Salem school project team narrows site, circulation and program issues; finance group approves two invoices

Design and district staff told the Salem Public Schools project meeting that the campus is far more constrained than it appears and outlined several design options while transportation consultants described congestion and access limits that will shape any new building.

The presentation showed the campus totals about 61.6 acres but—after easements, steep ledge and other exclusions—only about 16.7 acres are readily buildable. Vinod Kalike, senior transportation planner and traffic engineer with VHP, said the site’s current circulation is a one‑way spine that forces long detours for drivers and concentrates roughly 600–700 vehicles into a roughly 30– to 40‑minute morning arrival window at a single access point near the Highland Avenue signal, creating substantial queuing and friction for drop‑off and bus operations.

Those constraints, combined with program work the district is completing, are driving the range of options the design team presented. The team is preparing draft educational programs for two scenarios: a 1,000‑student high school (grades 9–12) and a 1,500‑student combined 7–12 model (about 1,600 projected students in future scenarios, compared with a current 965). The existing high school building was listed at roughly 411,000 gross square feet (not including an approximately 82,100‑square‑foot auto shop);…