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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The farmers' market almost disappeared in the early 2000s, but community support helped revitalized it. -
A pretrial conference was held Wednesday in federal court stemming from Liberty High School Assistant Principal Antonio Traca's federal civil rights lawsuit against retiring Superintendent Joseph Roy and the Bethlehem Area School District.
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Speakers accuse public school officials, teachers' unions of trying to "sexualize children" or indoctrinating them. Some called for restricting LGBTQ books. Protestors traveled from the Lehigh Valley and beyond to stand against the Moms for Liberty's "extremism" and in support of LGBTQ people.
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Public school advocates worry vouchers will divert money from public education into charters or private schools.
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Maria Shantz was one of a group of Republicans who signed a controversial pledge to create policies around gender and rejecting "wokeness."
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Lehigh Carbon Community College and Northampton Community College received money from the Pennsylvania Department of Education to help adults learn English.
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Moravian University and Lehigh Carbon Community College are working to remove barriers for Black and Latino high school students.
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School board members say a lack of internal controls contributed to the problems. They say the situation is being fixed.
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Benita Draper was the director of equity initiatives for the Bethlehem Area School District and a former elementary school principal.
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Paraprofessionals can get certified for free while continuing to work in their schools.
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Local state lawmakers are reacting to Gov. Josh Shapiro’s call for $1 billion in new public education spending for the state’s students and schools.
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Board Director Phoebe Harris blasted the board leadership's lack of transparency in a radio interview.
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Groups that represent the district's majority-minority population are crying foul over what they describe as a lack of transparency and involvement in the process of identifying a new leader.
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As interest in the education field continues to decline, the report recommends systemic changes. A hearing of the state Senate Education Committee to examine the issue is set for this week.
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The city says by reducing the number of sponsored concerts at West Park, programmers will be able to include other bands in more neighborhoods.
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Liz Bradbury has been an LGBTQ activist in the Lehigh Valley for more than 30 years.
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As the region diversifies, relations across racial groups are seen as a key element of quality of life. A new survey finds overall ratings as mostly positive, but different age groups rate the state of race relations differently.
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The 4-month-old Lab was specially trained as an emotional support animal.
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A crowd gathered — and cheered — as Luani the otter at Lehigh Valley Zoo made his Super Bowl LVII pick during the 12th annual Otter Bowl a day before the big game between the Eagles and Chiefs.
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Parents aren't the only ones frustrated. One bus driver says students acting out causes drivers to quit, creating high turnover rates. A number of school districts are negotiating new bus driver contracts.
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Some students say they see parallels between Till's murder and recent killings of people of color by police. They participated in a Black History Month presentation at Dieruff High School.
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Kimberly Lipsky Weidman reads her book to kids at Muhlenberg Elementary School.
