Rani Dasi

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Rani Dasi

Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education At-large

Tenure

Present officeholder

Term ends

2027

Prior offices

Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education At-large

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Elections and appointments

Last elected

November 5, 2019

Education

Bachelor's

Northwestern University

Graduate

University of Chicago

Personal

Profession

Manager of business analyst group

Contact

Campaign website

Personal website

Rani Dasi is an at-large member of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education in North Carolina. Her current term ends in 2027.

Dasi ran for re-election for an at-large seat of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education in North Carolina. She won in the general election on November 5, 2019.

Dasi completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2019. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Email editor@ballotpedia.org to notify us of updates to this biography.

Dasi obtained her bachelor's degree in industrial engineering from Northwestern University. She went on the earn her MBA from the University of Chicago. Dasi's professional experience includes acting as a manager of the business analyst group at LORD Corporation. She has held various leadership positions in her previous jobs with Burt's Bees and Proctor and Gamble. She has also served on the board of directors for The Walking Classroom, a nonprofit that provides educational material in audio format.

Elections

2019

See also: Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools, North Carolina, elections (2019)

General election

General election for Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education At-large (4 seats)

The following candidates ran in the general election for Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education At-large on November 5, 2019.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Rani Dasi (Nonpartisan)	23.6	8,807
✔	Submit photo	Jillian La Serna (Nonpartisan)	22.9	8,534
✔	Submit photo	Deon Temne (Nonpartisan)	17.5	6,529
✔		Ashton Powell (Nonpartisan)	13.7	5,107
		Andrew Davidson (Nonpartisan)	12.0	4,469
	Submit photo	Carmen Huerta-Bapat (Nonpartisan)	6.5	2,426
	Submit photo	Louis Tortora (Nonpartisan) (Unofficially withdrew)	3.5	1,308
		Other/Write-in votes	0.4	136

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 37,316
= 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.

2015

See also: Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools elections (2015)

Four of the seven seats on the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Board of Education were up for election on November 3, 2015. The seats represent the district at-large.

Incumbent Annetta Streater won re-election to her seat. Rani Dasi, Margaret Samuels and Pat Heinrich were elected to the other three seats on the ballot. Incumbent David Saussy, Joal Hall Broun, Gregg Gerdau and Theresa Watson were defeated.

Results

Chapel Hill-Carrboro Schools, At-Large, 4-year Term, General Election, 2015
Candidate	Vote %	Votes
Rani Dasi	19.6%	7,009
Margaret Samuels	15.7%	5,629
Annetta Streater Incumbent	15.0%	5,379
Pat Heinrich	12.5%	4,459
Theresa Watson	11.9%	4,253
Joal Hall Broun	11.2%	4,005
David Saussy Incumbent	9.3%	3,321
Gregg Gerdau	4.4%	1,590
Write-in votes	0.42%	151
Total Votes (100% of precincts reporting)		35,796
Source: North Carolina Secretary of State, "11/03/2015 Official Municipal Election Results," accessed November 10, 2015

Funding

Dasi reported no contributions or expenditures to the North Carolina State Board of Elections in the election.

Endorsements

Dasi received an official endorsement from the North Carolina State AFL-CIO.

Campaign themes

2019

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Rani Dasi completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2019. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Dasi's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Education and community health

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

Care for the success of ALL people

Understanding people as individuals and the importance of our shared success
Honesty

Willingness to learn

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

Transparency

Engaging with community members

Active participation in meetings

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

To partner with superintendent, teachers, students, parents, staff and community members to deliver a quality education to all of the students in our community.

Board members work towards this by creating policies that guide district operations and hiring and supporting a strong superintendent.

Who are your constituents?

Community members in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro city schools district.

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.

2015

Candidate website

Dasi's campaign website listed the following campaign themes for 2015:

“	Improving educational outcomes via key areas of: a. School Quality: Strong support for teachers and high teacher quality, higher expectations of students Structuring curriculum and instruction to meet the wide range of student abilities Understanding how to effectively evaluate students.What is the role of standardized testing? b. Community Partnership: In addition to the quality of schools, educational outcomes are affected by family health and support. How do we partner with community organizations to support family structure and early childhood education? Increased transparency in strategic planning: How do we plan for growth? How do we make decisions? Communication and community engagement: Decisions on policies are driven by considerations that are not always intuitive for community members to understand. I believe that strong relationships between the school board and community members founded on transparency in decision-making fosters trust that enables easier implementation of difficult decisions. Stakeholders should be (and feel) included in decision-making as much as possible and context should be provided to clarify decisions when possible.	”
—Rani Dasi campaign website, (2015),

Ballotpedia survey responses

Dasi participated in Ballotpedia's 2015 survey of school board candidates. The following sections display her responses to the survey questions. When asked what her top priority would be if elected, the candidate made the following statement:

“	Improving educational outcomes for all students via: 1. School Focus: Strong support for teachers and high teacher quality, higher expectations of students, Structuring curriculum and instruction to meet the wide range of student abilities 2. Community Partnerships: Engagement with community organizations to support family structure and early childhood education	”
—Rani Dasi (2015)

Dasi also included the following statement with her responses:

“	A community is as successful as the individuals who make it up. Because we’re all connected, everyone’s success matters. As a parent of four, I have a strong motivation to work toward improved education outcomes for all children and the background to drive positive change in the district.	”
—Rani Dasi (2015)

Ranking the issues

The candidate was asked to rank the following issues by importance in the school district, with 1 being the most important and 7 being the least important. This table displays this candidate's rankings from most to least important:

Education policy
Click here to learn more about education policy in Idaho.
Education on the ballot

Issue importance ranking
Candidate's ranking	Issue
1	Balancing or maintaining the district's budget
2	Closing the achievement gap
3	Improving college readiness
4	Improving education for special needs students
5	Expanding career-technical education
6	Expanding arts education
7	Expanding school choice options

Positions on the issues

The candidate was asked to answer 10 questions from Ballotpedia regarding significant issues in education and the school district. The questions are in the left column, and the candidate's responses are in the right column of the following table:

Question	Response
What is your stance on implementing Common Core standards?	"Yes."
Should your district approve the creation of new charter schools?	"No"
Should the state give money to private schools through a voucher system?	"Limited basis"
Are standardized tests an accurate metric of student achievement?	"Many variables other than ability play a role in test outcomes. Net, I would be hesitant to attach strong significance to test results without additional information."
How can the district ensure equal opportunities for high and low achieving students?	"The most important foundation elements of education are quality teachers and family structure. The district should focus on high teacher quality, high expectations of students, high academic rigor and partnerships with community groups to enable strong support for students and families."
How should expulsion be used in the district?	"Expulsion should be used for serious offenses to ensure the safety of other students as well as the integrity of education at district schools."
If a school is failing in your district, what steps should the school board take to help the students in that school?	"1. Work with school leadership to understand elements causing failure 2. Support school leadership in developing action plan including milestones and success factors (include parents and community members) 3. Review plans frequently 4. Communicate with parents and community members"
Do you support merit pay for teachers?	"I do not support tying teacher pay to testing outcomes."
How should the district handle underperforming teachers?	"Offer additional training options."
How would you work to improve community-school board relations?	"Hold listening sessions to understand community concerns Attend community events Provide transparency in how decision-making ties to strategic plans"

See also

2019 Elections

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External links

Suggest a link

• Search Google News for this topic
• Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools
• Campaign website
• Campaign Twitter page
• LinkedIn page