K-12 News

The East Penn School Board approved changes to the middle school calendar as recommended by teachers and administrators.

The East Penn School Board gave final approval to its 2023-24 budget and set a tax rate lower than initial projections. The new budget retains administrative priorities such as 7 reading interventionists and 6 learning support staffers.

Take a look at stories that ran throughout the week of which we are most proud, had a profound impact on readers or that you might want to look at again.

The Allentown School District said the STREAM Academy at the new science center at Eighth and Hamilton streets will be the first non-charter, non-private, theme-based school in the Lehigh Valley.

For 50 years, Ray Boris taught Theology at Bethlehem Catholic High School. He showed up shortly after 6 a.m. every day and didn't leave until he graded the last test.

The Bethlehem Area School District plans to appoint Maureen Leeson as assistant superintendent and chief academic officer, to take the place of Jack Silva, who will be the next superintendent. Esther Lee, president of the Bethlehem NAACP, said the district should have hired a Black candidate.

State House Democrats approved adding $1.7 billion more education spending, including more money to the poorest districts. The final budget will be negotiated with Senate leaders and the governor's office.

The nonprofit Community Action Lehigh Valley has worked for about two years to buy Cleveland Elementary School so it can turn into space for area youth.

The Lehigh County Conservation District and Dieruff High School are partnering to transform a vacant courtyard at the school into an urban garden.

A team of students from Bangor Area High School placed ninth in this year's statewide Envirothon competition, essentially a scholastic scrimmage for environmental science. The team placed first for the wildlife station.

Keeping students safe and healthy is a challenge as they return to in-person learning amid delta variant threat

Gov. Tom Wolf is asking Pennsylvania's legislature to quickly approve a new statewide mask mandate for schools because his administration is worried that students returning to schools are going back to an unsafe environment.

The Bethlehem Area School District has added a new position to address the social and emotional needs of students and staff. The move comes as schools bring kids back to full-time in-person learning this fall.

Lawmakers joined the governor in Harrisburg on June 30 to highlight something education advocates have been calling for for a while: a boost in funding for some of the commonwealth’s poorest school districts.

In districts across the Lehigh Valley, teachers are using the next two months to help kids catch up on learning lost to the pandemic.

A new report is warning that “job-related stress” could affect the supply of teachers across the country. The report began with a survey of public school teachers nationwide last winter.

The region’s Catholic schools saw increased demand during COVID-19. Half the schools even had waiting lists.

Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math are key subjects in education and workforce development. They’re often combined into the acronym STEAM. But disparities exist when it comes to accessing programs in these fields.

Allentown families dusted off their backpacks and lunch boxes as elementary students returned to in-person learning on April 19. They’ve been virtual for more than a year.

As of April 13, elementary students in the Bethlehem Area School District are back in class four days a week more than a year after the pandemic began.

Now that Congress has passed the new COVID relief plan, state and local governments are learning whether they can use the money for roads and county health bureaus.

When the pandemic forced traditional schools to go remote, interest in the Commonwealth’s cyber charter schools surged. Enrollments went way up, and costs followed.