Oregon Trail Elementary School

Great School with a hard working staff. The new principal is enthusiastic and helpful. Even though the classrooms are jammed with students, the teachers work tirelessly to help each child. I could not be happier with my children going to OTE>
—Submitted by a parent

We are not happy with the teachers at Oregon Trail. One word that describes them well is LAZY. Or maybe it is just unorganized. My son's teacher doesn't even know if he turned in his homework. She has no classroom management skills, and blames the kids for the chaos. This school year has been the worst year ever, for both myself and my son.
—Submitted by a parent

My daughter is in her third year at OTE. There are a FEW wonderful teachers at Oregon Trail. It seems as if the teachers are required to cram so much information on too many subjects into one day. There is no time (or ROOM, with 30+ kids per class) for individual attention. There is no TAG program. As of this year, there is no small-group learning that matches kids with similar abilities. Everyone is taught the same thing, at the same time. My daughter is now just another face in the crowd, and is no longer excited about school; In fact, she dreads it. We will be enrolling in a charter school next year because OTE has simply gone downhill: The principal is impersonal, the teachers don't seem happy, and the kids and parents are becoming more "rough around the edges." The positives don't outweigh the negatives.
—Submitted by a parent

My son transfered to this school in January and has made the transisition with ease. The school staff has ben most helpful
—Submitted by a parent

Very discouraging school. We were moved into this school during the boundary changes our district has made. We will not be sending our three children to this school again. The principal is a joke. As far as I can tell he really does nothing. The teacher that we have dealt with is really proof that the teachers are kept by seniority and not by ability. A negative environment, very little growth for a high achieving child. I would NOT recommend this school.
—Submitted by a parent

We had a very difficult time transitioning out of Oregon Trail because the teachers and the staff were so wonderful. It is a LARGE school and it runs so smoothly you would never know it had so many children! We made the decision to move our daughter because the standard educational system was not working for her. Multisensory intensive phonics was not taught, classroom management was a difficult area for some teachers and the math program seemed to be very weak. For the general populus of children, a bright child can get a good education here. TAG is almost impossible to get tested for an gain entrance to, which is fine because there are so many other things going on, there isn't much time for it. The parents are VERY committed to this school and very involved.
—Submitted by a parent