More than twenty years ago, Ralph S. Opacic, Ed.D., had a dream that would later have an impact on the lives of thousands of talented young artists and Orange County. At a time when arts education was declining throughout Southern California and the country, Dr. Opacic set out to create Southern California’s only pre-professional, tuition-free arts high school. His challenges included no funding, no facilities, and limited support from the education community.
Today that school is the nationally acclaimed Orange County High School of the Arts with 200 faculty and enrolling 1,400 students annually. The creativity, passion, tenacity, and vision of Dr. Ralph Opacic will live on in the students whose artistic natures the school has nourished and the audiences enjoying their art.