{"id":138153,"date":"2026-03-14T10:33:26","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T10:33:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/138153\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T10:33:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T10:33:26","slug":"allentown-school-district-breaks-ground-at-site-of-family-community-resource-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/138153\/","title":{"rendered":"Allentown School District breaks ground at site of Family & Community Resource Center"},"content":{"rendered":"

ALLENTOWN, Pa. \u2014 The Allentown School District held a groundbreaking Friday to mark the start of construction on a new $11 million Family & Community Resource Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The center will be a one-stop shop for district families to enroll their children in school, access health care or even learn English.<\/p>\n

It will be located on the campus of Bridgeview Academy of Health, Science, Innovation, and Technology at 265 Lehigh St., Allentown.<\/p>\n

The new building will sit just north of the theme-based high school, with entrances facing Union and Lehigh streets.<\/p>\n

Superintendent Carol Birks said Friday that the center was the result of parents calling for a centralized location for student registration, social services and other district resources.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re building something bold, something lasting. … We\u2019re building a way of being.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carol Birks, Allentown School District superintendent<\/p>\n

She said the center is part of district efforts to continually engage the Allentown community.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re building something bold, something lasting,\u201d Birks said. \u201cWe\u2019re building a way of being.\u201d<\/p>\n

Community partners and social services<\/p>\n

The Family & Community Resource Center will provide mental and physical health services that include telehealth, dental care and immunizations, the district said when it first announced the project in 2024.<\/p>\n

The center will have exam rooms, and medical teams from Lehigh Valley Health Network and Valley Health partners will help staff the center.<\/p>\n

Workforce Board Lehigh Valley will help families and students find jobs and offer resume-writing classes, as well as other workforce opportunities at the center.<\/p>\n

United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley will be another regular community partner at the center.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the district plans to invite other organizations to offer community services on a rotating basis.<\/p>\n

The new building also will have large meeting spaces and offices for central administration staff.<\/p>\n

Allentown School Board President Andrene Brown-Nowell said Friday that students\u2019 success isn\u2019t just determined by what happens during the school day.<\/p>\n

The Family & Community Resource Center will help district families address other concerns they may have, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSuccess is nurtured at home, supported by health and wellness and fueled by stable, empowered community,\u201d Brown-Nowell said.<\/p>\n

Bridgeview Academy sophomore Amileni Liranzo said the resource center \u201cshows that the district actually cares about what life is like\u201d for district families.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor students like me, it\u2019s exciting to see change actually happen, not just being talked about,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Officials talk of ASD’s future<\/p>\n

Construction of the center will be partially funded through a $522,205 grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Education\u2019s Multi-Purpose Community Facilities Competitive Grant Program.<\/p>\n

State Reps. Peter Schweyer and Mike Schlossberg, as well as state Sen. Nick Miller, helped the school district secure the grant. Lehigh County Executive Joshua Siegel, who was formerly a state representative, also helped in securing the funding.<\/p>\n

Those officials spoke at Friday\u2019s groundbreaking.<\/p>\n

When Schlossberg first became a state representative in 2013, the Allentown School District was in the midst of dealing with budget cuts, eliminating positions and academic programs as a result, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea of being able to move forward was really, really far away,\u201d said Schlossberg, D-Lehigh. \u201cWe have come so far.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, the district isn\u2019t just focused on surviving budget cuts, but moving beyond a \u201ctraditional approach to education,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk also spoke of the school district’s future and that of the city, too. <\/p>\n

He said that Allentown is a \u201cplace of second acts,\u201d referencing revitalization at the Bridgeview Academy campus and nearby locations in the city.<\/p>\n

Tuerk acknowledged Bridgeview Academy\u2019s recent past as Building 21 High School.<\/p>\n

The high school was renamed and opened as Bridgeview Academy this school year, offering career pathways for students to study artificial intelligence, computer science and allied health.<\/p>\n

“We\u2019re starting an amazing second act in the city of Allentown.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt Tuerk, Allentown mayor<\/p>\n

It will expand in coming years to serve younger students in sixth through eighth grades, too. <\/p>\n

Tuerk also pointed to the redevelopment of Bridgeview Estates, formerly the Little Lehigh housing complex, located less than a mile away from Bridgeview Academy.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the mayor highlighted recent upgrades at Clyde E. Bosket Sr. Park, formerly Valania Park<\/a>, located on Union Street.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a really beautiful future ahead of us,\u201d Tuerk said. \u201cWe\u2019re starting an amazing second act in the city of Allentown.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Family & Community Resource Center is slated to be completed by December 2026, just as $53 million worth of renovations and new construction<\/a> are slated to begin at Bridgeview Academy.<\/p>\n

Those plans include building an athletic addition with a gymnasium and a two-story academic addition with career labs.<\/p>\n

The Bridgeview Academy upgrades are slated to be finished by 2029.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ALLENTOWN, Pa. \u2014 The Allentown School District held a groundbreaking Friday to mark the start of construction on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":138154,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,63543,63544,63545,63546,63548,63547,63549],"class_list":["post-138153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-allentown-school-district-bridgeview","tag-allentown-school-district-new-family-resource-center","tag-bridgeview-academy-allentown","tag-building-21-high-school-allentown","tag-community-resource-center-asd","tag-family-community-resource-center-allentown","tag-new-allentown-family-resource-center"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138153\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/138154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}