Schools Chief Gets Better Grades
Our Miss Fox is doing better as Idaho superintendent of schools after a woeful start - some of which was media-manufactured, most of which was self-inflicted. Anne Fox fired some good people. Dated the wrong people. Drove the wrong car. Ninety of 105 school superintendents surveyed by The Associated Press after her first months in office either had no confidence in Fox or withheld judgment on her. Those numbers have improved somewhat in a second AP poll conducted recently. The number of superintendents who have confidence in Fox’s ability to manage the Department of Education has increased from 14 to 33. That’s still nothing to write home about. But Fox’s promotion of several respected professionals within the department has her on the right track - finally. Now, if she’ll swap her ‘50s prom hairdo for a ‘90s version, she’ll be on her way to re-election.
Are booze agents on too short a leash?
Most folks would agree that regulation of booze is a good thing. Businesses shouldn’t be allowed to sell it at all hours, to sell it to underage kids or to bootleg it. Yet, the Idaho Alcohol Beverage Control Bureau is so strapped for funds that agents are hamstrung in doing their jobs. Unbelievably, agents have been ordered to stay in their offices every other week to save money on gas and other travel and vehicle expenses, to eliminate overnight travel and training and to cut night shifts from four to only one per month so the bureau can avoid reimbursing them for dinner. Now, I appreciate a bureaucracy operating a tight ship, but this is foolishness. Why is the agency so pinched now when it has had eight months to absorb the 2 percent budget cuts ordered by Gov. Phil Batt? Is this poor management? Or are we cutting bone, not fat? The governor’s office needs to find out.
Retirement came too soon for local hero
If anyone ever has deserved a Sweet Potato Pie, it’s Roger Hansen, the guiding light behind Project CDA, Coeur d’Alene’s alternative school. Stories abound about how he has been able to reach kids society had written off and turn them around into productive model citizens. He was a surrogate dad to many. A tough disciplinarian. Independent (sometimes to the dismay of school administrators). In 1994, Reader’s Digest magazine recognized him as one of its 10 “American heroes in education” and followed up last year with a feature story on him and his program. The good that Roger did in his 18 years as director of Project CDA will reverberate for generations. Well done. , DataTimes MEMO: D.F. Oliveria’s “Hot Potatoes” runs Tuesdays and Thursdays. You can comment on the items by calling (800) 344-6718 or (208) 765-7125.