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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Parents in many area school districts are back to buying their childrens’ school lunches after pandemic-era universal free school meals ended. But price increases in food and housing costs, some families are struggling to pay those lunch bills. -
The $21M plan affects 1.7 million children across the commonwealth.
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Lawmakers this year approved an additional $79M for high-quality preschool programs.
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Speeding and a lack of police presence are among the issues, according to residents.
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Staff vacancies are the most pressing issue affecting Pa. schools, according to the PSEA.
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Parents and teachers have complained for years about the lack of air conditioning in several of Allentown School District’s classroom buildings. But parents of one student with medical conditions say they worry the recent heat is endangering their child’s health.
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Muhamad Diop is charged with making terroristic threats and harassment, authorities said.
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Allentown School District classes start today, Monday Aug. 29, for the district’s more than 16,000 students.
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He is asking state lawmakers to approve $500 million to improve the emotional well-being of youth over the next five years
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An internal analysis concluded it needed more qualified low-income students to make it financially feasible under the Community Eligibility Provision.
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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.
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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.
