Mariners Elementary parents have ‘high hopes’ for new principal appointed amid award flap

Mariners Elementary School’s sign out front had a new message for the new school year Tuesday.

The letters arranged on the white board spelled out, “School starts Sept. 6th. Welcome Mr. B.”

Parents with backpacks and coffee cups in hand as they accompanied their children to the Newport Beach campus stopped to snap a photo of them in front of the sign welcoming Matt Broesamle as Mariners’ new principal.

Broesamle stood in the school’s front courtyard wearing a red Spider-Man tie as he introduced himself to a line of parents waiting to meet him.

“He’s the main core, the influence on the teachers … people are going to follow his example,” parent Chris Van Keirsbelk said. “We’re looking for stability, and I think teachers trust that there’s going to be someone here to support them.”

In June, the Newport-Mesa Unified School District reassigned Broesamle from California Elementary School in Costa Mesa to take over at Mariners after Laura Sacks, Mariners’ principal of one year, requested a different assignment amid a controversy over an application for a school award that she filed last fall.

Mariners teachers began voicing concerns in March about the application for the Gold Ribbon Award, which the school received in April from the California Department of Education. They claimed it contained mischaracterizations about educational programs that were not fully in place last school year and goals and practices that were never discussed with teachers.

An outside investigation of the allegations is continuing, the district said.

Some parents also had complained that the school climate last year had become “awkward” and “institutional.”

“Teachers last year were not focused … there was no sense of unity,” Mariners parent Tina D’Agostino said Tuesday. “We’ve heard really good things about [Broesamle]. We have high hopes for this school.”

Broesamle didn’t stop to be interviewed as he greeted parents Tuesday morning. Later in the day, he declined comment, saying he was too busy working with parents on the first day of school.

In a statement when he was appointed to Mariners in June, he said: “I am ready to start a new chapter in my life. I am excited and look forward to joining the Mariners School community.”

As parents made it through the line to meet him Tuesday, one told him he was coming to Mariners with a “halo” around his head. Another carried a small gift for him. He didn’t immediately open it.

Broesamle had served as principal of California Elementary for five years. Before that, he began a teaching career at Adams Elementary School in Costa Mesa in 2002 and stayed there for eight years.

Parents at Mariners, which serves 700 students, said they’re happy that Broesamle comes from within Newport-Mesa.

“He’s a team player, and that’s what’s most important,” parent Tracy Gaines said. “We need someone who’s going to be on a same page with every teacher and work with them. We have teachers who have been here a long time. Everyone respects them.”