Sathyanarayana Sastry

This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.

Sathyanarayana Sastry

Nonpartisan

Elections and appointments

Last election

November 3, 2020

Education

Bachelor's

University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering, 1990

Graduate

Indian Institute of Science, 1992

Personal

Religion

Hindu

Profession

IT professional

Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Sathyanarayana Sastry ran for election to the Allen Independent School District to represent Place 6 in Texas. He lost in the general election on November 3, 2020.

Sastry completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Sathya Sastry was born in Bangalore, India. He received a bachelor's degree from the University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering in 1990 and a master's degree from the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore in 1992. Sastry's professional experience includes being a software developer, technology architect, IT manager, and customer success manager.

Elections

2020

See also: Allen Independent School District, Texas, elections (2020)

General election

General election for Allen Independent School District, Place 6

Polly Montgomery defeated Sathyanarayana Sastry in the general election for Allen Independent School District, Place 6 on November 3, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Submit photo	Polly Montgomery (Nonpartisan)	59.9	20,216
		Sathyanarayana Sastry (Nonpartisan)	40.1	13,523

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source 1 Source 2	Total votes: 33,739
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Campaign themes

2020

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Sathyanarayana Sastry completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2020. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Sastry's responses.

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Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I am Sathya Sastry, a husband, a father, a friend, and an IT professional. I came to the North Texas area in 2000 and Allen in 2001 with my wonderful wife, Latha, and amazing two kids. Our two talented kids attended Allen ISD, graduated, continued their education at UT Austin, and are now gainfully employed.

I was born and raised in India. Both my wife and I graduated with a Master's degree in Engineering. The importance of education is well established in the family. I am an IT professional for more than 25 years working in India, Singapore, and the US. ​ The importance of quality education was instilled early in my life by my parents. My mother was an educator. My father established an educational institution to support his native village students. They provided a solid foundation and a passion for a lifelong commitment to education and service. ​ I started my experience as a teacher in the US by volunteering at DFW Vidya Vikas Language School in Irving, TX. I taught the Kannada language to younger kids to gain fluency in conversations with their families and connect to their culture. I continued teaching Maths and Physics to students as the need comes.

I completed Citizen Police Academy training and registered for Citizen On Patrol program. I was involved with the Allen Capital improvement planning committee.

I am one of the Board of Directors at Allen Sunrise Rotary club and a park ambassador with Park Foundation. I am a sustaining donor for ACO.

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?

• I support Education for the Future. The world is changing, kids learn in different ways, education system should change to support students and their future
• I support to improve Teacher and Staff welfare, Allen ISD is a significant employer in Allen and should rise up to become best employer in Allen
• I am committed my time to Allen ISD strategic planning, Bond committees, attend board meetings, and to serve AISD with best interest of students, teachers and staff.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I am passionate about extending education to all demography of students. Providing equal opportunity to demonstrate leadership, academic excellence, problem-solving, and to become responsible citizens.

Making ISD a model employer of the cities, providing best available employee benefits and experience.

Inproving transparency in finance, programs, education and plans.

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

I am passionate with service. As I come from a very diverse population country, India, the service, sacrifice and donation is in the blood. I look up to the people who contribute their time for service without looking for name, fame, benefits. Every individual sacrifices in their life. I look up to the one who sacrifice their luxury for needy member of this world without putting their tag to the sacrifice. Donation is a complex item and it is not looked at that way by many. I lookup to the individuals who give knowledge as donation (gift).

Is there a book, essay, film, or something else you would recommend to someone who wants to understand your political philosophy?

TASB has great articles, reference, manuals to learn about the School Board Trustee. This link is specific to Allen ISD https://pol.tasb.org/Policy/Code/305?filter=A18

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

Elected official should bring new perspective to the office. As School Board will not be handling day to day work of the schools, it is best to have individuals with diverse experience to provide constructive suggestion to programs, human resources, budget and planning.

Elected official should be able to review programs objectively to make sure it is benefiting the students, staff and community.

Elected official should have no to minimal relationship with the students and staff of the organization.

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

Obey the guidelines of the office as defined by the AISD Board Policy Manual.

Provide constructive suggestions to better the AISD programs.
Ask questions to make sure the programs are for the benefit of the students, staff and community

Review, remark and adopt budget to support AISD activities

What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at the time?

There are memories of a few events that will remain with me for my lifetime want to give details of a couple of them here. I was born and brought up in India. When I was about 8 years old, the Indian government declared an emergency across the country, including curfews, arrests, and disturbing the life of common families. We were not allowed to go out to play after sunset.
The second event I want to highlight was the 9/11 tragedy. I came to the US in 2000 September, and this tragedy happened after a year. Still trying to get assimilated to the local culture and lifestyle, this incident significantly impacted my family mentally. Everyone was trying to make sense of this tragedy and scrambling to help where possible.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

When I moved to the United States or America, I started my professional experience with Hewlett Packard. I was a technical consultant and grew in the organization to become a Master Solution Architect. I was with HP for 14 years. After working for a large organization, I wanted to move towards smaller organizations to experience broader business functions. I joined McAfee and then moved to Moogsoft Inc.

What was the last song that got stuck in your head?

This is a foreign language song, 'Agadu Endu kai Katti kulithare.' The song is based on the fact that many achievements were done with the attitude of 'it can be done.' If there were no drive, nothing would have happened in the world.

What is something that has been a struggle in your life?

I have been involved with contributing to better education throughout my life. This passion started with my parents, my mother was an educator and my father worked hard to bring an education institute to his village in India. Both of their activities and achievements gave a strong foundation for service and education. In Allen, we have education available to every students. I want to help the AISD to take that education to next level by introducing programs that will make students and parents welcome with the diversity. When I moved to Allen, there were very handful of students from India. This had challenges for my kids to express their culture and language in the school. This has impacted their experience, learning and leadership. As a board member I want to make sure students and families coming into Allen should not have to go through that challenge. Providing diverse staff, faculty and administration will make them feel home to express their concerns, feelings knowing there is a person who came from similar background and can understand the thoughts. Education environment has to be inviting, friendly and homely. Everyone agrees the home if the first school for individuals, how awesome if the school can be similar to home.

What is the primary job of a school board member in your view?

A school board member's primary roles are to operate within the legal parameters of the state and federal constitutions, statutes, courts, and administrative agencies.

The board member is responsible for providing the finest educational program possible for the students in the district.

School trustees make all final decisions regarding school district priorities, policies, human resources, education materials, expenses, and School growth management.

The School board members review, remark, and adopt a necessary budget to maintain and operate the schools, identify tax rates to support the budget, and submit bond issues to the district's citizens to finance construction projects.

Who are your constituents?

Allen School District's citizens are the constituents. Allen citizens may attend different ISD as well as stay in different cities and attend AISD.

How would you support the diverse needs of your district’s students, faculty, staff, and community?

I will work with fellow board members to expand the events meant for the diverse community of Allen.

Introduce a second language to provide a more homely environment for the students and parents.

Encourage staff, faculty, and administration diversity to help everyone feel welcome to the school.

Provide additional guiding sessions to challenged learners to keep their pace and catch up with others as needed.

What type of skills should students be learning for success in the 21st century?

The 21st-century jobs are very different from the once we saw in the 20th century. Technology has come to our life, and some extend, few may feel hard to live without technology in their hand.

We need to introduce technology in the classroom, similar to arts, PE in elementary schools.

On the other hand, with technology, it is relatively easy to forget everyday human interactions. We need to enable more social interaction, group projects, and team activities to encourage students to work in groups than individual work.

It is challenging for schools to balance the act. Require board members well versed with technology and also understand the impact of technology in social life.

How might you improve the value of a high school diploma? What should a 21st century diploma reflect?

The high school diploma should come with skills applicable to the job, life, and community.

The Diploma should reflect the skills learned by the graduate in the school. It may be programing (coding), technology repairs, mastery in computer applications, financial applications, electrical technician basics, plumber/carpentry basics, Culinary expertise, organizational expertise, etc.

Including these in the high school diploma means the schools should include these education classes as part of the curriculums and have an industry-standard entity to stand by their learning.

What strategies or plans would you advance to ensure the schools are properly funded?

A balanced budget is critical and partnership with the industry to support programs that enable graduates to be ready for the 21st-century world as it keeps changing.

What principles drive your policies for safety in schools?

Allen ISD has a well-structurerd partnership with Allen Police Department for SRO programs. Strengthen the relationship, increase SROs, work with APD to introduce programs where Citizen On Patrol can accompany school transport. With new Bond and SOAR 2030 programs, AISD has plans to improve student check-in and checkout. Checkin/Checkout will enable the safety of the students while in transit. The improved security camera will ensure a safe environment within schools.

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