SCHOOL BOARD NAMES INTERIM CHIEF.

Byline: Douglas Clark Daily News Staff Writer

Albert ``Bud'' Marley, the former chief of Las Virgenes schools, was hired late Thursday as interim superintendent of the Simi Valley Unified School District.

Marley's appointment was announced after a special school board meeting. He will start July 1 at a salary of $519 per day.

``He's a good administrator and our top-level management people know him and think very highly of him,'' said Simi school board President Norman Walker.

Walker said that it would be unlikely that Marley would continue throughout the next school year. However, the board has set no specific date for choosing a permanent superintendent.

Marley, 65, retired in 1995 as superintendent of Las Virgenes Unified School District, where he had worked since 1984. He previously worked eight years as superintendent of the Ojai Unified School District.

Marley succeeds Tate Parker, who resigned last week after being placed on paid administrative leave June 4.

Parker negotiated a settlement with the school district under which he will receive his $108,000-a-year salary through Aug. 31, and health insurance through April 30. He also will receive $81,000 on Sept. 5.

Marley inherited dire budget and personnel problems when joined the Las Virgenes Unified School District in the mid-'80s. Yet at the time of his retirement, school board President Barbara Bowman-Fagelson praised him for ``guiding the district through some tough work.''

Strong guidance also will be needed in the Simi Valley school district, which has had three superintendents in the past 18 months.

Although the conditions of the Parker settlement restrict school board members from commenting on what went wrong, some sources who asked not to be named said Parker was inaccessible and autocratic.

Marley's career as an educator began in 1957 when he was hired as a sixth-grade teacher in Lovington Municipal Schools in Lovington, N.M. Subsequently, he served in various administrative capacities in the San Bernardino and Riverside school districts. He earned his doctorate in educational psychology from the University of Northern Colorado in 1964.

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Photo: Albert ``Bud'' Marley