8 Thoreau Cir
Beverly, MA 01915

Ive nearly graduated from Beverly High School and I've begun to realize many things. The most important of things I've learned is these teachers love their job. Beverly High School as a concept is a great school, but in practice this school is a disaster. With teachers constantly being cut to make more room in a budget this school is understaffed, and teachers, paras, and substitutes are overworked and underpaid. Not only are teachers underpaid, but as a “diverse” school many students are racist, homophobic, and almost everyone i know HATES school. I urge you to look at surrounding schools as the fate of your child graduating is slim to none at Beverly High School.

The teachers have bullied and targeted my son. They have removed him from his classes and kept him in a room alone, they have told and set up plans and then gone back and refused, they have lied and accused him of using his phone when he wasn't I know he wasn't and when other kids have blatantly used their phones and they just them, but single him out every single time, they have told him to his face that he will not pass and have said other rude things to his face, they gave him detention when he went to the counselors office even though they told him he could do. They singled him out all the time and did all this and more knowing he has sever anxiety. Because of this he does not feel safe there. We are working with a Children's Advocate now because that is how bad this has gotten.

I have 2 children at this school and overall I would say that, for a public school, it is probably better than average. The faculty, administration, and staff seem to care about the kids and the kids (including mine) seem to be pretty happy overall. I do think, though, that there are things that could be improved. Class time is not always spent productively. For example, the teachers sometimes show non-educational movies as a "reward." Even if one accepts the idea of showing a movie during school hours, why not at least show an educational movie? (the kids will still see it as a reward). In fact, I was surprised to learn from one of my kids that her class watched Mary Poppins (the movie) during class time shortly after spending several hours watching Mary Poppins the play performed by the 5th grade students. How is that a good use of class time? Also, communication about your child's progress is not consistent from teacher to teacher (some communicate a lot, some hardly at all) and the report cards don't offer much information about how your child is performing compared to his/her peers.