I am running because I have lived the impact of school closures—my son attended Continental Colony Elementary, one of the very schools now slated for shutdown. More than ten years ago, we saw this same failed experiment play out, and it was concentrated only in Southwest Atlanta. Today, the same pattern continues. My opponent was appointed by the very board that is pushing to close our neighborhood schools while promoting the false narrative that our properties are under-utilized and our population is declining. Meanwhile, on the north side of town, the Midtown High School Cluster is overcrowded, yet not a single school there is being closed. If we allow the status quo and these misleading narratives to continue, we will lose our neighborhood schools, and our community will continue to be gutted. My message is simple: Stop Closing Schools. I’ve been calling for this for over a decade. I am not a career politician—I am a public educator of 23 years, a mother whose child sat in a classroom without a teacher because of inadequate school board policies, and a daughter of a woman who was one of only six staff members rehired after her school was shut down. This crisis is happening exclusively in Southwest Atlanta, and I am running to stop it. Vote for Patreece Hutcherson—and let public educators write policies for public education. We would not be in this precarious situation if experienced educators were the ones shaping the policies that affect our children and community.