A colorful display crowded with framed portraits, painted skulls, handwritten cards, marigolds, fruits, and candies marked the entryway of Leslie Middle School on a recent visit.

The ofrenda, or altar, commemorating loved ones was one of many at local schools put up for Día de los Muertos.

Shannon Flores, a reading teacher at Leslie, contributed a framed photo of a former student who died last year, Cael Krout.

Krout was among Flores’ first group of students when she began teaching at Leslie four years ago.

She described him as “amazing and super smart.” He loved dinosaurs and science, sang in the school’s choir and played various sports.

He would have been a sophomore this year.

Flores keeps a memorial for Krout in her classroom, featuring his portrait on the wall, surrounded by a lei and drawings of dinosaurs. A book written by Krout, called “Panjura,” is prominently displayed on a nearby shelf next to several toy dinosaurs.

After Krout’s death, Flores put the book together from a writing project he did in her class. She recalls that the book’s main character was a dinosaur named “Caelosaurus,” who gets sucked into his iPad and embarks on a videogame adventure.

The book has two copies: One in the school library and one next to the memorial in Flores’ classroom. Krout wanted to be either a writer or a paleontologist, Flores said. 

“He definitely belongs on here … so we can honor his memory and nobody forgets,” she said of the ofrenda.

Ofrendas are often decorated with marigold flowers, colorful banners, painted skulls, fruits, water and traditional bread, pan de muerte, alongside framed photos of the deceased. 

Marigolds are a common piece of ofrendas, with their scent meant to guide the spirits home to their families. Framed pictures have a similar effect of luring spirits to the altar, while the painted skulls, or sugar skulls, symbolize the dead. Candies, fruits and water are often placed on ofrendas as offerings to the spirits.

Some teachers or educators have put up ofrendas in class for decades, but in recent years, Salem-Keizer School District officials said school-wide displays have become more common.

Schools that participated this year include Keizer Elementary, Waldo Middle and McKay, McNary and North high schools. District spokeswoman Emily Reverman believed there were likely many more schools doing the same. 

At Bush Elementary in central Salem, instructional assistant Hortencia Navarrete has built an ofrenda for the past five years.

Prominently displayed in the school’s entryway, this year’s included hand-written cards from students on paper shaped like skulls, along with framed photos, bouquets of marigolds, candies, fruits and papel picado, or colored banners Navarrete brought back from a trip to Mexico.

Navarrete is originally from Oaxaca, a state in southern Mexico, and has been working at Bush for over 20 years. Her students, speaking Spanish and English, shared what they contributed to the ofrenda. 

Fifth grader Ana, 10, added a card for her grandpa, Francisco, who died in August. Her card spoke of how she wished she could see him again. She hoped to soon add chayote, a Mexican squash, in honor of Francisco’s occupation as a farmer.

Tomy, a fifth grader from Colombia, spoke in Spanish about his bunny, Stich, who died suddenly in 2021. He left a card for his pet, along with some candies in a bowl. 

Navarrete said a goal of having the ofrenda so central is to show the students that they don’t have to hold in their emotions.

Bush is a dual language school and about half their students speak Spanish, according to Jazmin Garcia, the principal. 

“It feels good to have a little part of our culture to shine,” Garcia said. “It means a lot that our kids get to be represented.”

Have a news tip? Contact reporter Hailey Cook: [email protected] .

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