NEWPORT BEACH COSTA MESA : Administrator Will Leave School District

School officials announced Tuesday night that Assistant Supt. Thomas A. Godley will leave the district next month to become the superintendent at the San Marino School District.

Godley is the second top administrator in recent weeks to signal an intention to leave the district. Earlier this month, Assistant Supt. Carol Berg accepted a job in Sacramento with a private consulting firm.

Godley will assume his new responsibilities on March 27, while Berg is not officially leaving until summer.

“This has always been a career goal of mine,” Godley said. “I leave the district with mixed emotions. I have a lot of good memories.”

Supt. Mac Bernd said that he has made no moves to replace either Godley or Berg, and will await the results of a curriculum audit before moving in that direction.

“You don’t want to rush into this,” Bernd said, adding that Godley “has done an outstanding job. It is a wonderful opportunity for him.”

Godley began his career in education as an English teacher in 1968 in Bellflower. From there, he went to the Garden Grove school district, and also served as an assistant principal at a high school in Paramount.

He then moved to administrative positions at Saddleback High School and the Fullerton Joint Union High School District, before joining the Newport-Mesa Unified School District in 1989 as assistant superintendent.

At the Newport-Mesa district, Godley was thrust into the center of the $4-million embezzlement scandal involving former district budget director Stephen A. Wagner, who is now serving a six-year state prison sentence. Godley headed the district’s internal investigation into the intricacies of the embezzlement scheme, and was given the responsibility of getting the district’s finances back in order.

He was also one of the top district leaders targeted in an overwhelming vote of no confidence by the district’s teachers in December, 1992.

Godley said he feels comfortable leaving the district for a better position, because the district’s finances are now “on solid ground.”

“He took a lot of shots,” board President Edward H. Decker said of Godley. “He took a no-confidence vote, and didn’t whimper. He took corrective action and got something done.”

Since the scandal erupted, the top three administrators in place during the embezzlement scheme--Godley, Berg and retired Supt. John W. Nicoll--have either left the district or announced plans to leave.