Sarah Mueller
Education reporterAn experienced journalist, I joined LehighValleyNews.com as its education reporter. I bring several years of media experience at public radio stations including NPR Illinois, WFSU Public Media and Delaware Public Media. I’ve covered state and local government, interviewing lawmakers, governors and congressional leaders. In my personal life, I’m a passionate animal lover, hiker and documentary enthusiast. A documentary for which I worked as a researcher, Fire in the Meadows, won first place at the 2022 Tallahassee Film Festival for best documentary short film. It explored the effects of an investor buying a local mobile home park, raising rents and forcing tenants out of their homes. Contact me at SarahM@lehighvalleynews.com or and subscribe to my newsletter here.
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District officials surveyed thousands of students who want the uniform guidelines eliminated so they can express themselves with their own clothing styles. -
Conservative Republican slates targeting LGBTQ issues and library books swept GOP primary races across three districts. Democrats and moderate Republicans who cross-filed landed victories on the Democratic ticket.
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Two of the three candidates supported by Moms for Liberty Northampton survived the primary, both being in Region I.
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The race featured two slates of Republican candidates and one Democrat. One slate of candidates took a pledge to enact policies regarding LGBTQ students and "woke" curriculum.
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The school board approved a preliminary budget Monday night. It does not raise property taxes in the 2023-24 school year.
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They have been working without a contract since last summer and say they are overworked and short-staffed.
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National issues are seeping into local races, turning elections into proxy partisan fights over race and gender.
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The four-year contract will raise salaries by nearly 4.7% in the 2023-24 school year, with additional increase each subsequent year. The school board ratified a new contract with the teacher's union, the Allentown Education Association, on Thursday night.
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The After School Satan Club met for the first time Wednesday at Saucon Valley Middle School — a little more than a week after a federal judge ordered the school district to allow three meetings by the end of the school year.
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Culture war issues are hot topics in the races for four of the nine seats on the Nazareth Area School Board up for election this year. Three incumbents are not seeking re-election.
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Kids are singing more frequently and playing more instruments in city school classrooms, thanks to beefed-up state funding, according to educators. Cooking, nutrition and financial literacy also are getting more attention.
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The Allentown School District Foundation has raised more than $8 million to support students in the city's schools since 2009. For reasons that aren't clear, the Allentown School Board is considering cutting ties with the foundation.
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Coleman filed the transparency lawsuit in 2021 before becoming a Parkland School Board member, and ultimately, a state senator representing parts of Lehigh and Bucks counties.
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While moderate Republicans and Democrats prevailed in most races, two Moms for Liberty candidates won seats on the Nazareth Area school board in Northampton County.
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In Southern Lehigh School District, 10 candidates faced off for five seats on the nine-member school board.
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Parental rights are on the agenda in school races as moms versus moms battle for control to set policies on book restrictions, bathrooms, transgender students and teaching history.
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Candidates have different takes on whether taxes should raised to support capital improvements, expanding kindergarten classes and teacher retention.
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The decision comes after several members of community group Promise Neighborhoods, an anti-violence nonprofit, accused Phoebe Harris of unprofessional behavior.
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Nazareth school board members said they want to review the current regulations for reviewing books, concerned it's a slippery slope. Reviewing all books submitted to the district could cost more than $100,000.
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The school board is expected to vote next week on a request by Moms for Liberty to ban a book. Three other written requests have also been filed.
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The Allentown School District will deploy metal detectors at certain entrance points at each of the three high schools in the Allentown School District — Allen High, Dieruff High and Building 21 — and at J. Birney Crum Stadium.
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District staff, students, staff and community members gathered at Allen High School to give feedback about implementing metal detectors and other security measures.
