Newport-Mesa to Name Interim Supt. of Schools : Education: Trustees plan to choose one of three candidates to head district temporarily and begin search for permanent selection at meeting tonight.

Trustees of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District plan to name one of three retired school superintendents as interim leader of the embattled district and launch a nationwide search for a permanent school chief at a public meeting tonight.

Supt. John W. Nicoll announced Dec. 26 that he will step down in April and will remain on medical leave until then.

Three candidates for the $474-a-day interim job spent an hour each meeting with the board in closed session Monday night. Tuesday, board members checked references and mulled over the interviews, hoping to announce their selection as early as tonight.

“We’re not looking for someone to come in and clean house, we’re looking for someone to come in to offer a stabilizing effect to the district and get our educational system going,” said acting school board President Roderick H. MacMillian.

The candidates are Wayne Butterbaugh, 71, who has been superintendent of four districts in Orange, Los Angeles and Ventura counties; Stan Corey, 67, who led the Irvine Unified School District for 15 years, and Francis Laufenberg, 71, who spent seven years as head of the Long Beach Unified School District.

Also at the 7 p.m. meeting, a representative from the California School Boards Assn. will outline a recommended process for the superintendent search and a parent-teacher group--formed since the district’s top financial officer was convicted of embezzling nearly $4 million--will tell what it is seeking in the next superintendent.

Discussing the choice for interim superintendent, board member Forrest K. Werner said the decision would be based on the “style of leadership . . . you want to bring into this interim situation. We had three different personalities, three different management styles, and probably three different approaches to serving as an interim person for us, and I thought that was refreshing.”

A resident of Long Beach, Butterbaugh began his career in Orange County as superintendent of an elementary school district in Stanton. Since then he has led unified school districts in Simi Valley, the Palos Verdes Peninsula and Conejo Valley in Ventura County, and has run the Southern California Regional Occupation Center, a vocational center in Torrance.

Corey is the only one of the three candidates who has served as head of a major Orange County school system and the only one who has been an interim superintendent. After retiring from Irvine in 1987, Corey spent a year filling in at the Saugus Union School District and six months as temporary head of the Orange Unified School District.

Laufenberg, who lives in Orange, has focused on school finance throughout his career. He became budget director of the Long Beach district, the state’s third largest, in 1960, and later was promoted to business manager before taking over that district’s top job. After he retired, Laufenberg served a four-year term on the State Board of Education.

All three have advanced degrees in educational administration from USC.

“You want somebody who will help you maintain your directional stability as a school district,” Werner said of the interim superintendent’s job. “They need to be a take-charge person without really taking charge--they can’t get a whole lot of projects going that later have to be undone. They can’t be a driver and an achiever and a doer because you’re going to hire somebody and the new guy may come along and not like anything (the interim) has done.”

All three candidates said they are interested in the Newport-Mesa post because it would be a challenge to get the district back on track after the embezzlement and the ensuing public outcry.

“It’s a form of masochism,” Corey joked, when asked why a retiree would want to entangle himself in such a mess. “That’s what leadership is for, to deal with difficult situations.”

Laufenberg said the Newport-Mesa job would add some spice to retired life. “When you spent your life in education you never cease to be interested in it,” he explained. “It’s kind of fun to deal with problems and resolve them.”

“I’m sure there are a lot of people with a lot of anxiety,” Butterbaugh said. “And I’m sure I could establish a strong morale there because I’m a strong believer in the cause of public education in this state.”

Also at tonight’s meeting, Richard Montgomery, California School Board Assn. assistant executive director, will spend about an hour reviewing a flow chart that details the superintendent search process.

Montgomery, who wants to be hired as a private consultant to head the search, will suggest that board members pay a search firm to canvass candidates nationwide and also form an advisory committee of teachers, parents, students and community leaders to interview candidates.

MacMillian said he expects several search firms to make proposals to the board this month, and that the board will hire a permanent superintendent by June.