UPDATED: Salem-Keizer School Board approves budget, appoints student advisers
Updated Thursday, June 12:
The Salem-Keizer School board voted unanimously to adopt the district budget unchanged after little discussion Tuesday night.
The board also adopted the LGBTQ2SIA+ Pride Month proclamation 6-1, with Director Krissy Hudson voting no.
Board members voted to appoint Jolee McMahan of South Salem High School and Jaxon Woods of Sprague High School as students advisers for the 2025-26 school year.
All other items were approved unanimously.
Original story below:
The Salem-Keizer School Board will vote Tuesday on adopting the district’s proposed $1.15 billion budget. It would add several dozen new employees to focus on student behavior and reverse cuts made last year.
The budget covers next school year, taking effect July 1.
The school district’s budget committee recommended the budget unchanged from Superintendent Andrea Castañeda’s initial proposal. Their approval came after school board Director Krissy Hudson led an unsuccessful effort to add more reading specialists by cutting the district’s equity office and free bus passes, among other expenses.
The budget calls for spending about $25 million more than last year. Most of that increase will cover rising pension and wage costs.
To participate
The Salem-Keizer School Board meets Tuesday, June 10, at 6 p.m. in the boardroom at 2575 Commercial St. S.E.
Public comment sign-ups closed 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 American Sign Language.
Student advisers
The board will vote on appointing new student advisers for the upcoming school year.
Advisers are high school students who have previously served on a committee advising the superintendent. They attend public board meetings and can offer input, but do not vote. They do not participate in executive sessions, which are closed to the public.
The position was created in 2020 to give the board a more direct route to consider student input.
Two students applied for the role this year. The board has in recent years appointed two advisers.
They are Jolee McMahan, who will be a junior at South Salem High School in the fall, and Jaxon Woods who will be a senior at Sprague High School.
McMahan said she wanted to share a student perspective with decisionmakers.
“I have always been drawn to fairness, equality and improvement of experiences for everyone. I believe every student should be in accepting and encouraging environments,” she wrote in her application.
Woods said in an application that he’s felt like he makes a difference when sharing the Sprague student body’s concerns on the superintendent’s advisory committee.
“I would love to empower the student body (and community) that I represent by being able to voice concerns that they have even more directly to decision-makers, and the connection with other schools would be an incredible opportunity to cooperate in issues affecting everyone in our district,” he wrote.
Other items
- The board will consider approving a proclamation for LGBTQ2SIA+ Pride Month, which is typically done annually in June.
- The board will vote on adopting a new secondary Spanish curriculum.
- The board will hear a report on the district’s preschool programs.
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 education, economic development and a little bit of everything else. She’s been a journalist in Oregon and Washington for over a decade and is a past president of Oregon's Society of Professional Journalists chapter. Outside of work, you can often find her gardening or with her nose buried in a book.
