Category Schools
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
Protesters with Latinos Unidos Siempre want a clear statement that hate groups aren’t welcome in local schools
Aztec dancers perform at a protest organized by Latinos Unidos Siempre outside a Salem-Keizer School Board meeting on Tuesday, May 11, 2021 (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter) As the Salem-Keizer School Board began a meeting Tuesday night, air horns sounded and Aztec dancers began a ritual dance…
As Salem-Keizer emerges from the pandemic, $1.5 billion budget adds more social workers, alternative education
The Salem-Keizer School District will add more counselors and social workers to district schools and create a middle school alternative education program under a $1.5 billion budget proposal Superintendent Christy Perry presented Tuesday to the district’s budget committee. The budget assumes local schools will resume…
As Salem-Keizer schools resume, numbers show how many students have Covid and who’s staying home
Students tour Houck Middle School on the first day of in-person sixth grade on Tuesday, April 13, 2021. (Amanda Loman/Salem Reporter) Since Salem-Keizer schools resumed in-person classes for middle and high school students, a small sliver have contracted Covid and white students have been slightly…