Salem Concerns Over Voting In Schools While In Session

SALEM, MA — Salem Superintendent Steve Zrike said he received messages from parents concerned about voting in Salem Public Schools while they are in session and is working with city leadership to potentially move voting out of the buildings in future elections.

Zrike said the concerns were voiced after voting was held in the buildings for the presidential primary on Tuesday on a school day. He said the primary date was not set as of the implementation of the school calendar for the current year and therefore was not aligned with the professional development day for all schools except for Carlton on Wednesday.

"There is a lot of concern about voting in the schools while they are in session," Zrike said during his Facebook Live session with families on Wednesday. "I share the concern. The mayor shares the concern. The School Committee does as well. There is a long-standing practice of having voting in the schools and often that can fall on a school day.

"We have to find a better solution. Because for some of the schools that serve as polling stations, it gets pretty chaotic. It would be nice to not have school each day when it was time to have an election. But in some years that could be three or four days where we don't have school and that will really push the school year back far."

There will be no school next academic year on the date of the November general election, and the start of school was pushed back one day because of the September primary. But in years when there is also a presidential primary, or in the case of last year a primary and general election day for a special mayoral election, it could push the last day of school to the end of June even without snow days.

He said the solution could be moving the polling locations out of the school buildings.

"That's a conversation that's happening as we speak even before (the primary)," Zrike said. "It doesn't affect all schools. But it does affect about half of our schools and it has been problematic.

"I share the concerns that families have raised. They've emailed me about how hectic it is. People coming in and out of schools — especially in this world of concern around school safety. It's points well-taken that we are looking into.

"So I promise you that we'll come back with a solution to the best of our abilities that works."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at [email protected]. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)