Asa Packer El Sch

Located at 1650 Kenwood Dr, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Asa Packer El Sch is an intimate primary school that hosts 314 students (grades K through 5), run under Bethlehem Area SD. By comparison, Pennsylvania's public schools average about 443 students each, so Asa Packer El Sch sits 29% smaller than that benchmark.

Bethlehem Area SD comprises 22 schools with combined enrollment of 12,717 students; Asa Packer El Sch is among them.

Looking at the student body, Asa Packer El Sch lists that the largest single group is White, at 66% of enrollment; the rest comes out to 21% Hispanic, 7% Black, 6% Asian. The wider county runs roughly 74% White, putting the school's mix considerably less White than the area baseline.

In terms of school funding signals, Staff filings list 27 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 11.7:1 students per teacher. The state averages around 13.1:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. About 34% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy. That share is south of Northampton County's rate of about 61%.

With demographic context factored in, Asa Packer El Sch performs roughly as the BeatsExpectations model predicts for a school with this FRL share. The predicted value is around 63.1%, the actual is 58.0%, a residual of -5.2 points.

Across the wider county, ACS estimates for Northampton County put median household earnings sit near $89,184, roughly 35% of adults have completed at least a four-year degree, and roughly 6% of residents live below the federal poverty line. Across Northampton County's 60 public schools (combined enrollment of about 38,316 students), Asa Packer El Sch is one campus in the mix.

Lehigh Valley Academy Regional CS is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.5 miles from this campus. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. Among the 8 schools in that immediate cluster with test data (this one included), Asa Packer El Sch ranks 2nd on composite proficiency, higher than the local average of 44.8%.

The campus sits in a residential setting.

Five-year trend. Over the past 7-year window, the student count contracted 7%: 338 students in 2018 compared to 314 in 2025. Over the same period, the Hispanic share ticked up from 11% to 21%. Class-load math has fell: from 14.3:1 in 2018 to 11.7:1 in 2025.

In the discussion threads here, recent activity here tends to focus on open house dates, ride-share offers, and field-trip permission slips. Contributors range from current parents to recent graduates and teachers.