Deepti Garg, chair of the Union City Human Relations Commission, filed nomination papers today for the New Haven Unified School District Governing Board, Trustee Area 5, on the November 3 ballot.
“When I vote on school district decisions, I’ll be voting for my own family, my neighbors, and every student in our community,” said Garg. “Strong schools benefit everyone. They prepare students for success, strengthen neighborhoods, protect property values, and make sure taxpayer dollars are spent wisely.”
Garg is committed to transparent public reporting on class sizes at every school, clear public updates on major district projects, and safety systems that work at every campus.
In an interview with India Currents she shared why she is running for office and what her priorities are.
1. Why did you decide to run for office?
My family came to Union City in 2012, looking for a place to raise two little girls. Union City took us in.
Both our daughters chose NHUSD schools. One is a Logan graduate now at UC Berkeley; one is a Logan senior this year. NHUSD gave them teachers who took them seriously and a student body that looks like the real world. This community helped raise our girls, and running for the board is how I give some of that back.
The commission is where I stopped watching and started working. I joined the Human Relations Commission in 2022 because I wanted to be in the room where the city talks about how people here treat each other, and I’ve chaired it since January. Most of that job is showing up, meeting after meeting, long after the interesting part is over. I like that work.
So I’m running to serve the place I live. Strong schools and a strong community hold each other up, and this community did that for my family. I’d like a hand in what it looks like for the family that moves here next.
2. What do you see as your primary role in office?
Oversight, done in public.
A school board has one employee, the superintendent. The board hires that person, oversees them, sets direction, approves the budget, and answers to the community for all of it. Day-to-day management belongs to the staff.
So my job is to ask the hard questions early, ask them out loud, and explain my votes. My day job is program management for a Fortune 500 cybersecurity team, where I manage a multimillion-dollar budget and my work is finding waste and cutting it. I’d bring the same discipline to a district budget. The difference is that here the money is the public’s, so the questions belong where people can watch.
3. What would be your one-minute pitch to voters?
I’m Deepti Garg, the Union City mom who chairs our Human Relations Commission, and my kids are in our schools right now.
I’m running on three things.
Steward the budget in public. New Haven is a well-run district, and like a lot of families right now it spends more each year than it brings in. I’ll ask the hard questions early and out loud, so we protect classrooms and the people who teach in them before anything gets thin. The school bond you approved deserves the same daylight: a public dashboard, project by project.
Make New Haven the district families choose. Start by publishing actual class sizes, by school, by grade, by subject. Parents deserve the truth about the classroom their child sits in.
Finish the job on campus safety. The district has bought the systems. My job is making sure they work at every school, and telling you honestly when they don’t.
You don’t need a child at Logan to have a stake in this. Good schools hold property values, keep our streets safe, and spend your tax dollars carefully.
I live here. I’ll show up, listen, and stay.
4. What are your priorities for your district?
Budget stewardship, done in the open. New Haven runs an operating gap of about $16 million a year and holds its 3 percent reserve, roughly $5.65 million, with a positive certification from the county. Both things are true at once and voters should hear both. I want the hard questions asked early and in public, so the classroom is the last thing to get thin. And I want Measure N’s $272 million on a project-by-project public dashboard. Bond money builds and fixes schools; by law it can’t pay salaries or programs. People should be able to see that difference for themselves.
Class sizes, published. The district doesn’t report actual class sizes. I want them out every year, by school, by grade, by subject. It’s the one number a parent wants most and currently can’t get.
Campus safety, finished. The board has approved districtwide video surveillance, integrated intercom and emergency alerts, and a districtwide safety project. Buying a system and having it work at every campus are two different things. My job is to verify it, and to say so plainly when it falls short. Systems keep kids safe. Support keeps kids well. I’ll hold the district to both.
5. What are the major challenges that your city is facing?
New Haven Unified serves about 11,000 students across Union City and part of south Hayward, and it spends more each year than it takes in. Special education alone rose $3.2 million in a single year, to $26 million. That’s a legal and moral obligation, and the work is funding it sustainably. Salaries and benefits are about 86 percent of the budget, so every conversation about efficiency is a conversation about people. I’d rather say that out loud than pretend otherwise.
Enrollment is the other half. Last year, for the first time in over a decade, enrollment didn’t fall. That’s worth building on, because in California enrollment is revenue. Families choose districts on class size, safety, and whether they believe what the district tells them.
That’s the trust piece. Union City is genuinely diverse, and many families here are navigating American schools for the first time, sometimes in a second language. When information is hard to find, they’re the ones who lose out first. Publishing plain numbers is how you make a district readable to everyone in it.
6. What sets you apart from your competitors in the race?
I’ll let every candidate speak to their own record. Here’s mine.
I live in Area 5 and my children are in these schools right now. When I vote on this budget, I’m voting on my own family’s schools and my own neighbors’ kids. That’s why the hard votes will sit with me the way they should.
I come to this as a budget person. Reading a multimillion-dollar budget and finding what doesn’t hold up is my job. A school district is finally a set of financial choices with children on the other side of them.
And I’m knocking on nearly 2,000 Area 5 doors myself, mostly to listen. Some of the best ideas in this campaign came off a front porch.
Area 5 has never had a contested school board race. This is the neighborhood’s first real choice, and it deserves someone who’ll still be here in year four. I’ll show up, listen, and stay.
7. Tell us about your background and family
I was born in India. I studied electrical and electronics engineering at Punjab Technical University and did my master’s in microelectronics at Panjab University. Before I worked in technology, I taught engineering students in India, then spent 3 years as a substitute teacher in Bay Area classrooms. That’s where I learned what a room of 30 looks like from the front.
My husband Sumit and I settled in Union City in 2012, and both our daughters chose James Logan High School. We’re a multigenerational household, with my in-laws living with us, which I suspect is familiar to a lot of your readers.
I’m a cybersecurity program manager at a Fortune 500 company, managing a multimillion-dollar budget. I’ve served on the Union City Human Relations Commission since December 2022 and chaired it since January. Outside that, I travel every chance I get, and there’s a labradoodle who thinks he runs the household.
One detail I like: New Haven Unified now offers Punjabi as a world language for grades 9 through 12.
The post Desis On The Ballot: Deepti Garg For New Haven Unified School District (CA) appeared first on India Currents.
