Category Archives: Uncategorized

A growing movement of Salem and Keizer educators is making Parent Teacher Home Visits more common practice, with local organizations doubling the program’s funding and providing incentives for staff to foster deeper relationships with their students’ families. The benefits of the visits extend beyond eliminating barriers and ensuring families are involved in their children’s education. Students become more likely to attend schoolContinueContinue reading “Teachers make regular home visits to help students”

Salem and Keizer community members have become far too familiar with the crushing news of student death by suicide. Several teen suicides have been reported since 2016 alone, with some coming in waves of what experts call “clusters” — one after the other in a short period of time. Salem-Keizer Public Schools officials are taking multiple stepsContinueContinue reading “District, students tackle mental health, suicide prevention”

After living in and out of homelessness throughout her childhood, Erika Figueroa plans to spend the next 12 years becoming a doctor. She wants to help others who may be going through a challenging journey. Read her story here.

Salem and Keizer community members have become far too familiar with the crushing news of student death by suicide. Several teen suicides have been reported since 2016 alone, with some coming in waves of what experts call “clusters” — one after the other in a short period of time. Salem-Keizer Public Schools officials are taking multiple stepsContinueContinue reading “Increasing mental health services top priority in Salem-Keizer schools”

Five complaints against the Jefferson School Board over the hiring of the district’s new superintendent have been dismissed by the Oregon Government Ethics Commission after determining the board did not violate executive session rules. However, the commission did not examine separate questions regarding open meetings law violations outlined in an investigation by the Statesman Journal earlier this year. Read the full followContinueContinue reading “Ethics commission dismisses Jefferson school complaints”

Anyone can start saving for their future and their children’s. Anyone. Regardless of a students’ age, where they live, or their socio-economic, citizenship or veteran statuses, Oregon agencies have dozens of ways to save money for college or trade school. And they want the process to be as simple as possible. Read more here.

At 14, Jona Laks waited with her two sisters to be sorted between forced labor and the gas chambers of Auschwitz. It was 1944 and Laks remembers herself as skinny, pale and underdeveloped. She’d been incarcerated with her family in the Łódź ghetto of Poland. It’d been two years since her parents had been taken to a Nazi extermination camp.ContinueContinue reading “Survivor of Nazi twin experiments brings her story to Salem”

After almost two years of stonewalling by Chemawa Indian School officials and the U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Reps. Kurt Schrader and Suzanne Bonamici say reform appears to be coming after visiting the Salem school this past week. The Oregon Democrats were “pleasantly surprised” by apparent progress and expect more clarity about conflicting federal agencies’ roles, removal of a gag order on school staff and a better systemContinueContinue reading “Reform coming to Chemawa Indian School in Salem”

A group of students and graduates want the Salem-Keizer School Board to do more to protect and help immigrant students in Salem-Keizer Public Schools. “You guys get mad when we decide to march, to sit-in, to speak up for ourselves and others, but when we die, you guys become silent,” one graduate told the board. “And when approached aboutContinueContinue reading “Students demand action from school board: How will you protect us?”

Nearly 1,500 high school students across Salem-Keizer Public Schools are back in class this summer. They’re putting in extra hours four or five days a week to earn credits needed to graduate, repair past grades or improve their chances of getting into college. The district’s black and Pacific Islander students perhaps stand to gain the most from these “credit recovery” programs sinceContinueContinue reading “Students pursue graduation through credit recovery programs”