PROs: As a student of CAC I can say from personal experience that there are some great teachers…read morethere who are phenomenal at their jobs. For the most part the bible teachers are very nice people who are also very passionate about religion. If you want your child take a science based class there is no better teacher than head of the science department who teaches chemistry and physics. He is very animated and seems to really enjoy the subjects he teaches and does a very good job of explaining things. In the English department there are only about 2 teachers who have any real skill at teaching. For all things art related CAC's art teacher is incredibly nice and very patient. If you are looking for a History teacher who is truly excited about the subject she teaches look no farther than CAC's 10th grade history teacher. CAC has one math teacher who is particularly talented, just ask for the women who teaches College Algebra. Both the Athletic Director and the principle are very reasonable people who are willing to help you get problems taken care of and are just pleasant to be around in general. Cons: Unfortunately, despite these great teachers, there are still a couple thing holding CAC back from being the optimal learning experience. The first thing being that they do not offer very many classes besides the bare basics. For example the tech department at CAC is near non-existent consisting only of a typing class and a very rudimentary computer applications class that teaches how to use some older versions of Microsoft Power Point. Another blemish on what would otherwise be a good school are the coaches. Don't get me wrong they do a great job of coaching, but what they aren't so hot at is teaching. The coaches that double as teachers for the most part show a lack of interest in the classes they teach and often operate them very lazily. For example in a math class taught by a coach I brought to his attention that he had miss graded a problem on my test. he agreed that yes it was miss graded but refused to change it because "it would take too much time". While in a foreign language class taught be a coach I once raised my hand to tell him I did not understand what he had just taught, his response was "That's not my problem". Summary: CAC is a good school in general but is held back by a lack of classes and coaches who honestly should probably stick to coaching. You should probably look at other schools before settling on this one.

Very nice set up in historic hikkcresf neighborhood. It is very convenient to work for UMAS and ACH…read moreemployees. Excellent hours. Very good approach to early childhood education with diverse group of students and teachers. Both of our children go here.

Overall, I give this school 4/5 stars at this time because, for me, the most important aspects of…read morechildcare are quite strong, and there is some room for improvement. We've been there 1.5 years. The strengths start with the staff--almost all staff are engaged (read: not on their phones, willing to conference and work with parents), and pleasant. Another strength is their policies -- the ratios they require are better than DHS, they implement and advertise policies for safety (eg, parents don't be on cell phone at pick up). Plus, the Montessori curriculum is actually implemented in classrooms--it's not just a daycare holding place. We moved from another daycare and my child's physical and cognitive development skyrocketed when we Changed schools. Now, the school is in a huge old house, so it's not fancy in material but they regularly repair and have an excellent playground the kids visit 1-2 times daily. I find it perfectly quaint. The limits right now are on communication about big changes. They have a monthly newsletter that's brief and helpful. They lack other infrastructure for communicating with parents that really works--some have a Facebook page, some rely on texting parents...but it's not consistent or multifaceted enough to catch everybody (eg some people email, some need flyers). I've learned about big changes by noticing something and asking, Like a new teacher joining or combining two classrooms. My other issue is with nutrition, which plays a big role in child behavior, mood, and development . "Snack" is often processed food with few nutrients (eg Cheez its, graham crackers), and hot lunch is better but not great. Now, we compensate by bringing our child's lunch, but she eats most or more of her allotted sugar each day at school snacks and doesn't get many important nutrients from the food provided.