The 2019-20 Salem-Keizer School Board (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter)
Salem-Keizer school board members will vote on a $60 million transportation spending package and several property transactions at a meeting Tuesday night.
District leaders want to buy 195 new school buses and build a new transportation facility on Gaffin Road in south Salem, selling bonds this summer to finance the project. Much of the cost would be reimbursed by the state over the next several years.
Board members will vote on selling the former Rosedale Elementary School at 6974 Bates Road South for $1.1 million.
The district has owned the property since 1952 and originally paid $10 for it. It was an elementary school with about 160 students until the district began leasing it to a foundation in 2012. The property has been listed for sale since 2015 after a previous school board determined the district no longer needed it.
Board members will consider buying a quarter-acre home property at 1163 D Street Northeast to serve as the future home of tennis courts and tennis court parking for North Salem High School, which is currently undergoing expansion and renovation. The sale price is $120,000. The property is next to existing district-owned fields about a block away from the high school.
Board members will read, but not yet vote on, issuing $236 million in bonds to support school construction projects Salem-Keizer voters approved in the spring of 2018. Projects are underway at many district schools, and the district has already issued $383 million in bonds to pay for construction scheduled to take place over the next four years.
They will also read a charter renewal for Jane Goodall Environmental Middle School.
Meeting details: 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 10 at Salem-Keizer’s Support Services Center, 2575 Commercial St. S.E.
Board members: Marty Heyen, Jesse Lippold, Kathy Goss, Sheronne Blasi, Paul Kyllo, Satya Chandragiri and Danielle Bethell.
Reporter Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241.
Rachel Alexander is Salem Reporter’s managing editor. She joined Salem Reporter when it was founded in 2018 and covers city news, education, nonprofits and a little bit of everything else. She’s been a journalist in Oregon and Washington for a decade. Outside of work, she’s a skater and board member with Salem’s Cherry City Roller Derby and can often be found with her nose buried in a book.
