SINCE 1979 • VOLUME 38, NO. 23
SECTION A
MARCH 10, 2017
$1.00
How a
Keizer
drug dealer
ended up
back on the
streets
PAGE A2
Growing
classes =
less 1-on-1
instruction
Principal
favors
renovation
over new
high school
MORE STUDENTS
MORE
PROBLEMS
Please see EXPAND, Page A7
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expanded and/or rebuilt to accommodate more
students.
Conceptual plans call for relocating softball
U
CL
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I
LONGEST
GAME OF
FOLLOW THE
LEADER. EVER.
9
ST
PAGE A3
Celt rappers
tops MHS
talent
PAGE A8
Please see
CLASSES,
Page A6
TS
EN
UD
ST
PE
By ERIC A. HOWALD
Of the Keizertimes
To accommodate burgeoning enrollment,
McNary High School needs more room to
expand, which is going to mean purchasing it
from somewhere in the immediate area.
“We need a minimum of four acres,” said
Mike Wolfe, chief operations offi cer of the Sa-
lem-Keizer School District. “That would
open up the opportunity for an actual
addition. That’s the option that the
(Long Range Facilities Planning)
task force is recommending for
McNary.”
The district is having con-
versations with St. Edward
Catholic Church about
possibly purchasing land
northeast of the current
facility and west of the
church on River Road
North. However, any
deal would likely be
contingent on voters
approving a general
obligation bond in an
amount to be deter-
mined.
McNary is already
over capacity, even with
six portable classrooms,
but projections show the
school growing even more
in the coming decade. Even
if the district were to place
more portables on the existing
site, which would further compli-
cate parking issues at the school and
surrounding neighborhoods, portables
do not address overcrowding in commu-
nal areas like cafeterias, libraries and audito-
riums. Each of those spaces would need to be
Internet as
a public
utility
TS
EN
UD
Please see RENOVATE, Page A7
District needs land for MHS expansion
6
By DEREK WILEY
Of the Keizertimes
Principal Erik Jespersen
loves and is comfortable with
the size of his high school,
roughly 2,100 students, and
wants every ninth through
12th grader in Keizer attend-
ing McNary.
“I think Keizer folks want
Keizer kids going to a Keizer
high school,” he said. “I am a
very strong advocate of hav-
ing one high school in Keizer.
I am very appreciative of the
community support that we
have.”
But Jespersen also knows
what he’s dealing with—
an overcrowded cafeteria,
50-year-old science labs, an
“obscenely small” orches-
tra room and huge elective
classes.
According to the Salem-
Keizer School District, Mc-
Nary is at 109 percent ca-
pacity and that includes six
portable classrooms that were
installed two at a time in 1998,
2000 and 2008. Without the
portables, MHS is 19 percent
over capacity.
Jespersen said McNary was
given the option of adding
more portables but declined
because they would increase
the school’s parking issues. He
also doesn’t like the way they
look.
“When you’re trying to
build a world class high school
and you’ve got trailers, I don’t
think that feels good for stu-
dents to have to walk outside,”
Jespersen said. “I don’t think it
feels good for our teachers to
have to walk outside for their
classes. We do need to make
some improvements. We are
crowded and that’s not good
for kids. I don’t think por-
tables is necessarily the best
solution.”
One thing Jespersen be-
lieves McNary can do is bet-
ter maximize its space.
One example is the weight
room, which is broken up
into four different closed
spaces. With the help of the
Athletic Booster Club, Jes-
persen would like to knock
out some walls and make it
By DEREK WILEY
Of the Keizertimes
McNary drama director
Dallas Myers has 44 students in
his fundamentals of acting class.
But that’s nothing compared
to the 51 in intro to theatre last
semester or his stacked techni-
cal theatre class that got so big
last year that he had to sell one
of his prep periods and split the
class into two.
Since Myers is the only the-
atre teacher at McNary and
can only teach for six periods,
stacking his classes is com-
mon. Advanced drama direct-
ing, advanced scene works and
advanced theatre arts are all in
the same period, as are theatre
design, regular technical theatre
and advanced technical theatre.
“I teach brand new technical
theatre students who have nev-
er touched a tool before along
side of kids who have been in
that class for four and fi ve se-
mesters,” Myers said. “It’s a real
balancing act. The downside is
those advanced kids don’t get
a lot of one-on-one time with
me because I’m giving it to
the new guys and I have
seen attrition in
that class in this
McNary Capacity
1,725
STUDENTS
BATMAN!
PAGE A14
KEIZERTIMES
Andrew Jackson
Keizer
3555 River Road N, Keizer
(503) 463- 4853
www.skylineforddirect.com