Look here first, NIC

President Priscilla Bell has given North Idaho College trustees more than a year to find her replacement.

While that activity won't begin to hit high gear until autumn, we'd like to respectfully suggest something to the college's governing board.

Look close and spend less before looking far and spending more.

According to NIC officials, the next couple of months will be devoted to reviewing the president's job description, working on the vacancy announcement and researching prospective firms to help with a national search.

The search that ultimately landed Dr. Bell from next-door Washington was a protracted and relatively expensive endeavor. Total cost was $64,642, college officials tell us, and a similar expense is expected this time around.

We fully understand that the process in place is typically the way things are done at the community college and university level. But does that make them the best ways for NIC?

If the plans now in place are followed, a search firm will be hired in October or November, and a local search committee will be selected in January. Campus visits would be scheduled in February and March, with the Board of Trustees making an offer in late spring. The next president would start in July 2012.

It could be done differently.

Why not prepare the job description now and announce the vacancy soon afterward in sources scoured by prospects nationwide? While the applications come flooding in from coast to coast, a local search committee could focus on the best applicants from our immediate region and, by end of summer, have winnowed down those prospects to the best two or three locally.

By early fall, the college's trustees, with assistance from the college's human resources department, could follow the same procedure with the national applicants. When that group is reduced to two or three finalists, vetting of all the finalists could then take place.

We see no downside to this approach and great possible upside - and not just because it would save money. Local and regional candidates would be given first priority, as they should be. The closer they are, the more likely they'll have a better sense of community and the college's place in it.

With the tenure of college presidents often lasting just five or six years, just long enough to qualify for retirement benefits, why waste a year, two years or three years on orientation and acclimation? If nothing else, the pool of local talent would establish a baseline for greater expectations. And who knows? The best president yet might be right under our noses.