Carthage Central High School is located on a 123 acre site in a rural geographic area of northern New York State, 40 miles from the Canadian border, 6 miles south of Fort Drum, 15 miles east of Watertown, and 90 miles northeast of Syracuse. The high school serves the villages of Carthage, West Carthage, Black River, Great Bend, Felts Mills, Deferiet, Deer River, Herrings and Natural Bridge along with a portion of the housing at the Fort Drum Army base. The population within this area is approximately 22,000. The high school is on Route 26, one-half mile east from the intersection of Route 26 & Route 126 in West Carthage and serves an area of about 260 square miles. It maintains a population of about 950 for grades 9-12. There are four eighty minute block periods per day plus lunch and an activity, or "correctives" period at the end of the day.