Cliff Carpentier (Photo courtesy/Salem-Keizer Public Schools)
Longtime Salem Police Sgt. Cliff Carpentier loved being a school resource officer nearly 15 years ago.
That experience led him to seek a job as director of Salem-Keizer School District’s security and risk management department, where he’ll oversee school threat assessment, emergency management and the safety of the district’s more than 40,000 students.
Day-to-day law enforcement work is “a lot of go, go, go and exciting calls … but we get so busy we don’t really have the opportunity to connect with the community on a deeper level,” he said. The ability to build relationships drew him to the job.
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The district is known nationally for its threat assessment system, which retiring director John van Dreal created nearly 20 years ago after deadly school shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado and Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon.
Carpentier worked as a school resource officer from 2003-2005, and supervised the Salem Police youth services unit, which includes school officers, from 2011-2015.
As the unit sergeant, he saw officers start after-school clubs to connect with kids. One officer, working at a low-income school, found many kids had never been to a barbecue, so he started a club and got nearby businesses to donate food and supplies.
“Pretty soon he’s got 30 kids after school hanging out with the school cop cooking hamburgers and hot dogs,” Carpentier said.
Salem police typically rotate sergeants every four years, so Carpentier knew he’d have to leave law enforcement to continue working in education.
“I wanted to get back into that work and the only way to do that would be in the civilian side of it,” Carpentier said.
To qualify him for those jobs, he pursued a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and is several credits shy of a master’s degree in emergency management and homeland security from American Military University, he said.
He’d like to focus his thesis on an evaluation of the past decade of the Salem-Keizer threat assessment system to learn where it’s performed well and where the district could make improvements. His goal is “making sure we’re always challenging ourselves to do better and to learn,” he said.
Carpentier has been a sergeant with Salem Police since 2008 and has worked in local law enforcement since 1996, when he started at the Marion County Sheriff’s Office.
He also serves on the board of the Boys and Girls Club of Marion and Polk County. He’ll start the job August 12.
“It’s an honor, there’s no other way to put it,” he said.
The district announced two other administrative hires Monday.
Bradley Shreve will become principal of Roberts and Early College high schools, the district’s two nontraditional high schools. He comes to Salem-Keizer from Lebanon High School, where he’s been principal for the past seven years.
Current principal Jay Weeks, who has led the schools since 2014, took a job in another district to be closer to his family, Salem-Keizer spokeswoman Lillian Govus said. He’s staying on through the end of the summer to help Shreve with the transition.
Peggy Stock will head employee and labor relations, coming to Salem-Keizer from the Oregon School Boards Association, where she directed labor services. She replaces Kathryn Nove, who is retiring.
Reporter Rachel Alexander: [email protected] or 503-575-1241.
Rachel Alexander is Salem Reporter’s managing editor. She joined Salem Reporter when it was founded in 2018 and covers city news, education, nonprofits and a little bit of everything else. She’s been a journalist in Oregon and Washington for a decade. Outside of work, she’s a skater and board member with Salem’s Cherry City Roller Derby and can often be found with her nose buried in a book.
