A race for select few

Maybe the horses are lining up behind the scenes, ready to break out at the beginning of the race. But just in case there are several qualified fence-sitters out there, undecided about running for one of three North Idaho College Board of Trustees seats up for grabs, we hope to entice you to get into the game.

As it stands now, the game is this: Nobody has announced her or his intentions to pursue seats held by Judy Meyer, Mic Armon and Ron Vieselmeyer. That probably shouldn't be alarming, but because the filing deadline is so close - Aug. 31, one week from Friday - we didn't want to assume the first horserace scenario. Those who decide to jump into the fray can anticipate spending a lot of time and perhaps even money trying to convince voters of their worthiness as candidates. And for the three who succeed, four years of meetings, intensive study, social functions and conflict resolution await. Oh, did we forget to mention that those who serve in this capacity are paid nothing?

But that doesn't mean the job is void of reward. When you're one of five trustees for your community college, you accept responsibility for several critical elements of improving your community specifically and society more generally.

One of them is to ensure taxpayers and those paying for an education get their money's worth. That's no small task in today's challenge-filled world. While taxpayers rightly clamor for sound investment of their hard-earned dollars, trustees must strive to maintain and even improve the college's high standards on academics and training. You already know that competition for good jobs is more fierce than most of us alive today had previously known, and with the astonishing increase of tuition and fees at most colleges and universities, the onus sits firmly on NIC and its community college brethren to prepare students for the next step as inexpensively and expertly as possible. Nowadays you don't just need a piece of parchment that says you attained a certain level of achievement or proficiency. You need to augment that parchment with a proven ability to succeed, and if you can do that without a load of debt hanging over your head, you truly are pointed in the direction of happiness.

Not to be lost on the trustee priority list is the ability to bridge the college's many roles and goals with those of the community. Show us a community college that effectively trains and prepares students for today's and tomorrow's local jobs, and we'll show you a college that will fit hand in glove with its community.

So who's up for the challenge? Go to the Kootenai County Elections Office at 1808 N. Third St. in Coeur d'Alene or to the NIC Office of Resource Management, Lee-Kildow Hall Room 111, for a candidacy declaration form.