Meet Salem’s Class of 2025

Nearly 3,000 students earned diplomas from local high schools over the past week.
The Salem-Keizer School District had 2,908 graduates as of a Tuesday report to the school board. Another 114 earned GEDs.
Some students will continue to work toward diplomas or GEDs in summer school.
The Class of 2025 includes 331 students who earned a seal of biliteracy demonstrating proficiency in English and another native language. Those graduates include 88 from McKay, followed by North with 64, South with 60, McNary with 48, West with 38, Early College with 20, Sprague with nine and four from Roberts High School at Chemeketa.
This year’s senior class is the first since the Covid pandemic began to have all four years of high school in-person.
Salem Reporter interviewed seven graduates, each from a different high school, to give a snapshot of the graduating class. They include a star baseball player, an advocate for immigrant students, a determined future mortician and mom, and a dancer with a passion for theater and physics.
Over the course of the school year, we’ve also covered achievements from other graduating seniors, including the historic constitutional law national win by a Sprague High School duo, and a Roberts High School graduate who overcame significant challenges at home to earn a diploma. Those stories are included below to offer a fuller picture of the Class of 2025.
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.





