Salem School Closures: Parents Push Back, and Oregon’s Final Governor Debate – Newsmakers At Noon 10/14/26

But I want to start off with the Salem-Kaiser school board, because I decided last night that I was going to watch the whole thing.

I did cut away to watch the debate, and then I was able to cut back.

It was on YouTube, so I backed it up.

Yoo-hoo, technology.

My overall impression, though, and I'll get into details because I want to call some specifics out, because overall I was very impressed with the quality and the caliber of testimony that happened, other than one girl at the front who was one of the student activists who, again, they're just, I'm sorry, they're rude brats.

And she came across as a rude brat making demands.

Thankfully, we only had to endure one and the rest were very well thought out.

But my overall impression of the whole meeting that there was strong opposition to the proposed school closures with particularly compelling testimony from parents, students and community members.

And again, much of the testimony in this case, it was data driven.

challenging the district's methodology, transparency, and priorities.

It was like a completely different meeting from the ones that we've been having to endure when you've got the student activists there that run rule the roost and, you know, and they go to the city council meetings.

I was overall extremely impressed.

Now I don't, some of the parents, I don't agree necessarily with some of the takes they were taking, but they were all very well-spoken and they did their homework and their due diligence.

They came based with facts and also they, emotions and feelings because it's a very emotional decision.

Yeah, and I know that I, for one, and I'm sure a lot of people across the district, when they got the notifications of which schools were closing, there was a bit of shock and awe because I had a small list in my head, especially the schools which I know better, kind of going, okay, out of these groups, I can see this one and this.

And besides maybe one or two of those, I'm kind of like, I'm a little shocked that that one's on the chopping block at this point.

The schools that were mainly that I saw the most testimony coming from were in support of Cummings, Candelaria and Englewood.

And I learned a lot about Englewood that I did not know.

Like I said, my son went to Morningside and then to Leslie and then to South.

I went to South.

I'm going to start this way because a lot of it we thought, why are they targeting these schools? The superintendent came right out and discussed race, socioeconomic status, and then the relationship between wealth and academic achievement.

And she spent a lot of time pontificating and giving you the sort of the sad cross, the arched eyebrows and the pursed lip face to the audience there, trying to earnestly explain the rationale and the metrics behind this, the heart decision.

There was a lot of, I felt like they could all add little hearts on.

And I get that.

And I don't mean to be kind of, I'm not... try not to be too sarcastic, but I can see through the games that are being played.

But I want to start off with the Salem-Kaiser school board, because I decided last night that I was going to watch the whole thing.

I did cut away to watch the debate, and then I was able to cut back.

It was on YouTube, so I backed it up.

Yoo-hoo, technology.

My overall impression, though, and I'll get into details because I want to call some specifics out, because overall I was very impressed with the quality and the caliber of testimony that happened, other than one girl at the front who was one of the student activists who, again, they're just, I'm sorry, they're rude brats.

And she came across as a rude brat making demands.

Thankfully, we only had to endure one and the rest were very well thought out.

But my overall impression of the whole meeting that there was strong opposition to the proposed school closures with particularly compelling testimony from parents, students and community members.

And again, much of the testimony in this case, it was data driven.

challenging the district's methodology, transparency, and priorities.

It was like a completely different meeting from the ones that we've been having to endure when you've got the student activists there that run rule the roost and, you know, and they go to the city council meetings.

I was overall extremely impressed.

Now I don't, some of the parents, I don't agree necessarily with some of the takes they were taking, but they were all very well-spoken and they did their homework and their due diligence.

They came based with facts and also they, emotions and feelings because it's a very emotional decision.

Yeah, and I know that I, for one, and I'm sure a lot of people across the district, when they got the notifications of which schools were closing, there was a bit of shock and awe because I had a small list in my head, especially the schools which I know better, kind of going, okay, out of these groups, I can see this one and this.

And besides maybe one or two of those, I'm kind of like, I'm a little shocked that that one's on the chopping block at this point.

The schools that were mainly that I saw the most testimony coming from were in support of Cummings, Candelaria and Englewood.

And I learned a lot about Englewood that I did not know.

Like I said, my son went to Morningside and then to Leslie and then to South.

I went to South.

I'm going to start this way because a lot of it we thought, why are they targeting these schools? The superintendent came right out and discussed race, socioeconomic status, and then the relationship between wealth and academic achievement.

And she spent a lot of time pontificating and giving you the sort of the sad cross, the arched eyebrows and the pursed lip face to the audience there, trying to earnestly explain the rationale and the metrics behind this, the heart decision.

There was a lot of, I felt like they could all add little hearts on.

And I get that.

And I don't mean to be kind of, I'm not... try not to be too sarcastic, but I can see through the games that are being played.