translation and interpretation services — rather, those services would be provided in a different way. Instead of paying one person, the system would have dipped into money used to pay contractors to translate the languages spoken by Anne Arundel parents.

But parents had said those translators wouldn’t provide the same cultural support afacilitator does.

Officials had said the part-time facilitator was used for 73 hours of service related to translation last school year. When officials eliminated the part-time job it allowed them to reallocate about $2,200 to support services for the school system’s growing Hispanic population, Mosier said.

Officials aren’t taking that money back — instead, they will pull a little bit of money from a variety of places to fund the reinstated job.

The group of parents who came to protest the change at the September school board meeting said there are about 300 Chinese students in Anne Arundel County schools. Mosier said the system has about 100 Chinese families.

Yao Li, who has a third-grader at Crofton Meadows Elementary School, said at the meeting she had been unfamiliar with aspects of the school system until getting help from the facilitator — she said she didn’t know, for instance, at what age students were expected to learn certain skills or subjects. Because of the facilitator, she felt better informed, she said.