Salem-Keizer School District is a school district in the U.S. state of Oregon that serves the cities of Salem and Keizer. It is the second-largest school district in the state with more than 40,000 students and nearly 4,000 full-time equivalent employees. It serves more than of Marion and Polk counties.
Overview
Currently, the district has just over 19% of its students receiving English Language Learner services, 15% receiving Special Education, 8% in the Talented and Gifted Program, and 59% in the Free and Reduced Meal Program - meaning a high percentage of students are living in poverty. In 2008, Salem-Keizer high school students scored above the national average on the SATs. In 2009, 65 percent of high school students graduated with a high school diploma. Salem-Keizer is a growing district with a 6% enrollment growth in the last six years. The district's facilities include 73 schools and programs in 69 locations. The average age of schools is 45 years for elementary, 32 years for middle, and 32 years for high schools.
School board
The Salem-Keizer School Board is responsible for hiring the superintendent, adopting the annual budget, and negotiating collective bargaining agreements with District staff. The seven-person board serves as an advocate on behalf of the Salem-Keizer School District, students and its constituency. All board meetings, except for executive sessions, are open to the public, and time is set aside for public comments. School board elections are held in May as members' four-year terms expire. Though the district is broken up into zones for which one board member serves a constituency, the entire district votes on every zone. Both the chairperson and the vice chairperson are nominated and elected by the Board. The following are the current school board members:
School District Zone
Board Member Name
Zone 1
Kathy Goss
Zone 2
Marty Heyen
Zone 3
Sheronne Blasi
Zone 4
Satya Chandragiri
Zone 5
Jesse Lippold
Zone 6
Danielle Bethell
Zone 7
Paul Kyllo
Demographics
In the 2009 school year, the district had 815 students classified as homeless by the Department of Education, or 2.0% of students in the district.
*Named after newspaper publisher and banker Asahel Bush, the school opened in 1936 as a consolidation of Lincoln, Yew Park, and other elementary schools. The 14 classroom, $192,531.83 building was the first school in Salem with an intercom. It had two 1930s murals from a program of the Works Progress Administration. The peak enrollment was in the 1952-1953 school year, 498 students. By the 1984-1985 school year the enrollment declined to 226, prompting the school district to discuss with Salem Hospital, the idea of selling the school. In 1986 the Council of Teachers of English named Bush a "national center of excellence". The Brandon Johnson Memorial Playground, named after a student who died in 1989, was the first Oregon playground customized for wheelchair-bound children; it opened in 1990. A new 12 classroom, $6.2 million campus began construction in late 2004, financed by the hospital, which agreed to purchase the original school. The previous school was demolished in 2005 after the murals were removed, and a parking lot serving the hospital was put in its place. The new school campus opened that year. The murals are now located at North Salem High School.
The district closed several small rural schools in the 2010s, including Rosedale and Hazel Green.
Bethel Elementary School, named after the Bethel Church, built in that locale by the Dunkards; now used for a Head Start program and the central Head Start office
Fruitland Elementary School, now the district preschool office and Head Start
