Newport-Mesa Parents, Teachers Urge Reforms : Education: They are pleased by Supt. John W. Nicoll’s retirement but want an expanded role in selecting new leadership and setting goals.

Parents and teachers who have been demanding new leadership in the Newport-Mesa Unified School District said they are pleased by Supt. John W. Nicoll’s decision to retire this spring, but that deeper changes are essential to restoring public confidence in the troubled district.

“I think it’s a good beginning for us; it’s a good way to start the new year,” Judy Joyer, a mother of two Corona del Mar High School students, said of Nicoll’s plan to step down after 21 years in the school system’s top job because of his failing health.

School board members “have said they intend to include the parents more in the decision-making process,” Joyer said. “If they follow through with those pledges, I know I will feel a lot better about the district.”

Maya Decker, president of the Newport-Mesa Federation of Teachers, welcomed Nicoll’s resignation, saying, “This will help bring about the transition that we need.”

Nicoll, 71, who had quadruple bypass surgery in November and continues to suffer from a bleeding ulcer, had faced mounting criticism from the community since the discovery that his former finance chief, Stephen A. Wagner, looted at least $3.5 million from district accounts.

Citing the embezzlement--which is the largest in California school district history--and ongoing problems such as crowded classrooms, employee layoffs and supply shortages, hundreds of concerned citizens have stormed recent school board meetings to demand the ouster of Nicoll along with acting Supt. Carol A. Berg and Assistant Supt. Thomas A. Godley.

“One down, two to go,” said Mary Fewel, a Costa Mesa parent who has been among dozens of speakers at board meetings asking trustees to immediately fire the administrative threesome. “This is definitely a move in the right direction. I hope the board is willing to go through with the rest of their housecleaning that they need to do.”

Carol Tipper, a teacher who has been in the district as long as Nicoll and now heads the math department at Costa Mesa’s Estancia High School, agreed.

“We need something new. I and many other teachers are really delighted to see our district in a position to choose some new administrators, make some changes, find some new blood,” Tipper said. “It is the opportunity that we were asking for.”

Since the embezzlement scandal unfolded two months ago, Nicoll, who hired and promoted Wagner, has been the focus of the community’s ire. More than 400 parents signed a petition in November asking the school board not to renew his contract, and a few weeks later the teachers’ union announced an overwhelming vote of no-confidence in the top leadership, calling for a national search to replace the superintendent.

Now, those protesting parents and teachers say their complaints must go further than Nicoll’s office.

“It was kind of, ‘We have this one big enemy; we’ve got to get Dr. Nicoll out,’ ” explained Kay Sandlan, a member of an informal coalition of about two dozen parents concerned about the district. “OK, that happened, but now what do we do? Now we have to figure out where the district truly wants to go and how to get there. It is a big task.”

The school board plans to begin looking for Nicoll’s replacement immediately.

Trustees will meet with Dick Montgomery of the California School Boards Assn. Jan. 6 to discuss the search process. They also plan to hire an interim superintendent to relieve Berg, perhaps as early as Jan. 12.

Parents and teachers said their largest concern is that the search committee--and the new superintendent--is receptive to community input.

“If (the school board is) serious about opening up the process to all involved, then I think we will have a new beginning,” said Mike Marino, who chairs the social studies department at Corona del Mar High School. “If they make the decision themselves, I’m not nearly as confident.”

Marino and others said Newport-Mesa’s new leader should be a good communicator with a strong fiscal background and classroom experience.

“We must seek someone who has an understanding of the need for teachers and parents to be part of the equation,” said Karen Evarts, a mother of three who has been active in the schools for nearly two decades. “I think parents and teachers have felt stifled. We certainly have not felt part of the process.”

Fewel said she wants a superintendent “whose No. 1 priority is the classroom.”

“I’m tired of sending people off on trips and conferences and empire-building within the administration,” she said. “I’m looking for somebody who really wants to focus on the classroom, the teachers and aides and the kids.”