Category SCHOOLS
Hundreds of families denied school transfers following Salem-Keizer boundary shifts
Rebekah Mitchell, center, drops her son Kaiden and daughter Kendra off at daycare the morning of Thursday, April 25. (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter) Hundreds of Salem-Keizer families are having requests to transfer kids to out-of-neighborhood schools denied following a school board decision to approve new attendance…
Salem-Keizer will shift staff to transportation, special education under proposed $1.19 billion budget
Salem-Keizer Superintendent Christy Perry presents her 2019-20 budget plan to the district’s budget committee on April 23, 2019 (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter) The Salem-Keizer school district won’t see layoffs, a shorter school year or larger average class sizes next year, Superintendent Christy Perry told the district’s…
McKay would get more space for arts, science, career education under new design
McKay High School Principal Rob Schoepper presents a plan for the school’s expansion to Salem-Keizer’s Community Bond Oversight Committee on April 22, 2019 (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter) McKay High School would get new science labs, an additional tennis court, and more space for music, theater and…
NINE INTO SIX: In one place, Salem Reporter’s 5-part series on challenges of local schools
Part 1: Salem schools struggle with shifting politics, challenging demographics, lagging students In Salem’s high-poverty schools, the average student starts kindergarten not recognizing enough letters to write their own name. In the first of a five-part series, we looked at how those schools use extra…
Two South Salem teams finalists in state workplace safety video competition
Bonn Wright heads outside to work in a South Salem High School video “70 and Counting” Donning safety glasses and lab coats, two South Salem video production teams earned finalist spots in a state workplace safety competition. Their videos are among five finalists in a…
Lee Elementary principal Don Hakala resigns
The principal of Lee Elementary School has resigned, shifting to a new school post to work one day a week until the end of the school year, according to Salem-Keizer School District officials. Principal Don Hakala’s last day at the school, located in southeast Salem,…
Groundbreaking at North kicks off $70 million campus renovation to add new classrooms
North High School senior and student body president Kiara Ballard speaks at the school’s groundbreaking ceremony with vice president Ben Garcia, right. (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter) Senior Kiara Ballard won’t be around to see North Salem High School’s renovations over the next 18 months. But the…
Substitute teacher fired from Salem-Keizer after allegedly telling student “go back to Mexico”
Students enter Swegle Elementary on the first day of school in 2018. (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter) A substitute teacher was fired by the Salem-Keizer district after students reported she told a fifth-grade student to “go back to Mexico” when he declined to say the Pledge of…
Two Salem students chosen to represent Oregon in U.S. Senate leadership program
Justin Thach, senior at West Salem High School (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter) For West Salem senior Justin Thach, moving to Oregon from New Jersey in the middle of high school was a shock. Thach, the son of Cambodian and Vietnamese immigrants, found less racial diversity and…