NIC: Trust in trio eroding

Three of the elected NIC Trustees decided to eliminate a recently instituted policy of requiring face coverings. The policy was not instituted by one person but resulted from a thorough evaluation by staff.

The policy states:

“While not the least bit desirable, we know, based on information from state and local health experts, that wearing face coverings improves our chances of being able to stay open this fall.”

We expect any school be it college or others to both educate and protect our children. Bringing any illness home from school which then spreads through the family is never welcome.

We are told by the trustee chair that “We’ve got people waiting to see how this meeting unfolded,” Todd Banducci said. “It’s critical.” Really? How many and why?

The chair and two other trustees voted to rescind the requirement without any actual discussion or facts. Is this the type of decisions we elect these trustees to make? If it is, then perhaps we need to elect more caring or simply smarter people.

Rescinding any public policy you don’t want without any logical reason is unacceptable. We all need to join these meetings, even online.

Eyes on the elected officials tells us who shouldn’t be there. Now this gang of three is going after a perfectly capable and qualified school administrator. Let’s stop this nonsense now. Make our voices of reason heard. Facts matter; so do masks.

The NIC Board of Trustees met in special session on Tuesday, Aug. 31 and tabled the agenda, which included President MacLennan’s contract review until their scheduled Sept. 22 meeting.

PHIL WARD

Coeur d’Alene