Schools and TAG gifted education in Salem/Kaiser school district (Portland: live, gangs)

[MsDesigner]

Hello. We've been researching many different places in the Salem, Eugene/Springfield area to move, but aren't limiting it to ONLY those areas - we're willing to consider other places in the PNW, as well. We plan to visit in May and move by the time school begins in the fall. Unfortunately, we still don't have the information we need about TAG/Gifted education. I am hoping an educator or someone with real experience in this area will comment.

We aren't limited to those areas but we need something more affordable than Portland or Corvallis. We are reaching retirement age in the next few years but have a child going into the 6th grade this fall, so we have a lot to take into consideration. Two top requirements are affordable housing ($175k or under) and gifted or TAG education.

Is there anyone out there who can fill me in? I have read the reports by the state and numerous threads on here and have discovered that the Salem/Kaiser school district has many problems including gangs. Is this true? Is there gifted education anywhere worth speaking about?

We have many schools here where we live that offer gifted education but starting in the 6th grade, those dwindle to just a few - one is a private school that is very costly but does offer scholarships. We may qualify and that school would be great, but we want to leave the Southwest and move back to Oregon where my husband is from and where we don't have to deal with the heat and dryness.

Can anyone chime in? Are there any teachers out there who are in-the-know? Administrators, officials, anyone? How about schools that are known for their TAG education - public OR private? Hidden gems?

Thank you!!!!!!

[Silverfall]

While Salem-Keizer has a TAG designation it doesn't really mean too much in terms of academics here. I know that Bend has a TAG classroom, but we don't have any here. South High has the IB program and Valley Inquiry is the IB Charter school for elementary, but we don't have an IB middle school here. My daughter goes to Crossler and my son goes to Sprague. I like the teachers, for the most part, at Crossler but academics is light. That is true of all SK middle schools. Sprague has honors and AP which is fine for my son. I've been mostly pleased with Sprague so far. He's happy over there and my daughter is happy at Crossler so that is what matters to me.

$175 in Salem-Keizer won't get you too much in terms of housing by the way, but it depends on what you want. We do have two Charter middle schools here JJEMS and Howard Street. You might want to get in on the lottery for that.

Yes, we have some gang issues on the east side of Salem. I'm not remotely concerned about it, and I drive all over the city for my job. If you are worried about it though you can call the Salem PD and they can talk to you about it.