Parents calmed at Mariners Elementary

-- Danette Goulet

The storm has passed at Mariners Elementary School.

Although parents whose children are in the fourth grade there do not

like the idea of larger classes, a meeting with Supt. Robert Barbot on

Wednesday helped to calm turbulent tempers.

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 at the school.

But a comment by Susan Despenas, assistant superintendent of

elementary and special education, has parents at every other elementary

school ready to make waves of their own.

Despite her assertion earlier this week that the district had offered

Mariners teacher’s aides for the three remaining fourth-grade classes,

the district did not offer to pay for those aides, she said.

“What I intended to say was they have aides assigned to those three

classrooms,” Despenas said. “They pay for those through [Mariners]

foundation dollars and school improvement dollars. The district, per se,

does not provide any direct support.”