Salem-Keizer School Board on Tuesday approved granting a tax exemption for a planned apartment building in downtown Salem that will include 16 apartments that meet a government definition of affordable housing.
The 105-unit apartment complex planned for 277 High St. N.E. sits in a city urban renewal area, which means the school district would not have collected any tax revenue from the project. A majority of the board voted to approve the exemption, with Director Krissy Hudson absent and Maria Hinojos Pressey abstaining.
Superintendent Andrea Castañeda outlined district leaders’ priorities for the upcoming school year. She said elementary schools will focus on teaching students to read in early grades, with a goal of improving third-grade reading levels. Middle and high schools are focused on implementing new curriculum in core subjects that’s been adopted over the past year.
Other key areas of focus are special education and behavioral health, restoring public trust in the district and schools, and improving human resources systems, she said.
The board held a lengthy discussion about the suggested wording of the district’s equity policy, which has been adopted annually since 2021. A majority of the board indicated they’d support a revised policy based on suggestions from the district’s equity committee.
Board Director Satya Chandragiri proposed an alternate resolution, saying the language should recognize the dignity of all people and deemphasize white supremacy because it can provoke defensiveness and divisiveness. He said he would not support the resolution as written, with Director Krissy Hudson agreeing with him.
The board took no action and is scheduled to vote on the resolution at a later meeting.
New student adviser Sofia Castellanos made her first policy suggestion to the board during a discussion about summer graduation ceremonies. She said district policies banning items like air horns during graduation are overly restrictive.
“It’s like 15 seconds of cheering. I think you can suck it up for four years of learning,” she told the board.
Board Chair Cynthia Richardson, a retired administrator and former principal of North and McKay high schools, signaled she didn’t agree.
“Sofia, I’ll talk to you offline about graduations. I was a high school principal for 14 years,” Richardson said with a smile, prompting chuckles as the meeting closed out.
Original story below:
The Salem-Keizer School Board on Tuesday will consider exempting a planned 105-unit downtown apartment complex from property taxes.
The board will also hold a first reading of a revised equity and antiracism policy, which will be voted on at a later meeting, and reaffirm the district’s policy, adopted in 2017, of not collecting information about students’ immigration status or sharing information with federal immigration authorities unless required by law.
View the agenda here.
To participate
The Salem-Keizer School Board meets Tuesday, Aug. 13, at 6 p.m. in the boardroom at the former Student Services Support Center, 2575 Commercial St. S.E.
Members of the public may sign up in advance to provide written, in-person or virtual public comment. People can sign up using this form.
Public comment sign-ups close at 3 p.m. Monday.The meeting will be streamed on CC:Media, channel 21 or on YouTube in English and Spanish and interpreted live in ASL.
Apartment complex
Board members on Tuesday will vote on a tax exemption for the planned five-story High Street Apartments Deacon Development is planning at 277 High St. N.E.
Salem City Councilors in May approved a 10-year tax break for the project. If the school board follows suit, it will exempt the project from paying any property taxes for 10 years under a program intended to encourage the development of affordable housing.
An exemption wouldn’t reduce the school district’s property tax revenue. That’s because the property sits in an urban renewal area, a special area of the city where property taxes collected are used to finance development projects instead of being used for general local government.
The development would have 16 apartments considered affordable for people making 80% of the Salem area’s median income — $51,200 for a single person or $73,040 for a family of four.
Under state guidelines, that means rent would be limited to $1,280 for a studio and $1,371 for a one-bedroom.
Revised equity resolution
The board will hold a first reading of a revised equity and antiracism policy after incorporating changes in the language recommended by the district’s equity committee. Board members will vote on adopting it at a later meeting.
The school board has annually voted to adopt an equity resolution since the fall of 2021.
The suggested changes include focusing the language more on racism and antiracism instead of emphasizing white supremacy, and renaming the resolution the Commitment to Equity Centered on Race and Anti-Racism, “as it represents the spirit of the resolution more appropriately,” according to the agenda.
“Every student and person entering our Salem-Keizer Public School community must feel safe, welcome, celebrated and fully included in district schools and spaces; and recognizing that when students experience bias and discrimination, they are inherently less safe psychologically, emotionally, and physically and it hinders their ability to learn and grow and may cause them to experience alienation from their school communities. We must build inclusive environments that empower students and employees to thrive,” the revised resolution begins.
It calls on the board to “directly address the overrepresentation of students of color in special education and the underrepresentation of students of color in talented and gifted, advanced academics, and college and career prep programs” and says the higher rates of suspension and expulsion for students of color impacts those students’ ability to graduate successfully.
“Salem-Keizer Public Schools Board of Directors commits to support the district’s efforts to build a restorative model for discipline, to monitor discipline data and our key performance indicators disaggregated by race and ethnicity, and to develop a system for monitoring the diversification of our workforce,” the resolution concludes.
Other board actions
- Swear in student adviser Sofia Castellanos del Rio, a senior at South Salem High School
- Receive a summer graduation report, which says 84 students earned high school diplomas over the summer and six earned GEDs
- Hear an update from Superintendent Andrea Castañeda on district operations
- Reaffirm the district’s “safe and welcoming schools policy,” which limits the information district employees will share with federal immigration officials
Contact reporter Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241.
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Rachel Alexander is Salem Reporter’s managing editor. She joined Salem Reporter when it was founded in 2018 and covers city news, education, nonprofits and a little bit of everything else. She’s been a journalist in Oregon and Washington for a decade. Outside of work, she’s a skater and board member with Salem’s Cherry City Roller Derby and can often be found with her nose buried in a book.
