CALABASAS : Longtime Schools Chief Is Retiring

Alice Stelle recalls the first handwritten note she received from Supt. Albert Marley, praising her for a job well done. She learned later that others, too, received the notes.

Such thoughtfulness, in Stelle’s mind, was key to Marley’s success and why he’d been able to help heal a rift between administrators and teachers in the Las Virgenes Unified School District.

“He cares about people and he appreciates what they do,” said Stelle, who founded the district.

After almost 12 years on the job, Marley will retire this summer, two years before his contract expires. The popular 63-year-old administrator, whose career as an educator has spanned five decades, says he and his wife, Jacque, want to get on with the rest of their lives.

He has spent the last few days saying goodby, at functions ranging from a 400-plate retirement dinner in Westlake Village to a quiet picnic lunch Monday in Calabasas Creek Park hosted by the Calabasas Historical Society.

Marley was hired in 1984 to sooth hard feelings between administrators and teachers, who were grumbling about a strike. Marley said he went to work right away, trying to establish trust and respect between the two sides.

“You have to believe in the worth of individuals and I think we have to tell people we believe in them,” Marley said.

The strike was averted and the two sides agreed to a three-year contract. Until then, teachers had been working year-to-year.

“He’s so well thought of that the entire community is going to miss him,” said Judy Jordan, vice president of the Board of Education.

But Marley’s carrer had some downs as well. In one instance, he suggested that male elementary teachers were effeminate. In another, he made a disparaging remark about people of Asian decent. He said he was misunderstood in both cases and school board members continued to stand behind him.

The board has been interviewing candidates to replace Marley, who says he will stay on until the new superintendent is in place. District officials say they expect to have someone hired by July.

Marley said he may teach part-time at the college level, but he has made no definite plans. He says he has no regrets about his career.

“If I had it to do all over again, I would do it all over again,” he said.