Salem-Keizer releases fall 'belonging' results, outlines behavioral-health expansion

Chris Moore, the district’s director of social-emotional learning, presented fall survey results and next steps on student belonging and behavioral health.

Moore said the district’s target for grades 3–5 was about 63 percent and the fall interim result was roughly 61 percent. “Some of the trends you’ll see over time are that our Asian students regularly have the highest sense of belonging, and our students who are native and indigenous often have the lowest,” Moore said, calling attention to persistent subgroup gaps.

The presentation also flagged secondary results: the district’s target for grades 6–12 was 35 percent, and fall results were about 34 percent, Moore said. He described patterns by gender and grade level, noting that sense of belonging typically declines as students move to higher grades.

Moore highlighted several school-level improvements, including a 15-point rise at Highland Elementary and a 12-point rise at Kaiser Elementary, attributing gains to staff collaboration, culture centers and student-led efforts. “Their solution was around culture centers and inviting students to be the voices of creating those spaces for each other,” he said, describing Candelaria Elementary’s shift to about 81 percent reported belonging after targeted actions.

The report included behavioral-health initiatives the district is scaling up. Moore described Meadowlark, a day-treatment partial hospitalization program, and a behavioral-health CTE mentoring program that places high-school students as mentors in elementary schools. He said 10–12 students have completed Meadowlark programming and returned to their home schools after 10–12 weeks of treatment.

Moore also reiterated aspirational clinician-staffing goals — clinicians five days a week in high schools, four days a week in middle schools and three days a week in elementary schools — but acknowledged current gaps. When asked, Moore said current coverage averages about one to two days a week districtwide: “For our high schools, it’s around 2 to 3 days a week… some middle schools don’t have any mental health services right now… about 25% of our elementary schools have a clinician,” he said.

Board members pressed for implementation timelines, measurement and budget details; Moore said some programs scaled from proposal to launch in about six months and that the district is developing a three-year plan for realistic implementation and program evaluation. Superintendent Andrea Castaneda said budget line-item details were not available at the table but that the district had prioritized behavioral health in recent budget cycles.

The board directed staff to continue data dives with the equity office and school leaders to identify site trends and target actions. The presentation concluded with an emphasis on expanding partnerships with community behavioral-health organizations and on building the district’s own capacity to measure which interventions move the needle.

The board did not take a formal vote on any new program funding at the meeting; Moore said staff will return with more detailed implementation and budget proposals.