School News

The audit of a dozen districts released last week has drawn the ire of school business experts.

A new program hitting Pennsylvania high schools is just one of many ways the state is responding to a teacher shortage that’s created cascading staffing challenges across the Commonwealth.

Central Bucks South High School librarian Matt Pecic said a principal told him to take down four posters with a quote from Holocaust survivor and author Elie Wiesel.

The changes were previously criticized by one board member as 'hippy-dippy, woke stuff.' On Thursday night, they passed unanimously.

Superintendent Joe Roy says no violation of law or regulation was found. But the Pennsylvania Auditor General's Office said the district had other options at its disposal rather than relying on taxpayers.

Easton has been struggling with a shortage of school bus drivers for at least the past few years. Students were getting to school late or getting home late, so the district purchased software last year to design bus routes instead of doing them by hand to find efficiencies.

District Business Administrator Robert Saul presented a draft preliminary 2023-24 budget that shows a $7 million increase in projected expenditures, primarily driven by wage, benefits and service cost increases.

Under the proposal, history would be taught in themes instead of chronologically. ASD Board Director Phoebe Harris called it "woke" and opposes the change.

Director Patrick Foose has recently clashed with other board directors and has been the lone dissenting vote on several issues related to transparency on the board.

Lehigh president Joseph J. Helble said "racist language" was used, but the assault was not racially motivated.

An appeal by the Wolf administration put a court order to end the mandate on hold.

The student alleged police roughed him up after a brawl at a high school basketball game in 2020.

School districts will establish their own policies in January.

The plaintiffs argue disparities in school funding violate the state constitution.

The governor said he will turn over masking decisions to local school officials on Jan. 17.

Conflict and tension have ramped up at school board meetings amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Some families are still waiting on funds they were supposed to get months ago to make up for meals students missed during last school year.

When schools closed or went hybrid due to the pandemic, low-income students missed free or reduced-price meals available through the National School Lunch Program.

A bill that would require Pennsylvania public schools to post curriculum materials online is advancing through the state legislature. Republicans unanimously support it.

More meals and a lag between delivery and reimbursement compound the problem.

Penn State is requiring all University Park campus employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by December 8 to comply with President Joe Biden’s executive order, the university announced Tuesday.

First Lady Jill Biden visited Allentown on Wednesday to help celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month and took time to listen to members of the city’s Latino community.