School Chief Retires Amid Controversy : Education: Head of Newport-Mesa district cites health, not a $3.5-million embezzlement by a former official, as his reason.

Supt. John W. Nicoll, who has been under pressure to step down as head of the beleaguered Newport-Mesa Unified School District, announced his resignation Saturday, citing failing health.

Nicoll, 71, has served for 21 years as the top administrator of the Newport-Mesa district, now reeling from the largest embezzlement in California education history.

During his tenure, Nicoll hired and promoted Stephen A. Wagner, the school system’s former finance director who pleaded guilty earlier this month to looting district accounts of at least $3.5 million.

Although parent and teacher groups have over the last several weeks called for his ouster because of the Wagner scandal and other problems, Nicoll on Saturday said he was retiring only because of his health.

He spent several weeks in the hospital after undergoing quadruple bypass surgery in November, and is now suffering from a bleeding ulcer.

“My decision to retire, that’s based solely on my age and my health, not on any criticism whether fanciful or factual,” Nicoll said. “The illness that caused me to spend so much time in the hospital is stress-related. . . . The advice of three doctors is sufficient as far as I’m concerned.”

Newport-Mesa school board members said they have encouraged Nicoll to retire in order to quell criticism from the community, which has called for his departure as well as that of other high-ranking administrators.

Hundreds of parents and teachers crowded two recent school board meetings, demanding the ouster of Nicoll and his two chief aides, acting Supt. Carol A. Berg and Assistant Supt. Thomas A. Godley.

The teachers also presented an overwhelming no-confidence vote on the same administrators and called for a national search for a new superintendent.

“I think this will take off some of the concerns the parents raised in terms of leadership,” said Martha Fluor, a school board member. “I still think the parents have some grave concerns, and we are trying to address those.”

Fluor said Nicoll’s decision is in the best interest of the school district, but she added that Nicoll knew his contract might not have been renewed.

Fluor, a newcomer to the school board, and Sherry Loofbourrow, who has served on the board for more than 10 years, praised Nicoll’s years of service.

“He is so good at helping the school district ride through a crisis and come out stably focused on what’s right for the child and the classroom. . . . I would really like him to continue being superintendent,” Loofbourrow said.

She praised Nicoll for bringing computer technology to Newport-Mesa, developing a written educational philosophy for the district, and helping several campuses launch major planning and curriculum revisions.

In a two-paragraph statement he faxed to the seven-member school board Saturday afternoon, Nicoll said he will spend the next three months on medical leave, and officially retire April 2.

A native of Bellflower, Nicoll graduated from Whittier College, received a master’s degree from Claremont College and earned his doctorate at Columbia University. When he became superintendent of the Pacific Grove Unified School District in 1959, Nicoll was the youngest leader of a unified school district in California. He is now the oldest.

Before joining Newport-Mesa in 1971, Nicoll headed a high school district on Long Island and, later, the Vallejo Unified School District in Northern California.

Nicoll, who plans to write a book on school board-superintendent relations, said Saturday that his biggest struggle in Newport-Mesa was watching the district shrink from 40 schools and 26,000 students to 20 schools, and then grow again to its current size of 25 schools and about 17,500 students.