Renovations to a new south side Bethlehem facility and to the main campus of Bethlehem Area Vocational-Technical School will add new classrooms and accommodate hundreds of new students.

Details of and progress about the project were unveiled at the Nov. 17 meeting of the Northampton Area School District Board of Education facilities committee, held in the library conference room of Northampton Area High School.

The estimated cost for the project, which includes renovations at the BAVTS main building, 3300 Chester Ave., Bethlehem Township, and the new satellite building, formerly called The Factory, 315 Columbia St., Bethlehem, is $15,091.025.

The project’s cost is expected to be shared by the three BAVTS sending districts: NASD, Bethlehem Area School District and Saucon Valley School District.

“We pay about 30% (of BAVTS funding),” NASD Superintendent of Schools Joseph S. Kovalchik said at the Nov. 17 facilities committee meeting.

The $15 million price tag for the project is millions of dollars less than the cost of what was originally a project to expand the BAVTS main campus building, for which the estimate was $22.1 million to $43.1 million.

That was prior to the BAVTS plan to purchase The Factory, a former Bethlehem Steel Corporation building built in 1940 and sold in 2019 for the establishment of a food and beverage incubator facility.

The Factory, which is on 1.6 acres, was purchased by BASD from Factory Land Holding Company for $8 million. The 40,000-square-foot facility will allow BAVTS to offer new and expanded courses and accommodate more students. New BAVTS courses of study would include veterinarian tech, cybersecurity, aviation mechanics and medical and office administration.

“We’ll include these in our program of studies at NASD,” Kovalchik said.

Kovalchik said the expansion to two BAVTS sites may increase costs for NASD.

“We are the farthest sending district. From a bus standpoint, there will be extra costs sending to two campuses,” he said.

BAVTS enrollment has been put at 1,339 students, with 380 from BASD, 391 from NASD and 117 from SVSD.

“With the expansion, we’re gaining 330 new students,” said Adam S. Lazarchak, BAVTS executive director, who attended the Nov. 17 facilities committee meeting.

That number is the same as the number of additional students to be accommodated under the previous Chester Avenue main campus expansion.

“We’ve turned away a lot of students in aviation and welding,” Lazarchak said. “We’ll be the first program in Pennsylvania to offer an aviation program.”

The welding program could move from the main campus to the new south side Bethlehem campus.

“We have thought of moving the food truck there,” Lazarchak said.

Plans are for the BAVTS food truck to be parked or stored at the south side campus.

NASD Directors Joshua Harris and Ross Makary, facility committee members, voiced concern during the meeting about the food truck being parked outdoors during inclement weather. A possible enclosure or area in the building will be looked at where the truck could be housed.

The timetable for the BAVTS main campus and satellite campus project was outlined at the Nov. 17 facilities meeting by Arif Fazil, senior business development leader at CHA Consulting Inc., the consulting engineering firm for NASD and the BAVTS project.

“We’ve come up with a cost-efficient way to modernize the foundry (satellite campus building),” Fazil said.

For the BAVTS main campus and the south side satellite campus projects, the schedule is, according to Fazil, design documents will be released to bidders, Nov. 13; construction prebid meeting, Nov. 17; bids due, Dec. 16; award of construction contracts, December; begin construction, June 2026; and project completion, Aug. 17, 2026.

Discussion included the possibility of tapping into a $4 million BAVTS capital reserve fund to help finance renovations at the campuses.

BAVTS project presentations are also being made to BASD and SVSD.

A memorandum of understanding was signed by NASD, BASD, SVSD, the BAVTS operating authority and the BAVTS Authority, which detailed the purchase of the south side satellite campus building, funding by the three districts of the project, reimbursement to BASD for purchase of the satellite building and that the project is not to exceed $25 million.

A 50-year articles of agreement for BAVTS between NASD, BASD and SVSD was approved. The articles were first enacted in 1995.

After the BAVTS presentation, NASD Director of Operations and Maintenance Jonathan Jenny reviewed other Nov. 17 agenda items.

“I do not have a definite date for the curtains,” Jenny said about the NAHS stage.

New curtains have been ordered for the high school auditorium stage.

He had no new update for Moore Elementary School.

Jenny noted the Erdosy Stadium turf field replacement was approved, referring to the NASD school board vote. The project is planned for summer 2026.

“We’re still working out details,” Jenny said about the NAHS roof restoration project.

There will be no NASD facilities committee in December. Facilities meetings are to resume in January.