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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Some worry that supports for families at the schools could be lost.
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The appeal involves potential open meetings violations.
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The board may have violated transparency laws because key discussions about filling a vacancy did not happen in public, according to Melissa Melewsky, in-house counsel for the Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association.
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The university's Iacocca Global Entrepreneurship Intensive is a four-week workshop for 15-to-17-year-olds.
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The seat on the School Board of Directors was left vacant by state Sen. Nick Miller, following his election to the General Assembly
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Districts across the Lehigh Valley continue to feel the pandemic pinch over products like chicken patties and chips — and they're not expecting a change anytime soon.
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Twenty-three projects across the district won grants from the Allentown School District Foundation this year.
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A retired Northampton County judge is conducting an investigation for an undisclosed incident. The school board hired him at $495 an hour.
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The Parkland School Board stopped short of committing to advertising to fill the vacant seat of Jarrett Coleman, who was elected to the state Senate.
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District officials said the program is making it difficult to hire staffers because of certain requirements. They hope the move gives more latitude and actually leads to enrollment of more children in the district's child care program.
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Existing charter schools and parents of charter students say for years they've asked the school board to expand the number of students who may attend them.
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Students who are targeted because of their gender identity or sexual orientation can file a complaint with state commission.
