Students get off the bus for the first day of school at Bush Elementary. (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter) Hundreds more local students attended school regularly last year after a determined push by the Salem-Keizer School District to boost numbers. That’s the brightest news for local schools in state “report cards” released[Read More…]

Students eat breakfast on the first day of school at Bush Elementary School. (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter) The use of millions of state dollars to improve local schools rests in the hands of about three dozen Salem-Keizer community members and local educators. Salem-Keizer leaders have until March to tell the state[Read More…]

The Salem-Keizer School District needs two community volunteers to weigh in on the district’s $1 billion annual budget. Two seats are currently open on the district’s budget committee, a 14-member group that meets regularly in April and May to review Superintendent Christy Perry’s budget proposal for the coming year. The[Read More…]

Bella Blessing smiles while eating a kiwi berry during her first grade class at Hoover Elementary School. (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter) Most students in Veronica Sedlacek’s first grade class had never heard of a kiwi berry. Before serving the grape-sized fruit to them as a snack last week, Sedlacek gave them[Read More…]

McNary High School (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter) Five McNary High School students are facing criminal charges related to a fight that broke out after school last week. The fight happened immediately after school on Sept. 19 near the school’s gym. Two girls, ages 15 and 16, began fighting. “It was a[Read More…]

Culinary student Rebecca Tipton prepares to serve mozzarella, tomato and salami skewers at a ribbon-cutting event at Salem-Keizer’s Career Technical Education Center (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter) The 44 students in the new culinary program at the Salem-Keizer School District haven’t yet worked with knives or cooked a meal. But two weeks[Read More…]

Students get off the bus for the first day of school at Bush Elementary. (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter) About 400 fewer Salem-Keizer students passed the state’s English test last year than in the previous year, according to state data released Thursday. The data shows a small districtwide decrease in the number[Read More…]

Food service workers prepare wrapped turkey dogs to serve in Salem-Keizer elementary schools (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter) In Salem-Keizer School District’s central food production kitchen, servings are often measured by the thousands. The industrial kitchen in a nondescript building in southeast Salem cooks up chili, burritos, hamburgers and more for every[Read More…]

Ruth Langmoir, an August 2019 McKay High School graduate, gets a hug from graduation coach Ken Ramirez after earning her diploma. (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter) It took her principal dragging her out of bed to get her there, but Angel Hance Route is now a high school graduate. She was one[Read More…]

State officials ruled this week that Salem-Keizer School District isn’t discriminating against LGBTQ employees by holding meetings at a community center owned by a church which opposes same-sex relationships. The Oregon Department of Education’s decision comes after a Salem-Keizer employee filed a complaint through the Salem-Keizer Education Association about staff[Read More…]