Salvador Luna, 13, scrapes batter off of a mixer as Stella Pedersen, 12, washes her hands while the two work on a cast-iron dessert during the Farm to Fork enrichment camp at McNary High School on Wednesday, July 14. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter) A line of kettle grills smoked outside McNary[Read More…]
SCHOOLS
The new Salem-Keizer School Board is younger, more diverse and ready to get to work
Newly elected members of the Salem-Keizer School Board for 2021, from top left: María Hinojos Pressey, Osvaldo Avila, Ashley Carson Cottingham and Karina Guzmán Ortiz. Salem’s educators face a daunting task in the fall: helping more than 40,000 local students return to classrooms full-time, and addressing the academic and mental[Read More…]
Willamette University inks merger with Pacific Northwest College of Art
Willamette University will soon have more options for students studying art after finalizing a merger with the Pacific Northwest College of Art on Wednesday. The college, which has a downtown Portland campus, will maintain its own admission process and be an independent college within Willamette, offering both undergraduate and graduate[Read More…]
Salem’s new student advisor wants mental health front and center when teens return to school
Grace Caldwell sits in the Salem-Keizer School Board’s meeting room on June 22, 2021 (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter) Outside of school, Grace Caldwell’s passions are playing tennis and swimming. But with sports on hold during the pandemic, the McKay High School student spent much of her junior year in meetings with[Read More…]
For some Salem parents, upended school start times in fall mean child care headaches
Lucas Gage arrives by bus for the first day of in-person kindergarten at Richmond Elementary on Tuesday, March 2. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter) Megan Kamna thought she had a plan for her daughter’s after school care in the fall. Her five-year-old starts kindergarten at Cummings Elementary School in Keizer. Kamna, who[Read More…]
Western Christian School seeks to sustain growth with new development director
Al Stefan, superintendent of Western Christian School, stands inside the main hallway on June 1, 2021 (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter) As Oregon’s public schools shed students over the last year, Al Stefan said a handful came knocking. Stefan is the superintendent of Western Christian School, a K-12 school on Highway 221[Read More…]
School proves tough into spring – 4 in 10 local high schoolers get an F
More than 4,600 Salem-Keizer high school students – about 39% of the total – failed at least one class during the second and third quarters of the school year. That’s slightly worse than the first quarter, when about one in three students failed at least one course. And for all[Read More…]
West Salem HS expansions mean more space for fire science, parking
Denisa Kraynick, center, overturns a shovel full of dirt during the groundbreaking at West Salem High School on Friday, May 28, 2021. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter) Salem’s newest high school will be expanded starting this summer with a $34.5 million construction project to add more classrooms and space for career technical[Read More…]
Traffic improvements, more classrooms coming to Sprague as $43 million construction project begins
By 7:10 a.m., there’s usually a line of cars stretched outside the main entrance at Sprague High School as parents wait to drop their students off. Principal Chad Barkes said the morning back-up is so bad that parents have to arrive almost a half hour before classes begin to guarantee[Read More…]
Salem-Keizer custodians say understaffing is at a “crisis level”
Members of the Association of Salem-Keizer Education Support Professionals protest high workloads outside a school board meeting Tuesday, May 11, 2021 (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter) The custodians who clean Salem’s schools say they’re overworked and understaffed. The district’s classified employee union, the Association of Salem-Keizer Education Support Professionals, objected to what[Read More…]
