With a smile that teachers said lights up the halls, Dara Elkanah hopes to inspire young students of color and pursue a career in education.

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RonniLynn Anderson struggled to adjust to a large high school after spending several years at Salem’s alternative school. While at McNary, she turned around her behavior and became a leader among classmates in the school’s emotional growth center.

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Paul Quach will be the first in his family to attend college, earning a full ride to Wesleyan University. He’s known around school for his energy and involvement in nearly everything.

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The governing board for Salem-Keizer Public Schools on Tuesday adopted a $1.36 billion budget for the 2022-23 school year, following its approval by the district budget committee on May 23.

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Andy Canchola’s favorite part of school was playing soccer, but when he lost his hand in an accident, his motivation to do schoolwork suffered.

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The Salem-Keizer School District is nearing the end of a five-year, $700 million construction push to renovate nearly every school.

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Kylie Lundy was a leader among her classmates as they built a home as part of the residential construction program at the Career Technical Education Center in Salem.

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The lone musician in her family, Sofiya Zavydovska said music has helped her cope with the challenges of high school and been an avenue for making friends and expressing emotion.

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The last official act as a high school student is the commencement ceremony, and graduates at McKay and North Salem High Schools held the event Friday, June 10.

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Renovations are underway at Salem-Keizer Public Schools' District Administrative Center, also known as the Lancaster Professional Center.

Salem parks crews reported that for the past few months, several teens have been creating "unsafe conditions" inside Bush's Pasture Park.

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One Salem-Keizer Public Schools student recalls using his suicide prevention training twice in the past few years. He’s not sure his friends would be alive if he hadn’t.

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Thirteen Salem elementary school students were recently recognized for their art depicting "human-powered" transportation.

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Salem Police said in a statement on Wednesday that they won't charge a Salem-Keizer Public Schools middle school teacher who was accused of sending an inappropriate image to a student.

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A judge with Oregon’s Employment Relations Board sided with the school district’s teacher union in an unfair labor practice complaint filed in February 2021.

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Threat assessment aims to prevent attacks like the Uvalde school shooting. Studies suggest that it’s effective in other ways.

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One way parents can try to get past the teenage code of silence is by emphasizing that safety issues, such as violence or suicide, “absolutely need to be reported,” said Courtenay McCarthy, a school psychologist on the Safety and Support Response Team for Oregon’s Salem-Keizer Public School District. The district has established a threat assessment system adopted by school districts across the country.

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It's graduation season for local high schools and colleges in the Mid-Valley, and The Statesman Journal will be capturing all the action with photos of commencement ceremonies.

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Salem students will once again see beefed-up summer programs at local schools thanks to a second year of significant state money.

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The students at Gubser Elementary had the chance to meet Caesar the No Drama Llama on Tuesday, May 31.

In the wake of the mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, some have called for a return to stationing police officers in local schools. But Salem’s police chief said he thinks proactive threat assessment is a better approach.

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Sprague High School families and supporters gathered before their 2022 commencement ceremony to cheer on the Class of 2022.

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The McNary Celtics lost to Tigard 6-3 in the semifinals of the 6A softball playoffs. Tigard scored four runs with two out in the third inning.

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Students at the central Salem high school endured an agonizing Friday afternoon of lockdown after multiple people reported spotting a man with a gun on campus. Though there was no shooting, many said the incident - just days after a mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas - underscored the need for gun reforms in the U.S.

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Jaimie Hall, who’s taught music in Salem for over two decades, said he loves working with middle schoolers because they’re “fearless.” He was recently named the district’s music teacher of the year.

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A special groundbreaking ceremony was held at Keizer Elementary prior to the June start of the 15-month renovation project as part of the 2018 bond program. The renovation will include a new cafeteria and kitchen, four new classrooms, a multipurpose fitness room, improved flow for drop-off and pick-up as well as other improvements. The event featured photo opportunities, games and a choir concert.

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Two central Salem schools were on lockdown Friday afternoon for about an hour following a report of a person with a handgun near the school.

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​Thanks to the 29 graduating high school seniors receiving Service Honors Recognition pins this year, Salem's community is a bit better now than it was before they started high school.

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McNary came home with three athlete of the year awards at the Beacon Awards on Saturday. Tyler Copeland was named Football Athlete of the Year, Lacey Vasas Softball Player of the Year and Colby Sullivan Male Golf Athlete of the Year. Vic Backlund was also honored at the event with the Beacon Award for McNary High School.

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After a Judson Middle School teacher in Salem was put on leave for a report of an inappropriate image shared on social media, an investigation revealed a student was allegedly posing as the teacher.

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The Salem-Keizer School Board approved a 2022-23 budget of $1,364,339,518 on June 14.

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So the school shooting in Uvalde has, once again, left many people asking, how do we prevent the next one? And while lawmakers debate new gun policies as a solution, many school districts have been working hard to steer young people away from violence.

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After North Salem High School went into lockdown last Friday in response to reports of a suspicious person on campus with a gun, Salem Police Chief Trevor Womack said in a statement: “The recent horrific shooting in Texas has our students, parents, and community on edge, understandably. We want our community to know that we are prepared and ready to keep our school campuses safe, as exemplified by today’s rapid response.”

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Mark Follman, an editor at Mother Jones and author of “Trigger points," and Marisa Randazzo, executive director of threat assessment at the security firm, Ontic, join William Brangham to discuss.

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Jocelyn Schnurbusch, Derek Olivo and Sole Bartlemay all broke Whiteaker track and field records during the 2022 season across the sixth, seventh and eighth grades.

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Salem-Keizer Public Schools announced a lockdown at Parrish Middle School and North Salem High School has been lifted after reports of a suspicious person with a handgun in the area.

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A school district in Oregon pioneered a student behavioral threat assessment program more than 20 years ago to prevent shootings on campus. 

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NPR's Rachel Martin talks with Mark Follman about the behavioral patterns of mass shooters. Follman is the author of: Trigger Points: Inside the Mission to Stop Mass Shootings in America.

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Salem-Keizer Public Schools is one of the districts that has done away with SROs in recent years.

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Like everything else, honors classes in the Salem-Keizer school district were upended during the pandemic. But when students came back into the building, the district took advantage of the opportunity to re-work the way it offers honors classes. 

KATU is saluting our seniors, the graduating class of 2022, and all they have achieved in difficult times. Osvaldo Guzman Rodriguez from North Salem High Schooll shared his message to fellow graduates.

Salem (Ore.) North Salem high school class of 2024 quarterback T.C. Manumaleuna made his way to the workout.

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Five Celtic athletes are nominated for Athlete of the Year for their respective sports at the Beacon Awards. Joining them is first-year softball coach Kelly Parsell who is nominated for Coach of the Year. The Beacon Awards will take place Saturday, June 18, at the

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Cascade, Sprague players among the top selected to the All Mid-Valley boys and girls tennis teams.

The OSAA softball and baseball state quarterfinals are slated to begin with several Mid-Valley area schools competing throughout multiple classifications in this year's tournament.

McNary held its first set of football camps to give head coach Jeff Auvinen and his coaching staff an early look at what they'll have to work with next season.