Runner Goes To Mayor With Complaint, Coach Suspended

MANCHESTER – An award-winning Central High School track coach has been temporarily suspended pending an investigation into whether she bullied a member of the girls’ cross country team.

The move has prompted outrage from nearly 50 parents, some of whom showed up at the Board of School Committee meeting on Monday to lend their support for the coach.

School Board member and Athletic Committee Chairman Steve Dolman said Coach Kelly Feibel Fox had been suspended and was under investigation. He did not give any more details because it is a personnel matter. Superintendent of Schools Thomas Brennan would not confirm or deny the suspension.

Manchester Education Association President Scott McGilvray said the union has begun working with Fox during the investigation. While they are watching the matter, “there’s nothing at this point to grieve over,” said McGilvray.

Fox coaches girls’ cross country, winter track and track and field.

She also teaches physical education at Central High School. She was named New Hampshire Cross Country and Track and Field Coach of the Year in 2009, and was a track standout as a student at Londonderry High School and the University of New Hampshire. When contacted yesterday, Fox declined to comment.

McGilvray said although Fox was suspended from coaching, she was not removed from her teaching post.

“This is a little unusual,” he said. “I’ve been coaching in the district for more than 20 years and I’ve never heard of anything like this.”

He would not elaborate on what prompted the suspension, but said the school district’s investigation was expected to be completed by today.

Parents of the girls’ cross country team members said teammate Elizabeth Conway made the complaint against Fox after the runner was suspended from an upcoming meet, but that the details of the incident, the suspension and the investigation have been kept under wraps.

“It’s all sort of shrouded in mystery,” said Melanie Martel, a cross country team parent.

Parents have also taken issue with Conway bringing the complaint to Mayor Ted Gatsas’ office, calling it in a letter to Brennan an “extremely disconcerting that the normal process for student-athlete concerns about coaches was not followed.”

“What we’ve heard is that the student went into the mayor’s office and talked to the mayor, who talked to the superintendent and within days she (Fox) was suspended from coaching. Not from teaching, but from coaching,” Martel said. “We were told the kids were not allowed to speak with her (Fox) and the parents were not supposed to contact and speak with her except to send her general wishes of good support through the athletic director.”

Fox was suspended last week and did not attend the Manchester Cross Country Championships on Tuesday. Some of the supporters at the meet were seen wearing Central High School T-shirts that said, “I run for Coach Fox.”

More than two dozen Fox supporters also showed at the Board of School Committee meeting this week, submitting a letter signed by 45 parents of current and past Central track team members, including Central boys’ basketball coach David “Doc” Wheeler and the parents of former Central track star Arianna Vailas.

“Coach Fox repeatedly demonstrates extraordinary caring for the student-athletes on her teams both on and off the field, regardless of their athletic ability,” the letter said. The letter also asked the investigation be done quickly because the suspension is “extremely harmful to the student athletes.”

Martel said she was not aware that Conway’s teammates have had any problems with the runner, but parents Dina and Michael Conway have intervened in the past with school officials regarding situations involving their three children in the Manchester School District. Others interviewed would not say this on the record, but one school official who spoke on condition of anonymity said this was the case.

Mark McCue, partner at the law firm Hinkley, Allen and Snyder, told the school board parents had requested a meeting with the superintendent but were denied.

“As a lawyer in my 26th year of practice, I respect the need for and value of due process, but I also understand that process can be abused by individuals who use it to threaten, rather than protect,” he said after reading portions of the letter into the record. “How sad it is that our daughters, upon learning of our presentation tonight, expressed a jaded resignation that nothing positive will come of our efforts. It is our desire to work together with the school system to show our children that fairness and justice can prevail — and that their interests are paramount.”

A call to the Conway home requesting comment was not returned yesterday.