Fewer Critics Hounding Fox After Rough Start, Superintendent Hitting Her Stride, Most Agree

Idaho Schools Superintendent Anne Fox is getting mixed marks for her first year in office.

There’s disagreement whether she has strayed from her conservative agenda, and criticism that she has not been an advocate for superintendents and teachers.

But Fox contends her early troubles were blown out of proportion and that she has remained true to her promises. And most observers agree she has landed on her feet after a disastrous first quarter and seems to be hitting her stride.

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Kathleen Gurnsey of Boise, who tangled with Fox early in the year, says the superintendent has mellowed.

Senate Education Committee Chairman Gary Schroeder of Moscow, an outspoken critic of Fox during her first month in office, says Fox’s team appears to be jelling.

“I think she got off to a very, very rocky start and some of that was her own fault and lack of political prowess,” says state Board of Education member Jerry Hess of Nampa. “But now that she has her feet on the ground she’s carving out some new channels that may prove fruitful. I do think she’s moderated and I think it’s good.”

After a tough start, Fox has largely stayed out of the limelight. But her critics maintain not much has changed.

“She has just learned to go underground,” says state Sen. Marguerite McLaughlin, D-Orofino. “She still goes ahead and does things that the board says it doesn’t want, such as building plans, and spends money that should be spent on children on foolish items like that.”

Earlier this month, the board and Fox clashed again over her move to develop generic architectural plans for schools. And Moscow School District Superintendent Jack Hill says teachers resent not being more involved with changes that could affect their classrooms.

“How can a state superintendent of public instruction ignore teachers and expect to be a leader in public education?” he asks.

But Idaho Education Association President Monica Beaudoin of Boise says Fox is more liberal than she thought.

“I really think she is different than what the campaign portrayed her. She really has an open mind to all of education,” Beaudoin says. “That hard-line conservative bloc I don’t believe is really her standard role. The real person I think is more on the liberal side.”

For her part, Fox maintains she has always been open-minded, but was painted by the media and the Idaho Education Association as an unyielding ultraconservative with antiquated ideas.

“The union started a major campaign against me and said what I wanted was so archaic,” Fox said.

She says gender also might have played a role in her problems. Others say it’s not that she’s a woman, but simply an outsider.

“Most of the turmoil came from her not knowing the system,’ said House Education Committee Chairman Ron Black. Now, however, she has learned how to accomplish her goals by working within the system, he says.

Others blame the media for Fox’s problems.

“She is just a person who had a vision for how things should be and that vision didn’t include the pettiness and negativism that has been published about her,” says Jack Kaufman of Boise, a University of Idaho education professor and former Fox ombudsman.

Gurnsey said she has noticed that after an early period of personnel turnover, many of Fox’s top assistants now also worked for her predecessor, Jerry Evans.

“I think I certainly give her an A for effort to try to get some credibility in the department,” Gurnsey said. “I still haven’t seen a lot of accomplishments, but I realize she thinks I am just as bad as I think she is. We just don’t agree, but who am I to criticize?”

Schroeder recently had dinner with Fox and her top assistants.

“We all understand it was a tumultuous first year. I think she has taken actions to correct the problems, whether it was her doing or not,” Schroeder said. “We are going to have disagreements, but we are hoping to handle them in a mature and professional manner.”

Her relationship with the Board of Education is still strained at times. Fox maintains it is unclear who does what, “so you are always going to have the board trying to hold more control over me as a public official.”

“We can tell the superintendent how that department is run, and we should do more of it,” board President Curtis Eaton of Twin Falls said. “She sees her role as superintendent as having control of the Department of Education. But under the statute she is the manager of the department under the direction of the board.”