Board Studies Powers of Schools Chief

The school board held a special meeting Friday to discuss this question: How much power should be delegated to the superintendent?

Board President Norm Walker said the answer is especially crucial now as the board looks for a new superintendent to head the nearly 19,000-student Simi Valley Unified School District.

Albert “Bud” Marley took the post in July, when Tate Parker left town after a mysterious fallout with the board.

Though he hopes to stay for six months and work on a day-to-day contract, the semi-retired Marley told the board earlier in the summer that he would make decisions as though he were going to stay forever.

Marley’s decisions have upset some board members.

“Most superintendents have interpreted [the power the board delegates to them] as to be nonconfrontational,” Walker said.

“But I’m experiencing a new attitude here. That [Marley’s] attitude is, ‘No, I’m going to interpret the [rules] my way. I don’t need to talk to you.’ ”

Marley responded that the rules provide such a broad framework as to give him the jurisdiction to make certain decisions without the board’s yes or no on each subject.

“I very clearly acted within my power,” he said.

At the board’s Aug. 28 meeting, Walker and some of the other board members openly criticized Marley for giving Kathryn Scroggin, assistant superintendent of educational services, the freedom to revamp how instructors report to their supervisors without the board’s consent.

Other board members, however, liked the new system and didn’t have a problem with Marley’s take-charge approach to making changes. They said he worked within his legally proscribed power. Some teachers at the meeting voiced support for Marley. Hal Lipman, a former associate superintendent, worried that if the board strengthened its own power, it would attract a weak superintendent and produce “a formula for failure.”

But Walker said it is the board’s responsibility to the public to review and decide what goes on in the district, not the superintendent’s.

The board will interview search firms Sept. 26 to find a new superintendent.

The board also decided to meet with a facilitator for a group self-evaluation.