School News

Allentown students took part in STEM activities, including stepping into an airplane cockpit, when Captain Barrington Irving flew into town with some hands-on critical thinking activities from his Flying Classroom.

School directors voted 5-4 Tuesday to part ways with now former Superintendent Michael Mahon, who was on administrative leave for the last five months.

The Southern Lehigh School Board will hold a special meeting at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in the boardroom of Southern Lehigh High School to vote on both a separation agreement and mutual general release agreement between the district and Superintendent Michael Mahon.

Allentown school directors approved the $1.14 million partnership Thursday. The agreement runs from next month to June 30, 2028.

Alicia Knauff will start as the new acting head principal of Allen on Monday. She was hired as the principal of the school's Ninth Grade Academy before being tapped shortly after for the acting head role.

Superintendent Carol Birks said she doesn't have to talk about where she lives. School directors defended Birks from social media posts questioning her residency.

The Lehigh Valley’s James Lawson Freedom School is a six-week summer program that uses a multicultural literacy curriculum and an intergenerational teaching model.

Alicia Knauff is poised to take over as the acting head principal of the high school just months after she was hired as the first principal of Allen’s Ninth Grade Academy.

The district will keep the building and surrounding property with the intention of reopening the school at a later date that has not yet been determined.

Lehigh has been hosting SSP’s International’s Summer Science Program this summer. During the five-week course, students get hands-on experience completing college-level research while getting a feel for campus life.

On Aug. 25, Gov. Tom Wolf wrote a letter requesting the state legislature return to Harrisburg to work on legislation that would require mask-wearing in K-12 schools and child care centers.

A report from Stanford University found enrollment in public schools in the United States fell by more than one million students last fall.

At Lehigh Carbon Community College (LCCC), fewer students are signing up for classes this semester, even when compared to fall 2020.

The Bethlehem Area School District is giving students and parents COVID-19 vaccines ahead of the new school year. The vaccine clinics are a way to bring children up to speed on their shots.

All students in the Bethlehem Area School District will be required to wear masks this fall.

Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration is trying a two-pronged approach to keep K-12 school environments safe from a recent surge in COVID-19 cases.

Pennsylvania’s largest teachers union, which represents nearly 200,000 teachers and school workers on Monday commended the Pennsylvania Department of Health after it announced a plan to bring free COVID-19 testing and vaccination clinics to schools statewide.

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.

No masks will be required at the region’s Catholic schools this fall according to word from the Diocese of Allentown in a letter sent to parents on June 30

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.

Pennsylvania House Republicans voted to prohibit schools and universities from requiring COVID-19 vaccinations for students — and to strip the state health secretary from being able to order certain emergency public health measures in the future.