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John Bapst Memorial High School
Welcome to John Bapst Memorial High School
Located in the attractive, safe city of Bangor in one of America’s most beautiful states, John Bapst is an independent school serving girls and boys in grades 9 through 12. Our mission is excellence. The school has a single focus: to prepare students for college, university, and beyond. As the title of one book put it, we believe in One World, Ready or Not – and we want our students to be ready.
For decades John Bapst has distinguished itself as a top day school that attracts students from as far as fifty miles away. Our students in 2010-11 come from more than forty towns. Starting in August 2011, John Bapst’s outstanding programs in academics, athletics, and the arts will also be available to boarding students. Our goal is to be the number one high school for domestic and international students in the state of Maine.
At John Bapst it’s cool to be smart. The school is a magnet for students who want to be part of an environment that challenges them with high expectations. In the classroom critical thinking and knowledge are prized. Over the past four years, the school’s graduates have gone on to attend many of the nation’s top colleges and universities, including Bowdoin, Colby, Columbia, Dartmouth, Duke, NYU, Notre Dame, Penn, Swarthmore, Williams, and Yale. Here in Maine, many John Bapst scholars have been part of honors programs at the University of Maine, with several earning full four-year scholarships.
At John Bapst it’s also cool to be yourself. We strive to provide a comfortable environment where the personal touch has not been lost, respect is mutual, and friendships are genuine. John Bapst students are extremely creative. In recent years our musicians have gone on to the prestigious programs at Hartt, Oberlin, Berklee, and Gettysburg, and our artists to schools like Maryland College of Art and Savannah College of Art and Design.
John Bapst is a school of winners. Since 2008 we’ve been first in the state in a wide range of endeavors: football, jazz band, math team, chess, girls’ track, cyber defense. With a student body as talented as ours, it is no surprise that John Bapst is a regular contender for state, regional, and conference honors.
Supporting our talented student body is a faculty of some 35 teachers, most with advanced degrees and all devoted to their subjects. Six are Advanced Placement graders or College Board test development committee members. One has been Maine’s Presidential award-winner for excellence in teaching mathematics; another is also on the faculty at the University of Maine. Our faculty and staff are well traveled and multilingual, with speakers of Chinese, French, Spanish, German, and Swedish. One of our teachers leads his own jazz quartet on trumpet, and several were college athletes.
Thank you for your interest in John Bapst. As you tour our website you’ll find answers to many of your questions. Please contact us and we’ll be delighted to tell you more.
Mel MacKay,
Head of School
