Bethlehem High School has continued to grow over the last seven years. This summer the parochial school hit a new milestone as its sophomore and junior classes were at capacity for the first time.<\/p>\n
In June, Bethlehem High School announced on social media their 10th and 11th grade cohort were completely full for the first time in the school history. Principal Sara Thurmond said this historic milestone comes after two consecutive years of a full freshman cohort.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are super excited about that,\u201d she said prior to school opening on Aug. 5. \u201cI really feel like we\u2019ve had seven years of consistent growth in terms of enrollment. We\u2019ve had a 44% increase in enrollment since 2019. We are super excited about that. I feel like our focus is on improving every aspect of the whole student experience every year. That\u2019s a major reason why we continue to see that growth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Students were back on campus and starting a new school year on Thursday. The maximum capacity for each grade is 95 students. Thurmond said this number allows them to keep classrooms small, no greater than 25 students in a class. She said small classes give students and teachers the ability to connect.<\/p>\n
Thurmond said she believes their continued growth is the draw of their mission as a school and the \u201cBethlehem Experience.\u201d She said they want students to love to come to school and look back fondly on their time in Bethlehem\u2019s halls.<\/p>\n
Bethlehem has nearly 350 students \u2014 Thurmond said they know almost all of them by name. She said they have very high expectations, strong discipline and accountability. Thurmond said Bethlehem doesn\u2019t just appeal to students and their needs, but their teachers as well.<\/p>\n
The foundation for expectations are set and everyone is on the same page. Thurmond said it sets students up for success in the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe really want to provide that strong foundation first,\u201d she said. \u201cI feel like parents and students have started to realize that as we continue to expand the whole four-year experience. I really think that is why we\u2019ve had that tremendous growth.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thurmond said they encourage every student to be involved, whether in academics, leadership, athletics or anything else they\u2019re interested in. She said they have a diverse range of activities to be involved in from fine arts to service opportunities and beyond. Bethlehem wants every student to find their place and find their passion.<\/p>\n
Recently, she said they\u2019ve seen a large amount of interest in their new FFA program, which is in its third year. The program has already competed on a national level and has been well received by students and parents.<\/p>\n
The school\u2019s theatre program has also thrived in recent years. Bethlehem produces two shows during the school year, one in the fall and another in the spring.<\/p>\n
Academically, Thurmond said they\u2019ve seen growth in their ACT scores. The amount of students earning a 30 or higher on the exam continues to grow. Thurmond said it has also become a goal many students are eager to obtain.<\/p>\n
In athletics, she said for being a Class A school, they are competitive in every single sport. She said often their teams will be competing for regional titles each season. At the start of this school year, Thurmond said they already have three soccer players committed to colleges.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want our students to be well-rounded, compassionate, faith-filled, hardworking, resilient,\u201d she said. \u201cResilient is a big part of our overall message this year as well. You have hardships, but how do you overcome those? And then being leaders in their communities, whether that\u2019s here in Bardstown or Bloomfield or Lebanon \u2026 have them be leaders overall, so that they have that strong foundation. That\u2019s really what\u2019s creating our energy overall this year.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bethlehem High School has continued to grow over the last seven years. This summer the parochial school hit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261587,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,110790,154,227,23094],"class_list":["post-261586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-high-school-kentucky","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-education","tag-milestone"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261586","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=261586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}