August 27th – Andrea Castenada, Superintendent. – Salem-Keizer SD #24J
The Superintendent’s job is a very difficult one:
The Salem Keizer School District is experiencing both successful and challenging times. Some of those challenges include financial funding issues, serving the changing demographic population, the reduction of actual Instructional contact time between teachers and students, disciplinary concerns and the increasing number of parents who choose to either home school their children or send them to private schools.
Andrea Castañeda is superintendent of Salem-Keizer Public Schools, Oregon’s second-largest district with over 40,000 students. She brings more than 20 years of education leadership experience, including roles as chief innovation officer for Tulsa Public Schools and work with Rhode Island’s Department of Education. Castañeda holds degrees from Harvard Graduate School of Education and Brown University.
Program Chair – Karl Raschkes
Meeting Location: Cedar Hall, Main Salem Alliance Building
President’s Message
Club Concludes Membership Month: Hands-On Service and Upcoming Salem Rotary Foundation Presentations
As we conclude the month of August, I want to remind you that the focus of this month has been Membership. Our Membership Committee is led by Lauren Gutierrez. This committee is very active studying our membership, recruiting possible new members, and guiding the successful onboarding of members that have joined us in the past twelve months. If you know a prospective new member, please check with Lauren or Mercedes Schluckebier to have use of the resources available for a solid recruitment process.
Our speaker for this week holds a very challenging position and does it with grace, skill, and confidence. She is Andrea Casteneda, Salem-Keizer School District superintendent. In past presentations by the superintendent, I have gained an understanding of the challenges faced by a person in her role. She does not shy away from the tough issues and addresses them head on, including using Rotary’s four-way test as a platform to explain the challenges and the approach to dealing with them. I look forward to hearing from Superintendent Castenada on Wednesday.
Our club’s first “hands-on” project of the 2025-26 year was completed by 7 Rotary members plus their guests on August 18 at local non-profit Helping Hands Resources. This organization gathers donated clothing, bedding, and household items and provides them to anyone in need at no charge. These individuals donated 2 hours and sorted donated items to prepare them for community members in need. Good work!! Stay tuned for more opportunities to provide “Hands-On” help to other community organizations. These opportunities are coordinated through Rotary board member Alicia Bay. If you or your organization has a need please contact Alicia with the specifics.
Next month is SRF (Salem Rotary Foundation) month. We will be hearing from a Foundation board member each week with a Rotary Minute/Moment presentation. Also, on September 24 our meeting will be an annual report presentation of the Good Works that our Foundation does in our community and beyond. Our Foundation funded 4 large grants to local nonprofits ($50,000), 8 small grants to local nonprofits ($28,000), 1 student received the Duval Scholarship at Chemeketa CC ($3,000), 8 literacy grants went to local organizations ($15,000), 3 young adults were sponsored to RYLA ($3,600), 2 outbound exchange students were supported ($1,900), 2 inbound exchange students were supported ($1,000), 7 world community service projects received our support in coordination with other clubs ($12,500), and SRF provided holiday gifts through our Tree of Joy program ($1,993). Plan to attend September meetings and hear the specifics.
This week’s meeting will be the last meeting where we will have Better Than Mama’s food available for purchase. Don’t worry though, food options will be available by ordering ahead from either:
- Little Lois Café (order by Wednesday at 9:45am using the link in each week’s e-Blast. Order is delivered to the meeting) or
- Better Than Mama’s (order from their website. Pick up from their location in Broadway Commons when you come to the meeting).
President Doug Parham
Rotary Club of Salem
2025-2026
