Parents upset over class changes

Danette Goulet

NEWPORT-MESA -- Parents at Mariners Elementary School are angry with

district officials who plan to reduce the number of fourth-grade classes

to make room for an overflow of second-graders.

“We feel it’s a second-grade problem -- not a fourth grade problem --

so don’t harm 100 fourth-graders,” said Carolyn Mangano, who has a

second-grader and a fourth-grader enrolled at Mariners.

Because of an unexpected number of second-graders -- more than the 20

allowed per class under state law -- the school district plans to

consolidate four fourth-grade classes into three.

District officials said the solution is a logical one that will bring

Mariners fourth-grade classes to about 31 students each -- a number in

line with other fourth-grade classes across the district.

Mariners was one of six elementary schools in the Newport-Mesa Unified

School District where a class was closed and a teacher relocated after

the start of school when district officials found the actual number of

students was far below what they expected.

Sonora, Pomona, Andersen and Whittier elementary schools each had a

kindergarten class closed; at Paularino, a third-grade class was closed

when enrollment for kindergarten through the sixth grade was found to be

316 students short of the projected number.

“The parents at Sonora and Paularino care as much as the parents at

Mariners,” said Susan Despanes, assistant superintendent of elementary

and special education. “How am I supposed to tell them that while we’ve

closed a kindergarten and a third grade at their schools, we’re adding a

teacher at Mariners?”

While positions at another school sites had to be found for the five

teachers from the other schools, Mariners staff came up with another

option and moved the teacher from the closing fourth-grade class to the

new second-grade class.

But the solution is not sitting well with parents at Mariners, who

have been meeting with district officials in hopes of finding a solution

that would leave the fourth-grade classes alone.

“They need to meet the state mandate -- we understand that,” Mangano

said. “We just don’t want them to do it with our fourth-grade teacher.

They tell us they have the right to do it and I believe it, but we are

just trying to express strongly that we’d like to find another way to

resolve it.”

District officials have offered to put a full-time teacher’s aide in

what would be the three remaining fourth-grade classes.

Supt. Robert Barbot said he understands parents’ concerns, but that

the school district needs to be fair and equitable to all schools,

parents and children.

Barbot will meet with Mariners parents at 7 p.m. tonight in the

school’s multipurpose room.