5%, MLive reported.

Ann Arbor Education Association (AAEA) President Fred Klein put the raises in context. "The biggest raise we've had in the last 20 years was 2.5% in 2006 … So, is it enough? No. Does it do enough? No," Klein said Wednesday ahead of the board's vote.

The new contract dropped the April deal's proposed cuts to elementary planning time, class-size increases and healthcare contribution caps, Klein said in a CBS News Detroit report. An earlier tentative agreement reached in April was rejected by 99.6% of AAEA members because it would have decreased elementary teachers' planning time, increased class sizes and capped healthcare contributions, The Michigan Daily reported.

The second deal fared better. AAEA members ratified it Sept. 4 by a margin of 58% to 42%, with 524 voting in favor and 377 against out of roughly 83% of the membership.

Hours before the board vote, newly installed National Education Association (NEA) President Princess Moss rallied with teachers at a "Protect Michigan Schools" event. Moss, an elementary school music teacher from rural Virginia, took over the NEA presidency Sept. 1 and made Ann Arbor one of her first stops on a multi-state tour. U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell also spoke at the rally, MLive reported.

Klein said Moss met with members of the union's bargaining and action teams before the event. He called her visit "a tremendous honor."

AAPS teachers had been working without a contract since Dec. 31, 2025. In June, more than 1,500 teachers, students and families rallied outside the Earhart Administration Building before a board meeting, The Huron Emery reported. That marked six months without a deal.

The contract expires in December 2027. Klein told WEMU on Sept. 4 that the bargaining team aimed to bring back what it felt was the best deal possible, adding, "It doesn't mean it's the best deal ever. It doesn't mean it addresses everything we need to."

Both sides will return to the bargaining table in the spring. The district also faces a multi-million-dollar budget gap and plans to explore cuts including potential building sales, school consolidation and staffing changes, MLive reported.