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.

Lt. Gov. Austin Davis joined local legislators at the Boys & Girls Club of Allentown on Friday to talk about the BOOST Program that will fund after-school programs across Pennsylvania. State Rep. Mike Schlossberg, D-Lehigh, developed it.

Allentown school directors will hold public interviews in August for candidates interested in filling a board vacancy created by the recent resignation of Daysell Ramirez.

After a school board member submitted their plans to resign, citing "bullying" and "issues with transparency," the Allentown School Board must make it official in a vote at its Thursday meeting.

Whitehall-Coplay School District's board of education seemed pleased with a report of 2023-24 goals on Monday, with the superintendent pleased to report the results play into a series of even longer-term missions.

Whitehall-Coplay School District invited the community into the newly completed Gockley Elementary School on Sunday with an open house.

Gov. Josh Shapiro said he wants all Pennsylvania students have the resources they need to learn and grow, from early childhood through adulthood. That desire will have local impacts too.

While Easton Area School District opted to vote against a proposal to open up Cottingham Stadium so community members can use it for walking, the matter may reappear in the board's future.

Lehigh Carbon Community College might end its intercollegiate athletics program as soon as this year if it can't find an athletic trainer before the 2024-25 academic year begins. That could change, but nothing is official yet.

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Daysell Ramirez, who was elected last November, submitted her plans to resign from the Allentown School Board earlier this week. The board will have to vote to accept her resignation at its next meeting July 25.

Albeit late, lawmakers passed a $47.6 billion plan for the fiscal year that started July 1, with much focus on education this year.

The Wilson Area School Board appointed a familiar face as the district's next acting superintendent. High school Principal John Martuscelli is set to take over in a dual role at the end of this month.