The Bethlehem School Board took a moment at the Oct. 15 Human Resources Committee meeting to reflect on student enrollment data. This data is due to the state each year on Oct. 1, and reflects enrollment as of that date, although for a district the size of Bethlehem that data can fluctuate week to week.

The district was down only five students compared to last school year, with a total of 13,662 students. Board members questioned why Marvine ES had the lowest incoming kindergarten size, and the lowest number of students overall. Superintendent Dr. Joseph Roy indicated that the nearby Lincoln ES and Freemansburg ES were able to accommodate a few open enrollment requests, increasing the attendance numbers at those schools. The open enrollment process allows students to attend another elementary school within the district, as long as the student meets certain behavioral and attendance milestones. Dr. Roy indicated that the majority of these requests are related to the proximity of the three elementary schools, and a number of the students live right around the borders. He added that with Eric Fontanez taking over as principal of Marvine, Fontanez is devising a community interaction push to increase public interest in education at Marvine.

The discussion then moved onto charter school attendance rates, as each student who attends a charter school is an additional cost to the district. This school year there are 22 charter schools with students from Bethlehem; this includes one less cyber charter school being attended this year, and one brick and mortar charter being attended as well. The district currently has 217 students attending cyber charter schools, although the district does offer its own cyber programming for students that are interested. Overall, charter schools are drawing in 2,099 Bethlehem students, a 6 percent increase over last year.

Roy said the Executive Education Academy Charter School has the most notable growth over the past few years, and has become an expense of nearly $2.5 million annually from taxpayer money. He went on to add that Executive Education Academy had a large advertising campaign a few years ago that simply stated “free lunch and free transportation,” and that BASD has numerous concerns with the charter. The board’s primary concerns are that the school does not really function well, mandatory test results show performance and learning at levels considered to be lower than BASD, and there are frequent behavioral problems that occur on the buses to and from the school.

Nearly 100 percent of the students the charter attracts from BASD are Latino or Hispanic students, and BASD is hopeful that with elementary Spanish and other language initiatives, they can reduce the number of students choosing the charter school. In a further effort to understand the increasing enrollment, Principals from each school reached out to the families with students at the Charter to understand why they choose Executive Education Academy. The overall majority of answers were that parents liked the uniforms, and that with a longer school day parents have decreased or eliminated childcare costs. The board concluded that although they respect that the decision to send a child to the charter is a private family decision, and understand that finances can be a large determining factor, they couldn’t help but be concerned about the quality of education the students are receiving.

Conversely the board also noticed that attendance at the Lehigh Valley Academy Charter School seems to decrease throughout middle school and high school years. Dr. Roy noted that this Academy seems to have an “elementary phenomenon” drawing in the youngest aged children, but by middle school and high school, the opportunities available at Bethlehem typically draw students out of the charter. He added that the charter lacks advanced course work, music, band, musicals, clubs and athletics that are available at the middle school and high school levels with BASD. He also added that with the Reading by Grade 3 initiative, elementary mathematics programming and now the elementary Spanish program, parents are taking a risk in sending their children to many of these charter schools.