In a post on Facebook on Christmas Eve, Springfield School Board hopeful J. Michael Hastie announced that he would be dropped from the race.

Hasty wrote that the announcement was made with a “heavy heart”.

“We were unable to reach the required number of signatures to vote,” he wrote.

Springfield residents must meet certain eligibility requirements and obtain the signatures of at least 500 voters living in the school district in order to be certified and participate in the April 4 ballot.

Hasty, a disabled man who served in Iraq, lost his bid for a general seat on the city council last year. He made crime the focus of that campaign, but said it was also motivated by the city’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and zoning issues.