Parents Unite in Anger at School Board : Education: A diverse coalition of sophisticated and savvy taxpayers, outraged over alleged embezzlement in the Newport-Mesa Unified district, are demanding the ouster of top administrators--or the recall of trustees.

They come from all corners of the school district, each with their own story of frustration or disappointment.

Some bear battle scars from fighting administrators over the opening of new schools or the overcrowding in classrooms. Others are newcomers to school politics, just starting to ask why buildings look run-down and why children come home without textbooks.

Now, outraged that they may be victims of the largest school embezzlement in California history, these parents in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District have come together to demand the ouster of top management and a full-scale investigation into how their public schools are run.

The occasion for their sweeping demands is the recent arrest of the district’s top financial officer, Stephen A. Wagner, for allegedly looting at least $3 million from district accounts.

But many parents say the embezzlement scandal is just one more symptom of widespread mismanagement that affects all aspects of education.

“There have been frustrated parents in this district for years; the Steve Wagner thing was really just blowing the lid off a lot of parental frustration,” said Margie Gardner, a mother of four who has been active in area schools for a decade.

Sophistication and savvy distinguish their efforts. Parents do not wave picket signs at the back of the boardroom, but instead distribute copies of speeches typed on personal computers to interested members of the press. In their scrutiny of the district, real estate agents research school property sales, former teachers study the curriculum and lawyers investigate the possibilities for legal action.

A throng of 200 angry parents and teachers have stormed the last two school board meetings, demanding that the seven-member panel immediately suspend the district’s three top administrators, ailing Supt. John W. Nicoll, Deputy Supt. Carol A. Berg and Assistant Supt. Thomas A. Godley.

At the core is an informal coalition of about two dozen concerned parents: homemakers who have already devoted countless hours to the school district by volunteering in classrooms or serving on Parent-Teacher Assn. boards, augmented by attorneys and accountants, investors and executives who lend professional expertise to the art of community activism.

They began by collecting 400 signatures on a petition opposing Nicoll’s appointment for a 22nd year in the district’s top job. Frustrated by the school board’s lack of response to the petition, many in the group now favor a recall campaign against a majority of board members.

Many of these parents-turned-protesters say they moved to the affluent district because of its reputation for having the finest schools in Orange County, and even the state. Alerted to the district’s financial woes by Wagner’s arrest, they are furious that their sizable property tax bills bring less than the best for their children.

“They are very intelligent, and they are very determined, very resourceful, and in some cases, very rich,” said Mary Fewel of Costa Mesa, who has lobbied the school board all year regarding the opening of Victoria School and now is part of the broader group of concerned parents. “If you take determination, and money, and secretaries, you can’t help but go further.”

What frustrates the parents most is what they perceive as the board’s arrogance and unresponsiveness to their demands. At public meetings, parents speak of a betrayed trust and lash out at board members for not fulfilling the wishes of those who elected them. So far, the board has refuted specific complaints and dismissed the parents’ adamant demands for sweeping change.

For Greg Wohl, the leader of the core group of parents, Newport-Mesa’s problems are best expressed by a conversation with board President Jim de Boom.

“I said: ‘If half the parents made it known to you that they didn’t want Dr. Nicoll for another year, would you still vote for him?’ He said yes,” Wohl recalled. “I said: ‘Well, if every parent in the district made it known to you that they did not want this man in for another year, would you still vote for him?’ He said, ‘Yes, I would.’

“My jaw basically dropped to the floor when I heard that,” Wohl said. “For a man in his position, it’s totally incredible. I was shocked.”

De Boom, echoing the sentiments of other school board members, said he will not make personnel decisions “based on a popularity contest.” Wohl and his colleagues see that attitude as a symbol of the board’s unwillingness to work with the community that elected them.

That’s why they are considering a recall.

“There’s no way to convince the board to do the right thing, there’s no way to intimidate the board into doing the right thing, so you have to get rid of the board,” added Tom Vogele, whose twin girls are fourth-graders at Lincoln Elementary. “It’s us against them, everybody against the school board: parents, teachers and students. I can’t think of anything but to get rid of the board and start afresh.”

Wohl, a father of two who works at an investment company, has hosted three Sunday evening strategy sessions at his Harbor View Hills home since the Wagner scandal unfolded. At the start of each meeting, parents don stick-on name tags, share the latest news and spill their war stories.

A few are veterans of the 1989 Lincoln school struggle, when parents in the Corona del Mar High School zone tangled with administrators who wanted Lincoln to provide grades four through six for the entire area. Against the wishes of the top three superintendents, the parents pushed the board to a 4-3 vote in favor of having full elementary programs at all three schools in the zone.

From across the bay comes the Victoria School crew. These parents spent the first half of this year doing research and lobbying officials to open a new elementary school in west Costa Mesa rather than expanding each existing site in the Estancia High School zone. After months of lobbying, the parents also earned a 4-3 board vote in favor of the new school.

And then there are the budget gurus, a quintet of Mariners Elementary parents that spent last spring poring over thousands of district documents after officials announced a major accounting error.

Among the activists is Karen Evarts, who lost a bid for the school board in 1989, and Jim Toledano, an attorney who has twice run unsuccessfully for state Assembly on a platform that emphasized education. Many, though, are people who never attended a school board meeting before the Wagner scandal hit; some do not even have children in the district.

“I’ve seen a bunch of these parent groups come and go, and the school board . . . can pretty much wait them out. People get tired of butting their heads against a wall,” said Evarts, who has two children at Newport Harbor High and a third in Newport Elementary.

“(But) a number of things have coalesced here that makes this different. There seems to be a window of opportunity here because of the Wagner thing. It’s got the attention of some people I think could give it some productive power.”

Like most parents, these newcomers to the school struggle say they will do whatever they can for their children.

“The only thing I can do is try to give some of my time to try to make a difference,” said Dan Zinke, a Corona del Mar father who has two children in district schools but transferred a third to private school this year.

Like Zinke, many of the protesting parents could afford private schools, and many are considering the option. Others said they may move to school districts with better reputations. Gardner, for example, said she will spend Christmas vacation looking at houses in Irvine.

Newport-Mesa already has a high private school enrollment--19.9% of the students in Newport Beach and 13.6% of those in Costa Mesa attend private schools, compared to 10.1% in Orange County and 11% nationwide. Some who remain in the public school system say they do so because of a commitment to public education.

“If we just run away because we’re going to spend more money, that’s not the cure,” explained Phil Richardson, one of the Mariners parents who spent last spring working on the budget. “You can always run away and leave the problem for someone else. If (you’re) going to be part of this society, you need to stay and do something about the problem.”