Superintendent Out To Trap Fox Hill Wants To Form Coalition To Bypass State Superintendent

Moscow School District Superintendent Jack Hill is tired of trying to work with state Schools Superintendent Anne Fox, and he wants to form a coalition to work around her.

“I think at first everyone said, ‘Give her some time; maybe she’ll come around,”’ Hill said Friday. “But that hasn’t happened and it’s time we do something.”

He has mailed letters to education leaders and newspapers around the state asking them to form a coalition to represent education needs.

“Together we have more credibility and power than any one of us alone possesses,” Hill wrote. “The State Superintendent may be playing questionable politics with our children’s future. We can no longer afford to sit back quietly while public education is under attack.”

Hill said he does not want a confrontation with Fox. Instead, he wants a group to take concerns directly to the state Board of Education and the Legislature.

A Fox spokeswoman on Friday labeled Hill’s efforts shortsighted and out of touch with the majority in Idaho. Rhonda Edmiston said Fox’s office has reached out to all educational groups and has consistently worked to keep them involved in decisions.

Edmiston also said she was dismayed that Hill would take the step without first requesting time to speak to Fox about his concerns.

“He’s never once called this office and asked to discuss specific issues, and his letter doesn’t even mention any specifics,” she said. “I think he just likes to stab people in the back without taking the time to talk to them.”

A recent Associated Press survey of local school superintendents found that significantly more are confident in Fox’s ability to manage the Education Department than a year ago. But a clear majority of superintendents representing the state’s 112 school districts still lacks confidence in her, and even more say they would not like to see Fox run for re-election.

Her rocky relationship with local school officials was not helped earlier this year when she told them she supported a 7-percent funding increase for public schools but then told legislative budget writers she would back Gov. Phil Batt’s proposal for a 3.9-percent hike.

Fox called it a political compromise, but some school officials felt betrayed. Hill said it helped convince him the coalition he proposes is needed.

Edmiston said she does not believe there is much dissatisfaction with the Education Department and that she and Fox are taking Hill’s actions with a grain of salt.

“It will be interesting to see what type of response he actually gets,” she said. “I think he’s digging his own grave.”