Parents lobby for better health care at Mariners

Danette Goulet

NEWPORT BEACH -- Parents are sick of the part-time health care their

children receive at Mariners Elementary School.

So sick, in fact, that they are petitioning the Newport-Mesa Unified

School District for a full-time health care assistant, said PTA parent

Lisa Boler.

“The complaint is that at Mariners we have 750 students, and some

schools with 350 students have the same amount of time with a health

aide,” Boler said. “And with twice as many students and this time of

year, when kids are all sick, the girls in the office have to take care

of that stuff.”

Each school in the district is assigned one health care assistant,

which it shares with one other school, and one nurse, which it shares

with two other schools, said Marsha BMarthaler, the district’s health

services program specialist.

“There are 12 nurses but not all work full time, so there are 10 or 11

full time,” she said.

That means each nurse covers an average of three schools, or roughly

2,400 students, she added.

In addition to the nurse, who may spend as little as one day a week on

campus, each school has a health assistant, trained in first aid and CPR,

who is on campus half of the school day, BMarthaler said.

But Mariners parents say that is just not enough.

“We have kids that need to take medication, and we need someone there

to give it to them,” Boler said. “As it is, the office has to stop to

attend to sick children. I know a few parents who have been in the office

and had to deal with a sick kid.”

The purpose of the petition, Boler said, is to bring what parents see

as a problem to the attention of the district.

BMarthaler said one option parents may be offered is to pay for a

health assistant salary for the second half of the day.

Newport Harbor High School is one school that now shares the cost of a

full-time health aid on campus.