Charles H. Barrows STEM Academy

Why can't they retain teachers? My student attended from 5th grade through 8th grade, during that time multiple teachers left with long-term subs filling in. The school is supposed to focus on STEM yet my daughter went without a science teacher for the larger part of an entire school year! Communication is poor at best and students are not being properly prepared for the rigors of high school. Well, high school outside the district. My A student at Barrows struggled with both Science and English for the first half of her freshmen year of high school. Don't be fooled - this school is no better than the rest of this failing district.

DONT SEND YOUR KIDS HERE. Lots of discipline problems, that they do nothing about. All good teachers have left. My "A" presidential academic student at CHBSA moved back, after 8th grade, to our district high school. Even after taking advance classes at CHBSA, She was so far behind our district and is struggling a lot. Thanks god our district school is great about getting her back on track. All the cheating and fluffing of grades they do to make the school look better is not doing the kids any favor. All the magnet schools are a big joke and a waste of state money.

As a parent of former students I can say very clearly this school is not capable of educating our children. The teachers and staff allow bullying and are themselves bullies. The curriculum is at best substandard. My children went on to another town and while they were in the accelerated classes in Barrows they are behind in other towns. They had missed so much in science and math they had a difficult time catching up to their peers. Science and math, 2 of the 4 main points in STEM, sad that they can't teach that to the standard of other local public schools.The atmosphere in this school is one of chaos and stress. Teachers are overly stressed, and they pass that stress on to the students. On numerous occasions my children would come home and talk about how stressed their teachers were and how the entire class was miserable because the teacher was stressing about one thing or another. Teacher turn over was extremely high while we were there and often left students with long term substitutes for large parts of the school year. Many wonderful teachers have come and gone over the years, but all the best have left for positions elsewhere, with the rare exception of 1 or 2 who stay and hold on to hope for a better tomorrow.
Barrows started out to be the shining star of Windham schools, but in the end it is turning out to just be another Windham school, and by that I mean a very low level of education provided. Children deserve a better education and not to be bullied by the very people set there to protect them. The difference in my children's attitude about school since leaving that toxic environment is night and day. Others have noticed it as well, the smile on their faces as they leave school at the end of the day now vs the beat down misery that they displayed at Barrows tells the entire story of Barrows. My experience and that of my children overwhelmingly disappointing and stressful.