Bethlehem High School Home

The lights are ON, the Wi-Fi is working, and POWER HAS OFFICIALLY BEEN RESTORED! 💡🙌

That means Bethlehem will be BACK to our regularly scheduled programming tomorrow - normal school day, normal start time, and yes… normal classes! 😉📚

A huge THANK YOU to the City of Bardstown for working hard to get us back up and running!

Turns out you can knock out our power, but you can’t knock out our spirit! 💙💛️

See everyone bright (literally!) and early tomorrow! 😂💡

It is hard to believe that our strategic planning process began back in 2020! What started as a year of conversations, focus groups, dreaming, and planning ultimately became Bethlehem High School’s 2021 Strategic Plan, a roadmap centered around four major aspirations for the future of our school.

Now, as we officially close out that planning cycle, we have an opportunity to look back and say WOW—look how far we have come! 💙💛

Our closeout assessment shows tremendous success across all four areas:

🌟 Catholic Education, Academics & Whole-Student Experience
STAR Term became an established part of the Bethlehem experience, while we expanded AP and Dual Credit opportunities, college and career readiness, internships, retreats, Worship Wednesdays, service learning, Catholic formation, leadership opportunities, athletics, arts, clubs and so much more.

📈 Marketing, Enrollment & Bethlehem’s Distinctiveness
Perhaps one of the greatest indicators of our success is our growth. Bethlehem has experienced approximately 44% enrollment growth since 2020, reaching record enrollment and waitlists in some grade levels. In 2021, we were planning for how we might someday accommodate 325–350 students and eventually 375–400. Today, that future is here!

🏫 Facilities & Technology
From campus improvements and technology investments to expanded parking, new fencing, a mini-bus, our scoreboard project, additional classroom planning and preparations for future enrollment growth, we have continued investing in our campus. We also know there is more exciting work ahead, particularly with future facilities and athletic expansion.

🤝 Alumni, Community & Advancement
We have strengthened advancement and fundraising while continuing to build connections throughout the Bethlehem Family. Growing alumni engagement and our endowment will remain important priorities as we move forward.

A HUGE thank you to everyone who participated in our focus groups and contributed ideas, feedback, time and energy during that year-long strategic planning process. Your voices helped create a plan that truly moved Bethlehem forward.

We also want to give a very special thank you to our previous Board Chair, Gilbert Brown, and President/Principal Sara Thurmond, who really spearheaded the development, planning, and execution of our previous Strategic Plan. Their leadership helped take the ideas and vision that came from our Bethlehem community and turn them into an actionable plan that has guided our school through an incredible period of growth and progress.

The results speak for themselves: Bethlehem established new programs, strengthened our Catholic identity and student formation, expanded academic and real-world learning opportunities, experienced substantial enrollment growth, invested in facilities and technology, and increased our visibility throughout the community.

And now…it is time to begin dreaming again! 🌟

Over the coming year, we will begin planning for our next strategic planning cycle, once again bringing together our stakeholders to ask important questions about who we are, where we are going, and what we want Bethlehem to become in the years ahead.

2020 doesn’t seem that long ago, but look at where we have gone! And we cannot wait to see where we go next. 💙💛

On Wednesday morning, Mr. Helmkamp’s Forensic Science class put their investigative skills to the test with a lab centered around the hypothetical theft of a Gutenberg Bible from Mrs. Kremer’s classroom. The students explored the significance of these rare books—only 48 Gutenberg Bibles are known to exist today, with just 23 complete copies, while approximately 180 Latin Vulgate Bibles were printed in Germany from 1454–1455 by Johannes Gutenberg. Working in three-member teams, students took on the roles of photographer, sketch artist, and evidence technician as they carefully documented the crime scene and interviewed Mrs. Kremer for additional information. An unexpected loss of electricity to the building added an extra challenge to the investigation, requiring students to adapt and think like real crime scene investigators. After completing their investigations, each team reviewed its findings, evaluated what went well and what could be improved, and shared their conclusions with the class. It was a hands-on experience that gave students the opportunity to apply forensic science skills in a fun and engaging way!