School board member Jesse Lippold, and other budget committee members look at documents during a meeting on May 7, 2019 (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter) Salem-Keizer schools are hiring more high school counselors and elementary school behavioral support staff for the coming school year after receiving more state money than expected. The[Read More…]

Alec Palm, West Salem sophomore and Titan Spectator managing editor, urges a school district budget committee to reconsider cutting the student newspaper class. (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter) West Salem High School will likely lose its student newspaper class next year because of the school’s declining enrollment. The Titan Spectator would become[Read More…]

McKay High School sophomores Isabel Mejia, left and Jazmin Morales Rodriguez show off a 3D printer to students at a science fair at First Baptist Church in Salem (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter) By 5 p.m. on a Friday, most McKay High School students have gone home or are outside playing sports. But[Read More…]

Students at Hallman Elementary School gather for a morning assembly. (Fred Joe/Special to Salem Reporter) Superintendent Christy Perry knows her first step if her district gets more money: hire a mental health counselors for each of Salem-Keizer’s six high schools. She is one step closer to that ambition Tuesday after[Read More…]

Salem-Keizer Education Association members stand on the Oregon Capitol steps during the March for Our Students, February 18, 2019. (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter) Salem-Keizer School District will close schools two-and-a-half hours early May 8 because of the large number of teachers and educators planning to attend a teacher walkout at the[Read More…]

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 boundaries for district schools. Nearly[Read More…]

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 budget committee Tuesday night. But[Read More…]

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 career education programs under a[Read More…]

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 federal money to try to[Read More…]

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 video contest by the Oregon[Read More…]