School board to vote on strategic plan centered on data, academic improvements
Leaders of the Salem-Keizer School District will focus the next two years on academic excellence, student wellness and improving behind-the-scenes district systems so students and teachers have what they need to learn.
That’s according to a strategic plan which Superintendent Andrea Castañeda is asking the Salem-Keizer School Board to adopt at their Tuesday meeting.
The plan outlines specific actions for how the district will achieve goals already adopted by the school board to improve the share of students reading proficiently in third grade, as well as boost attendance and graduation rates and students’ sense of belonging at school.
To participate
The Salem-Keizer School Board meets Tuesday, April 8, at 6 p.m. in the boardroom at the former Student Services Support Center, 2575 Commercial St. S.E.
Members of the public may sign up in advance to provide written, in-person or virtual public comment. People can sign up using the “request to speak” link on the agenda here.
Public comment sign-ups close at 3 p.m. Monday. The meeting will be streamed on CC:Media, channel 21 or on YouTube in English and Spanish and interpreted live in American Sign Language.
The strategic plan calls for several district-level efforts intended to make it easier for teachers and principals to serve students. That includes combining data about students into a single dashboard so it’s easy to review and access.
It also calls for improvements to recruiting and hiring teachers so schools have stable staffing and rely less on substitutes.
The overall aim is “to create an environment where employees feel supported, engaged and equipped to serve students effectively,” the plan says.
The second piece of the plan focused on resources to support student behavioral and mental health challenges, as well as special education programs.
It calls for incorporating student feedback more into district decisions and engaging community members and parents more to improve attendance.
The plan also calls for looking at data on incidents where students injure school employees and analyzing it for trends that can help prevent future violence.
“We are creating a complete student wellness team that brings together mental health staff and learning specialists. This approach, which includes building stronger social and emotional skills in elementary schools, will improve teamwork and create a reliable response to urgent needs in our schools—one that considers all parts of what students need while staying consistent across the district,” the plan says.
A third piece of the plan outlines initiatives to improve academic achievement, including a focus on adopting high-quality curriculum and giving teachers the training they need to use it effectively.
That section also says the district needs standard ways to test students in class that give teachers useful, timely information about what students are learning and where they’re struggling so they can adjust teaching accordingly.
Curriculum updates
The school board will consider, but not yet vote, on several new curriculum adoptions.
Those include curriculum for elementary and middle school science, middle and high school world languages and high school social science.
Contact reporter Rachel Alexander: rachel@salemreporter.com or 503-575-1241.
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Rachel Alexander is Salem Reporter’s managing editor. She joined Salem Reporter when it was founded in 2018 and covers education, economic development and a little bit of everything else. She’s been a journalist in Oregon and Washington for a decade and is a past president of Oregon's Society of Professional Journalists chapter. Outside of work, you can often find her gardening or with her nose buried in a book.
