After Difficult Start, Fox Feels ‘Strong As An Ox’

Her first 23 days in office were the toughest of state Schools Superintendent Anne Fox’s life.

She was crafting a budget, learning the names of legislators, superintendents and 112 school districts. She was hiring and firing Idaho Department of Education employees, and through it all, praying.

“They were the worst days I’ve ever been through and the most challenging. I never thought I couldn’t do it, but I can honestly tell you I don’t think I ever prayed any harder for help.”

Aid came soon after that, Fox says.

“We had over 400 phone calls and I couldn’t handle the help that came because I prayed to God and then they all showed up.”

Fox, 53, has since toughened up, and says she now is “feeling strong as an ox” after finally adapting to life in Boise.

“I feel like I’m doing great. I feel like I have more energy than I ever have in my life.”

But it has not been easy. Fox’s friends and extended family are in Coeur d’Alene and her office affords little time for the leisure activities she enjoys, such as dancing, swimming and horseback riding.

“I would say its 99 percent work in Boise,” says Fox, “and there is no time that people don’t recognize me here, so there’s no anonymity.

“That’s hard to adjust to because to grocery shop, even if I go at 12 at night, everybody wants to talk to me. I finally just gave up and decided I’d go grocery shopping when I want to talk.”

During the summer she bicycled 10 miles every day to relieve stress. Now she walks the underground tunnel in Boise’s Capitol Mall at noon and chews gum - tenaciously. Friends tease that her noisy habit tells them it’s her from across the parking lot.