Category Schools

Educators and parents packed a school board meeting Feb. 18, 2020 to speak about a $35 million Salem-Keizer schools spending plan. Parent Angelica Lagos, right, approaches the podium. (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter) Dozens of educators and parents waited for more than two hours Tuesday night to…

Salem’s school system would add 240 full-time employees, lengthen the middle school day and spend more than $3 million to create more after school programs and eliminate fees to improve local education under a plan being advanced by Salem-Keizer School District administrators. District administrators will…

School buses parked in the Salem-Keizer School District lot on Hawthorne Avenue (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter) Hoping to curb a persistent bus driver shortage, the Salem-Keizer School District is raising pay for drivers and other transportation workers. Starting bus drivers will now earn $17.47 hourly, up…

Students get off the bus for the first day of school at Bush Elementary, Sept. 4, 2019. (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter) Salem-Keizer administrators want to help thousands of kids do better in school with more than two dozen changes to district programs affecting everything from math…

Senior Julia DaSilva, playing Comic Sans, attacks sophomore Ian Madsen, playing Times New Roman, during a Font Club rehearsal (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter) If you’re looking to surprise, confuse or engage in a strong debate about the much-maligned Comic Sans font with your Valentine’s Day date,…

Salem-Keizer administrators plan to revamp the school district’s programs for teaching English to non-native speakers, add more social workers and counselors in schools and improve middle and high school math programs as part of their plan for spending $35 million in new state funding expected…

Eliandra Yatilman, a fourth grader at Auburn Elementary School, and Dale Dela Cruz, a North Salem High School senior, sing “Lava” at the Auburn Islander Club’s first family night on Feb. 6, 2020 (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter) When Kimo Lewis attended Auburn Elementary School, there were…

Rachael Lang, an 8th grade student at Whiteaker Middle School, recently won a national poetry contest (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter) Whiteaker Middle School eighth-grader Rachael Lang hadn’t heard of the Kent State massacre until two of her teachers covered it in class this year. But when…

Hallman students gather during the school’s morning assembly. (Fred Joe/Special to Salem Reporter) As the Salem-Keizer School District weighs how to spend millions of dollars in new state money, teachers are pushing to shrink class sizes. That’s put teachers at odds with a volunteer task…