Ator Elementary School

My little sister has been going to this school for the last 8 months & she does NOT like it at all. Her teacher is alright, but she's terrified of continuing on into the 5th grade for fear of teachers yelling & screaming! She has heard the horror stories from other students about how awful they can be & It just breaks my heart! She wishes she could go back to Larkin Bailey (She LOVED it there!) but now that we've moved, her only option is go to this school because of the transportation situation.. She has to take the bus. IF ONLY they had nicer teachers... =(

(1)Large lack of communication between teachers and parents. (2)Although the teachers say no homework, there is always AR reading, AR math, spelling words, spelling contracts and the weekly reader story outside of class along with any other assigned work. There is ALWAYS homework.
--Submitted by a parent

Children that attend Owasso are more likely to obtain scholarships but that is for the higher up grades. As for Ator, it has a wonderful principal, Ms Bishline, very friendly and appoachable. My only complaints is the class size (24-1 seems to be average). The lunch room is tiny so kids rotate starting at 10am for lunch. Starting with the kindergarteners and 1st graders, my kids no longer eat breakfast because if they do they won't be hungry for lunch and then spend the rest of the school day hungry, so the trade off is they go to school hungry for the first 2 hours. They should start with the older kids and give the youngest the noon slot. They constantly push the kids for fundraising - every month if they aren't pushing a salespaper they are pushing things like candy and popcorn. Kids are guilted if they don't participate. Enough!
--Submitted by a parent

My son has attended ator for two years. My biggest concerns are the lack of communication between parents and teachers and the amount of homework assigned.
--Submitted by a parent

Very disappointed! My daughter is in special education and the communication with her teacher is horrible. We didn't even get a notice about when parent/teacher conferences were until the last day and by time we got home from work it was already done. I sent in a copy of her evaluation that was done over the summer and the teacher just put it in her file, the occupational therapist didn't even know there was one. We did have her in Kiefer and absolutely loved it! Supposedly Owasso was a much better school district, two years and I still haven't seen it!! Owasso is a very nice town to live in but the school system is amazingly inept.
--Submitted by a parent

Over this is the best staff i have ever met. The principal and office staff are very friendly and helpful. The staff is concerned with the needs of the students.
--Submitted by a parent

Growing up in Owasso, my two brothers and I attended Ator and now my children have all attended Ator also. I have one left in the 4th grade and I will miss Ator tremendously. I had a lot of issues with one of my sons and the treatment we got from the staff was exceptional, especially of Ms. Bishline. If you take the time to get involved you will see what a great school it is. There are many activities for your children and also for you as a parent to be in. If I were to move to a different district, I would beg them to let my daughter stay at Ator until she's out of elementary school.
--Submitted by a parent

My son has been going to Ator since kindergarten and for the most part I have been happy with Ator. We had a couple of problems. I was told that he needed to go to T1 because he was barely 5 when he started school, even though he was reading short sentences and there was a problem with a teacher wanting to hold him back in 1st grade because of his age even though he was reading on a third grade level at the time. And this same teacher would not let her students advance to the next reading level, because she was trying to make model classroom. He is going into 5th now and doing fine. But the principle and staff are very nice and helpful. I do wish we could actually have a school nurse on campus and post our AR list online though.
--Submitted by a parent

We moved from WI to OK a little over a year ago and my son was going into first grade. The Principal is very personable and really gets involved with the parents and kids. She calls every student by first name. We really enjoy ATOR and looking forward to our daughter attending kindergarten next year. The building could use some maintenance, but feel the staff has done well with an older facility. Most of the teachers are female and take time with each student one on one. I wish ATOR spent more time doing music programs like our last school for all classes.
--Submitted by a parent

We have been at Ator for 4 years and are very dissapointed. We have decided to move our children to another school. The atmoshphere is cold and uninviting to parents. When you walk down the hall you can often hear teachers yelling at their students. Regarding extracurricular activities there are very few and none are done if a profit can not be made. The few fun activities they had have been stripped away over the last few years. Academically they meet the basics but do not go above that at all. They are forced to teach for the state test and that is the focus for 3/4 of the year. If you have other school options I would look into them.
--Submitted by a parent