Northcoast Preparatory and Performing Arts Academy was founded as the high school branch of the Big Lagoon Charter School in 2000 to provide a rigorous college preparatory program with a strong emphasis on the arts and sciences. This is our seventh year as an independent public charter school. The International Baccalaureate Organization status as an IB World School in the Diploma Programme was granted to our school in August of 2004. 

The school’s curriculum is based on confronting primary source documents, critical thinking, travel, musical and dramatic performances, community service, analytical and creative writing, and university-level courses. One of our goals is to expose students to the most emotionally compelling, intellectually demanding, and aesthetically enriching materials possible. 

In order to graduate, each student must fulfill the University of California’s a-g requirements. In addition to their course work, freshmen and sophomore students are required to write a research paper of at least ten pages each semester. This paper forms the basis for an oral presentation that caps the semester. Students in all grade levels also participate in a required Literature Seminar each semester; they will have read and examined eight classic novels before graduating. Beginning with the 2004-05 school year, every student will take International Baccalaureate courses during his or her junior and senior years and will be an International Baccalaureate candidate. The school’s program also permits students to take advantage of courses taught at College of the Redwoods, the local 2-year college, and at Humboldt State University, where our Principal, Dr. Jean Bazemore, is a Professor emeritus. In addition, the students receive supplementary instruction from local, national, and international experts in different fields.

Because music, drama, and art are an important part of our program, students participate in and experience numerous performances and exhibits throughout the year. There is at least one major dramatic production, which is produced first locally and then performed in the countries to which students travel that year. Global awareness and international experiences are a vital part of our program.

During our first year, the students performed Brecht’s Caucasian Chalk Circle locally, then traveled to China and performed in Beijing and Shanghai. In 2001-02 they performed Hamlet locally, and students toured Aria da Capo in Scandinavia as well as Cape Cod and Indiana in the U.S. During 2002-03 students traveled to Japan and performed a dramatization of Native American poems. In February the students produced Aeschylus’ Oresteia, and students traveled to Italy in May. Spanish language students spent two weeks studying in a Spanish Intensive Program in Guatemala. In 2003-04 the students produced Arthur Miller’s and Jean Giraudoux’s The Mad Woman of Chaillot, and students performed The Crucible at an International Theatre Festival in Malaga, Spain. In 2004-05 the students produced Friedrich Duerrenmatt’s The Visit and West Side Story Meets Romeo and Juliet, and students performed Aria da Capo at the Continents Comédiens International Festival in Saint Leger du Bourg Denis. In summer of 2005, many of our students participated in extended cultural visits to France and to Nicaragua. In Fall 2005, students performed Sophocles’ Antigone and Shaw’s St. Joan, and in Spring 2005, they performed Brecht’s Caucasian Chalk Circle and Pinter’s One for the Road, which was performed at our sister school in Rennes, France. During the summer of 2006, some students participated in an intensive Spanish-language program in Oaxaca, Mexico, while others visited Friendship Village in Vietnam delivering medical supplies and books to the Cau Giay orphanage along with funds they raised through various activities. The students also performed Native American poems and taught English and Drama at the Cau Giay orpahanage and at Children’s House I Hue.

Throughout the years, individual students participated and were honored in national and international music competitions including the NFAA ARTS Awards 2005 and the Milosz Magin International Piano Competition in Paris (our school was the first to be represented in all divisions; an alumnus won the Gold Medal 2005 in the Concert Pianists Division). Other of our graduates have gone on to receive highest honors in the performing arts by their universities and with fellowships to their graduate schools.

Our teachers are highly dedicated educators and professionals. Our students are motivated individuals who take initiative and assume responsibility for their own learning. Our graduates are attending or have graduated from Stanford University, Harvard University, Sarah Lawrence College, Brown University, St. John’s College in Santa Fe, Rhode Island School of Design, John Hopkins University, Swarthmore College, Mills College, Whitman College, Reed College, Williams College, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz, Humboldt State University, Prescott University, Colburn Conservatory of Music, University of San Francisco, Brigham Young University, Willamette College, Oberlin College, Hampshire College, University of Denver, and Roehamton University of Surrey. Our students have been honored as National Merit Finalists and with the National Achievement Scholarship, the National Hispanic Recognition Program Scholar award, the federally sponsored Robert C. Byrd Honors Scholarship for Outstanding students, and numerous other merit college scholarships. Our students have also received Rotary and Government Scholarships to Italy, Germany and India. Several have completed internships in France, Sweden, Bolivia, China and England.