Jennifer McDonald (Georgia)

Jennifer McDonald

Nonpartisan

Atlanta Public Schools school board District 4

Tenure

2022 - Present

Term ends

2025

Years in position

4

Predecessor: Nancy Meister

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Report an officeholder change

Elections and appointments

Last election

November 4, 2025

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Jennifer McDonald is a member of the Atlanta Public Schools school board in Georgia, representing District 4. She assumed office on January 1, 2022.

McDonald ran for re-election to the Atlanta Public Schools school board to represent District 4 in Georgia. She won in the general election on November 4, 2025.

Elections

2025

See also: Atlanta Public Schools, Georgia, elections (2025)

General election

General election for Atlanta Public Schools school board District 4

Incumbent Jennifer McDonald defeated Sanjay Mendonca in the general election for Atlanta Public Schools school board District 4 on November 4, 2025.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Jennifer McDonald (Nonpartisan)	60.1	8,611
		Sanjay Mendonca (Nonpartisan)	39.9	5,711

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. Source	Total votes: 14,322
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Endorsements

Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for McDonald in this election.

2021

See also: Atlanta Public Schools, Georgia, elections (2021)

General election

General election for Atlanta Public Schools school board District 4

Jennifer McDonald defeated Mikayla Arciaga in the general election for Atlanta Public Schools school board District 4 on November 2, 2021.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Jennifer McDonald (Nonpartisan)	69.3	11,778
		Mikayla Arciaga (Nonpartisan)	30.1	5,118
		Other/Write-in votes	0.5	90

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source 1 Source 2	Total votes: 16,986
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Campaign themes

2025

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Jennifer McDonald did not complete Ballotpedia's 2025 Candidate Connection survey.

2021

Jennifer McDonald completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2021. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by McDonald's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

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Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I am a current, active and engaged APS parent. When we became an APS family almost ten years ago, we were excited to get behind and support our neighborhood public school. E. Rivers Elementary was core to our community and representative of our city. Our scope of experience broadened once we joined the Sutton Middle School Family. Now, as new North Atlanta High School parents, we are excited for the path these high school students are taking to be life-ready when they graduate. I have served in leadership positions every year within each respective school environment from Kindergarten to now where I am volunteering to serve in multiple roles for our PTSA at NAHS. Being in the buildings and hallways gives me a unique position of learning not only what is important and impactful no only to other families but to our Administrators as well. I joined the Board of North Atlanta Parents for Public Schools (NAPPS)six years ago, serving two years as Co-President. We work to understand the uniqueness of each school in our cluster, build cross-cluster collaboration, continue our great relationships with our Administrators, connect with other parent leaders across our district as well as business leaders and parent leaders in District 4 but not currently part of APS. As an attorney, a professional leader and coach, an engaged community member and volunteer, I know first hand how imperative accountability, collaboration, resources, communication, goals, results are to success.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

• Transparency
• Improved Communication
• A new way of engaging and receiving input from APS stakeholders

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Multiple.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

Campaign website

McDonald’s campaign website stated the following:

“	I am a current, active and engaged APS parent. When we became an APS family almost ten years ago, we were excited to get behind and support our neighborhood public school. E. Rivers Elementary was core to our community and representative of our city. Our scope of experience broadened once we joined the Sutton Middle School Family. Now, as new North Atlanta High School parents, we are excited for the path these high school students are taking to be life-ready when they graduate. Every year, I invested my time serving in leadership positions within each respective school environment from Kindergarten to now where I am volunteering to serve in multiple roles for our PTSA at NAHS. Being in the buildings and hallways gives me a unique position of learning not only what is important and impactful no only to other families but to our Administrators as well. I also joined the Board of North Atlanta Parents for Public Schools six years ago, serving two years as C0-President. I am proud of our work to understand the uniqueness of each school in our cluster, build cross-cluster collaboration, continue our great relationships with our Principals and school leaders, build relationships with other parent leaders across our district as well as business leaders and parent leaders in District 4 but not currently part of APS. As an attorney, a professional leader and coach, an engaged community member and volunteer, I know first hand how imperative accountability, collaboration, resources, crisp and timely information, goals, and clear communication are to the success of any entity. My focus: Invest time and energy earlier and longer in our neighborhood schools and each and every student to ensure they become college, career and life-ready. Expand resources and strengthen the entire ecosystem that surrounds our neighborhood schools and APS students. We have had a significant number of families leave APS in the past 18 months. We need to identify why and bridge the gap with those families to see them back attending schools in our district. Transparency Improved communication A new approach to engaging our constituents ​:*We can do these things. We can do them with heart and we can do them together.	”
—Jennifer McDonald's campaign website (2021)

See also

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Atlanta Public Schools school board District 4

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