BETHLEHEM, Pa. — In his 2025 State of the Schools address, Bethlehem Area Superintendent Jack Silva highlighted his district’s progress and acknowledged its challenges ahead, including those precipitated by the federal government.
Silva delivered his presentation Wednesday in Frank Banko Alehouse Cinemas at ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks.
The event was held by the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce and attended by Lehigh Valley community partners and business leaders.
The superintendent began his address by speaking about executive actions from President Donald Trump’s administration, including orders to crack down on illegal immigration and to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion programs in schools.
"Kids can and should be coming to school and feeling safe while they’re here."Bethlehem Area Schools Superintendent Jack Silva
Silva renewed Bethlehem Area School District’s commitment to students, saying it has a “covenant” to maintain with them — students are required to attend school and the district must accept them.
“We do not ask them for what their immigration status is, we don’t ask them to pass a placement test or how much income their parents have,” he said.
“Kids can and should be coming to school and feeling safe while they’re here," he added.
“We recognize their diversity. We know they speak dozens of languages; they come from many different countries. And we accept them as they are.”
Funding concerns, other challenges
Silva also raised concerns about Trump’s efforts to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education and how that could affect BASD’s 2025-26 budget.
Bethlehem Area is slated to get $7.5 million in federal funds for the upcoming budget, accounting for 2% of its revenue.
“That 2% is extremely well leveraged for the benefit of our students."Jack Silva, Bethlehem Area Superintendent
“That 2% is extremely well-leveraged for the benefit of our students,” Silva said.
He said those funds go toward services for students with disabilities and anti-poverty measures in classrooms.
A loss of federal funds would create more financial difficulties for the district, which already is dealing with a $10 million deficit.
Inadequate state funding also plagues BASD, Silva said. BASD students are underfunded by more than $3,000 each, he said.
Additional challenges facing the district and its families include disparate health care access, high childcare costs, mental health concerns and housing shortages, Silva said.
Many families want to live in Bethlehem, which has raised housing prices and forced families from once affordable communities, he said.
That sometimes leads to them moving around a lot as they search for a permanent housing situation. Being transient can negatively affect students.
“Mobility is not good for achievement,” Silva said. “Mobility is interruption, mobility is distraction, mobility is a need for more services rather than the good opportunities that we are able to provide.”
College and career readiness
Some of those opportunities include a focus on college and career readiness, which is integrated into the district’s program of studies, especially for high school students, Silva said.
The district provides students with internships, job shadow experiences and pre-apprenticeship programs, Silva said.
“We want students to be able to have an inclination of what their talents, skills and interests are when they’re in 11th and 12th grade," Silva said, "so they can act upon that while they’re with us — with our support and with our community support."
"And I think you see that.”
Additionally, Bethlehem Area Vocational-Technical School provides career readiness opportunities for students.
Silva highlighted BASD’s recent $8 million purchase of a South Bethlehem building to serve as the vo-tech’s satellite campus.
Bethlehem Area will hand off the property at 315 Columbia St. to BAVTS and get reimbursed. The building is the former site of Factory LLC, a large-scale business incubator for food and beverage companies.
The site will provide students from Bethlehem Area and other vo-tech sending districts with hands-on experiences in health care, culinary arts, the trades and other career fields, Silva said.
That’s because the South Bethlehem location has access to many local businesses and institutions that could offer students career readiness experiences, he said.
Community partners, collective impact
In his address, the superintendent also highlighted Bethlehem Area’s community partners.
“Our community is big-hearted, as well as smart in its investments,” he said.
Silva pointed to Moravian University’s partnership with the district on the BASD Superintendent’s Scholarship, which is in its 10th year.
It provides two BASD graduates with full-tuition scholarships to attend the university for four years.
The 2025 student awardees will be announced tomorrow.
“We are great at collective impact work."Bethlehem Area Schools Superintendent Jack Silva
Additionally, Silva pointed to recent support from BSI Corporate Benefits, which this year committed $10,000 annually for the next five years to support Bethlehem Area’s dual enrollment students.
These students earn college credits at Northampton Community College.
It’s community partners such as Moravian, BSI Corporate Benefits and others that will help Bethlehem Area continue toward progress, Silva said.
Reliance on such partnerships is part of collective impact theory, the superintendent said.
Collective impact work brings together organizations with common missions to meet common goals, whether those are related to financial interests, community building or workforce development, Silva said.
“We are great at collective impact work,” he said. The district will continue working with community partners to address its challenges, he added.
Additionally, BASD left attendees with some ways they can support the district in its mission to educate students.
Those include partnering with a BASD program, advocating for fair state education funding or becoming a corporate sponsor for one of the district’s community schools.
Donations can also be made to The Foundation for the Bethlehem Area School District.
