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John Bapst Memorial High School
Past, Present & Future
John Bapst Memorial High School is one of Maine’s ten “town academies” – privately incorporated high schools that serve a public mission, enrolling students from across the state and around the world. A distinguished college-preparatory school, John Bapst has a long tradition of excellence, even as it has undergone a fascinating evolution since its founding more eighty years ago. The school currently enrolls 470 students from 45 towns. With one of the top academic progarms in the state, the school is a model of excellence in academics, athletics, and the arts.
The origins of the current John Bapst High School trace back to the early 1920s, when local pastors from St. John's and St. Mary's parishes proposed a larger high school to meet an expanding need. On September 10, 1928, John Bapst High School, named for a nineteenth-century Swiss Jesuit priest and missionary, opened as a Catholic high school for boys and girls. In 1929, the first class of 29 girls was graduated; although 40 boys were admitted to the school in 1928, none were part of the senior class. During the next four decades, boys and girls attended separate classes in the duplex building that featured two principals and two different schedules. During its Catholic years the school achieved a strong reputation both in academics and athletics and enjoyed the vigorous support of its alumni.
Largely through alumni support and the tireless efforts of faculty, administration, and four incorporators – Earle Hannigan, William Lindsay, John MacKay, and principal Joe Sekera – that the school withstood the decision of the Bishop of Portland to close the school in June 1980. In the fall of that year, the landmark building at 100 Broadway reopened as John Bapst Memorial High School, a non-sectarian, private, coeducational, college preparatory secondary school. Since1980, the school has grown steadily, tenaciously retaining and enhancing its college-preparatory mission.
John Bapst’s most important growth, however, has been in what it offers its students –outstanding academic, arts, athletic, and extracurricular programs. The school offers one of the largest interscholastic athletic programs in the state (offering 17 out of the 20 varsity sports sponsored by the Maine Principals Association). Testaments to its success are the state championships in football, boys’ and girls’ cross-country, girls’ indoor track, girls’ and boys’ basketball, cheering, girls’ spring track, and baseball. Also on display in the Purple & White Room and Main Hall stand eight more championship trophies: two brought home by the Math Team, one by the Debate Team, and five by the Chess Team.
The arts as well have secured their place in the school. In 1991 the band gained national recognition for its welcome home to the first troops returning from the Gulf War. Years later, after midnight on the eve of the 1996 national presidential election, John Bapst’s band played in Bangor for President Clinton, who subsequently invited them to perform at his inauguration in January 1997. Today, over one third of the student body participates in instrumental or choral music at Bapst, and several art shows each year are devoted to the visual arts. The spring musical involves large numbers; in April 2002, over 120 students participated in a full-scale production of My Fair Lady. Many other co-curricular offerings, including the Student Senate, service organizations such as Key Club and National Honor Society, academic teams such as the Math Team, Chess Team, and the Junior Classical League, and student publications such as The Bapstonian Yearbook bring additional fulfillment to the young people who choose John Bapst Memorial High School.
Enjoying one of the strongest Advanced Placement programs in the state, John Bapst students took over 300 AP exams in 2008. Many go on to earn finalist, semifinalist, and commended scholar status for performance in the National Merit Scholarship competition. In 2008, 98% of John Bapst graduates continued their education beyond high school, and they can now be found throughout the University of Maine system and at many of the most prestigious colleges and universities in the country. What began as the ambition of a few people dedicated to quality education has become a school whose reputation for excellence extends throughout New England.
