School Board Yet to Pick Superintendent : Education: Newport-Mesa Unified trustees may fly to Little Rock, Ark., for more research on one of the two finalists. The other contender is from Long Beach.

After hours of closed-door sessions earlier this week, the seven-member school board has yet to decide between two finalists for the superintendency of the troubled Newport-Mesa Unified School District.

Although some trustees had anticipated a decision being announced early this week, board President Roderick H. MacMillian said Wednesday that he doubted the board would choose a superintendent before Saturday. The board met in special session Monday and Tuesday.

“It’s a very serious matter for us. We want to make sure,” MacMillian said. “It’s a serious decision. The board and the community has taken this very seriously, spent hundreds of hours. . . . We want to get the board to totally understand what they’re doing. We want to do a thorough job.”

Having whittled down the field of 63 applicants to two, board members are now set to decide between Cloyde McKinley (Mac) Bernd, superintendent of schools in Little Rock, Ark., and Jerry Gross, one of five area superintendents of the Long Beach Unified School District.

Bernd, 49, was superintendent of San Marcos Unified, a small district in northern San Diego County, for six years before leaving for Little Rock last summer.

Gross, 53, has served as director of special education and legislative analyst during his 12 years in Long Beach. As an area superintendent in Long Beach, he now oversees 17 schools in the southeastern part of the city.

One of the two men will fill the slot vacated after 21 years by John W. Nicoll, who announced his retirement in December because of ailing health. The new superintendent will take over the district less than a year after its former top financial officer’s admission that he stole nearly $4 million in school funds to finance a lavish lifestyle.

Although Newport-Mesa trustees have already interviewed school board members in San Marcos as part of their review of Bernd, they may also fly to Arkansas to do more research, MacMillian said Wednesday.

During his year in Little Rock, Bernd has struggled with the federal court’s control of the district because of a desegregation ruling, and he has been criticized for his firing of a high school principal over sexual and financial misconduct. But Newport-Mesa board members said a trip to Little Rock would be part of routine research on finalists--and not tied to any specific questions or problems concerning Bernd’s application.

If board members feel they need to go to Little Rock, travel arrangements will be made at the last minute, and plane tickets might cost as much as $1,000 apiece. Trustees defended the idea of sending several people--as many as five might go--because board members have different questions, and a larger group could do its research more quickly.

“Our belief is that this information is so valuable, that it is important to have it firsthand,” said board member Edward H. Decker, who has led the superintendent search.

“We are not flying first class and staying in the Ritz-Carlton,” said trustee Forrest K. Werner, who does not plan to go to Little Rock himself. Board members “are going to stay in a modest hotel, because (they) are only going to get there and fall in bed and get up.”