8 Craig Rd
Chelmsford, MA 01824

Teachers determine how good your year is because every teacher will give you a completely different experience. The building is stuffy with no ventilation, very cramped, dirty, and outdated. The homework load is very unpredictable and messes with your schedule. One night you could have no homework and another you could have 8 hours. The school doesn't set their priorities straight, and funding is skewed towards the football team which is terrible. The arts program is among the best in the state, however it gets almost no funding. School events are run almost entirely by the deans while the principle and administration does very little to help. School doesn't care to help students develop a strong character, and the special ed program is very isolating. Students are not taught what they need to know. The school doesn't care about conduct, and does very little to correct poor behavior and drug use. Academically the school is above average, but problems stemming from the poor administration causes the experience at CHS to be much worse then it needs to be.

I love going to McCarthy because there are a lot of opportunities there. We put on a play every year that students can audition for or you can help build the set in tech club. The performance music groups are another option, you can choose between orchestra,band, or chorus. The teachers are great. They make sure that you understand the material before moving on and some teachers have before school reviews/help. The only thing that stresses me out is the homework. I'm in the 7th grade and the amount of homework we get is stressful and depending on what group of teachers you get I personally think that team 7-2 is the hardest but our teachers make sure we know everything.

South Row has great structure for students. There is a high level of engagement from my daughter’s teachers and communication from teachers is timely. You can see that there is an incredible amount of thought put into the curriculum and activities that are offered all year round. My daughter loves the incentives they have an opportunity to earn as a class, grade level or whole school. They collectively work towards earning pride points which is an exciting way to celebrate the contribution of one or many towards their common goals. My daughter is excited about learning and her environment reflects diversity which is super important to me. The Principal and Vice-Principal are very hands on and you can tell they run a tight ship. They are very organized and I love the experience they have created alongside the teachers, for both parents and students.