In some ways, Bethlehem Area School District Superintendent Dr. Renato M. Lajara is meeting his charges on equal footing in this first week of the school year, with a new home, new responsibilities and new expectations. He was selected to replace retiring Dr. Jack Silva in May and has spent the months since navigating the streets of an unfamiliar city and meeting the members of his new community. Unlike Bethlehem native Silva, Lajara is Latino and an immigrant, and he spent his career in a far larger and more perilous district.

The Press spoke with him recently to introduce him to the city in his own words.

Lajara’s family moved from the Dominican Republic to Philadelphia in 1984 when he was 7 years old, and he was formed by loss in the streets of Philly’s North Side.

“I went through the public school system of Philadelphia, grew up in a very challenging neighborhood – drugs, violence,” he said. “In a 10-year span, I lost 23 of my friends to murder. One of those friends was murdered right in front of me, which is the reason why one of my goals is to have safe and welcoming schools,

“I went to high school the very next day after my friend was murdered. I still his had blood on my sneakers and walked through the entire high school and not one adult stopped me to say, ‘Hey, you got blood on your sneakers. Are you okay?’ And my affect was I was still trying to process what happened.

“So I have always asked my principals to make sure their students are seen and heard ,and that we create safe spaces for students to tell their stories. And if they are going through any traumatic situation – anything at all – that they know who to go to and have a space to do that.”

Philadelphia has improved, he said, but it still has its challenges.

“You wake up every day and turn on the news and, especially in the summertime, it’s ‘three people were murdered this weekend,’ ‘there was a mass-shooting this weekend.’ The average age is 14-20 years old. I always said kids were students before they were shooters. It’s in schools we can turn their trajectory around, give them a chance of living a long life, which they deserve.”

Lajara’s childhood dream was baseball, and though that was abruptly cut short, he was still a team player and motivated to make a difference, even if he wasn’t the best student.

“My goal was to go college, and my dream was to be a major-league baseball player, but my senior year in high school [while] crossing the street, I got hit by a car; got a compound fracture to my tibia and fibula. Those dreams went out the window right away, but I still knew I wanted to go to college and get out of North Philadelphia just because I didn’t want to end up like those 23 friends of mine.

“When I had the opportunity to go to Gwynedd Mercy College to play baseball, I barely got in. I’m not afraid to say this. I got recruited. I only had a 1.89 GPA from community college, but I needed a 2.0 to get in. It was the dean of education that gave me the opportunity, but the dean said, ‘if you don’t keep a 3.0 grade-point average after your first semester, then I’m going to kick you out.’ I had a 3.27 grade-point average, and I never looked back.

“I was a first-generation college graduate. When they asked me what I wanted to study, I just said education. I love coaching kids, younger kids in the neighborhood, and coaching friends. I was always a team captain. I always had leadership skills in me, and I thought education was the right trajectory. Twenty-five years later here I am.”

Here in Bethlehem at the start of a new school year, and he’s found it pleasantly different from the big city.

“Many of my mentors notified me of the job posting and [I thought], ‘Let me see if this is the place I want to be. If I do get the position, I definitely want to move there, because I’m committed to everywhere I go.”

He said the Southside looked like the neighborhood where he grew up, and he observed the SteelStacks and Main Street, and visited many of the schools.

“I loved the openness, the small-town feel,” he said. But what made him most optimistic was his first meeting with the school board and how passionate they were about the work.

“I knew this was going to be the right fit.”

Lajara has since become a resident and spent some weeks of vacation time getting to know his new home before getting to work. “This is a place that was built by its people, and one thing that’s constant is that people care deeply about their community and their city. I’m just continuing to build on the foundation that’s already been made here. Everybody that I have met has been so welcoming, so nice. Everyone’s treated me like family. I feel like I’m at home.

“I can’t wait to see the district in action. We’re going to have a lot of fun.”