Assistant Superintendent Dr. Maureen Leeson and Freedom HS Principal Laurie Sage recognized the 2025 National Merit Scholarship winners during the Oct. 20 school board meeting at East Hills MS.

About 1.5 million juniors took the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test last October and entered the National Merit Program. Only 50,000 are recognized as high scorers, 34,000 of whom are recognized as Commended Students. About 16,000 of the original 1.5 million are recognized as semifinalists. Ethan Fredericks from Freedom was selected as one of these. The students from the Bethlehem Area School District who were named as commended students are Gwen Adriguez, Sean Blackton and Cody Smith, all from Freedom.

Superintendent Dr. Jack Silva welcomed Elise Jones, an Easton Area School District administrator, to the Bethlehem School District. She will join the BASD to lead Fountain Hill elementary as the new principal. Currently, Jones is principal of Easton Area MS.

Next meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Nov. 3 at the Education Center, 1516 Sycamore.