Ganesh Balamitran
Ganesh Balamitran ran for election to the Fremont Unified Board of Education to represent Area 4 in California. He lost in the general election on November 5, 2024.
Balamitran completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Ganesh Balamitran was born in Kolkotta, India. He graduated from Shree Ram Welfare Society's High School. He earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Mumbai, Sardar Patel College of Engineering in 1994, a graduate degree from Arizona State University in 1996, and a graduate degree from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad in 2009. His career experience includes working in semiconductor design engineering and as a marketing manager. He has been affiliated with Vibha.[1]
Elections
2024
See also: Fremont Unified School District, California, elections (2024)
General election
General election for Fremont Unified School District Board of Education Area 4
Rinu Nair defeated Ganesh Balamitran in the general election for Fremont Unified School District Board of Education Area 4 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Rinu Nair (Nonpartisan)  | 50.1 | 6,606 |
 | Ganesh Balamitran (Nonpartisan) | 49.9 | 6,580 | |
| Total votes: 13,186 | |||
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Endorsements
To view Balamitran's endorsements as published by their campaign, click here. Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Balamitran in this election.
Campaign themes
2024
Video for Ballotpedia
| Video submitted to Ballotpedia Released September 6, 2024 |
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Ganesh Balamitran completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Balamitran's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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For over 20 years, Ganesh has volunteered with and also served on the Board of Vibha, a non-profit serving the needs of underprivileged children in India and the US. This invaluable experience showed him the power of Public Education – to transform the lives of children, and society at large.
Ganesh is a local cricket parent, and has volunteered with youth cricket, traveling as team manager with the U-10, U-12 and U-14 teams to tournaments and training camps in the US as well as UK and India. Ganesh hopes one day to formally introduce cricket to FUSD.
Ganesh is currently an active volunteer on the FUSD Superintendent’s Budget Advisory Task Force which meets monthly and reviews budget items and provides input to district staff that is presented later to the School Board.- My first priority is to develop a nurturing environment where every child feels like they belong. As a parent, I watched my child through Horner and Irvington, trying to fit himself into a rigid definition of success. Our children need to see diverse paths to achieving success. They should be able to develop their own interests and talents here, and succeed in their own unique way.
- My second priority is to invest in our classrooms to create a foundation for every child’s success. This means ensuring that FUSD has modern, updated facilities that our students deserve to learn in. Our educators should not be spending their own dollars to get new rugs or be forced to teach in classrooms with inadequate cooling and heating. Studies have shown that when our community invests in our classrooms, students have higher success rates. We must give our students the tools they need to thrive.
- My third priority is to bring together our community - students, educators, parents, administrators - to address our challenges. Public schooling is under attack all over the country, but our Fremont community can come together to actually strengthen Public Education - the bedrock of American Society.
I also support student debt cancellation and advocate for fully funding public education. More broadly I advocate for congress (and the federal government) to use fiscal policy to serve the actual needs of the people (education, healthcare, housing etc) and create full employment. As someone who has studied US fiscal and monetary policy, I understand how this is completely possible.
Dr Ambedkar is known as the father of the Indian Constitution, and he was also the foremost leader of Dalits. He was extremely well read with a deep grasp of a variety of subjects, and has extensively written on many of those subjects. He used his knowledge of society and the law, and strove to develop an egalitarian and secular constitution of India, always fighting for the rights of the underprivileged in India. He used his political activism to bring about real change, and his speech/essay "Annihilation of Caste" tackled the thorniest issue facing India as it approached the dawn of Independence.
FINDING THE MONEY - There’s another side to the national debt. (Documentary - 2024)
2. Desire to strengthen public systems (while providing appropriate oversight) and ensuring that they function well. If they have fiscal/funding authority, elected officials must use the budget to serve the needs of the community. Elected officials must understand that the goal of public systems is to serve the needs to the community, and not to turn a profit (understand difference between public and private).
3. Humility, and the ability to learn about issues, and learn from differing viewpoints.
I am also a keen listener and someone who can (and always has) seen things from different perspectives. I take my time understanding things and forming an opinion, and I truly believe that time is well spent. I have always been someone who brings people together to solve challenging/complicated problems.
The Fremont Unified School District Board of Education also has a core fiduciary responsibility over Public Money, Public Resources and Public Trust, as it oversees around $500 million in its annual budget, which serves over 30,000 students at 40+ school sites supported by the work of 3,600 staff members.
This book took a very difficult topic from our history, of race, inequality and a biased criminal justice system, and looked at it through the eyes of an innocent child, who is watching the world of adults evolving around her. What we do as adults, the systems and injustices we perpetrate can profoundly affect children around us. The book also created the character of Atticus Finch, who attempts to defend the accused with all his abilities, knowing fully well that the case will not be found in his favor. The willingness to strive for what is right, even as everyone around you thinks otherwise and even when you know that the efforts might be futile, I found to be truly heroic.
"The role of the trustees who sit on locally elected school boards is to ensure that school districts are responsive to the values, beliefs and priorities of their communities. Boards fulfill this role by performing five major responsibilities. These are
1. setting direction
2. establishing an effective and efficient structure
3. providing support
4. ensuring accountability and
5. providing community leadership as advocates for children, the school district and public schools.
2. Educators, Administrators and Staff who serve at the Fremont Unified School District and its schools
3. Parents of students attending FUSD schools
To support mental health needs of students, we need to:
1. Hire culturally competent mental health professionals who understand the needs of our diverse district, which is 93% BIPOC and includes LGBTQ+ students.
2. Foster an environment that reduces student burnout.
3. Cultivate a collaborative working climate for students. Learning to collaborate will take students a long way in their professional careers.
As a school district, we need to articulate how the district administration can respond swiftly when it comes to substantive complaints regarding violations of Ed Code or the Law. Parents and students should feel assured that violators cannot hide behind bureaucratic processes or policies.
Alameda County Democratic Party
Fremont Unified District Teachers Association (FUDTA)
Alameda Labor Council, AFL-CIO
Building & Construction Trades Council of Alameda County
Tri-Cities Democratic Forum (TCDF)
Muslim Democrats and Friends of Alameda County
East Bay Stonewall Democratic Club
South Alameda County Young Democrats
Evolve California
Ro Khanna – US Congressman
Aisha Wahab – State Senator, District 10
Alex Lee – State Assemblymember, District 24
Dianne Jones – FUSD Trustee
Bob Wieckowski - State Senator, District 10 (fmr)
Teresa Cox, Fremont City Councilmember
Eileen McDonald – Trustee Alameda County Board of Education
The most important thing to building relationships is being available to meet, listening to concerns and being respectful - and I will bring that to every interaction with parents.
In order to recruit and retain the best talent at FUSD, we need to:
1. Provide competitive salaries and benefits so that our teachers and staff are able to thrive and raise their own families right here in Fremont.
2. Fully fund classrooms, libraries, and facilities so that teachers and staff do not need to spend their own money or crowdsource for basic supplies.
3. Develop an environment where teachers and staff are encouraged to be creative and to bring forth their best. Successful, creative teachers develop successful, creative students.
There is another pillar that should be available to ensure government accountability and that is the 4th estate or The Press. In my opinion, it is very unfortunate that the local press is now largely missing and unable/unwilling to serve this role of holding local government accountable. When our school board or city councils discuss budgets, we do not see local journalists or coverage that can keep government accountable.
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.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
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Candidate Fremont Unified School District Board of Education Area 4 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on October 1, 2024
