EDITORIAL: The story of NIC tragedy in 11 chapters

Thanks to three incompetent trustees at the wheel, North Idaho College is speeding down the road to disaccreditation.

And like a social media play-by-play broadcaster, Dan Gookin is documenting every gut-wrenching mile of the race.

You already know that Gookin is a member of the Coeur d’Alene City Council. Less known is that he wrote the first “for dummies” book and more; he now has more than 11 million copies in print, published in 32 languages.

That “for dummies” expertise has prepared him well to describe what’s happening at NIC, although he’d be the first to acknowledge that there is no rational explanation for the destruction being wrought by trustees Todd Banducci, Greg McKenzie and Mike Waggoner.

Creator of a series of always potent and sometimes hilarious political videos called Kootenai Rants, Gookin has unleashed 11 mini-documentaries over the past two-plus weeks called On the Road to Disaccreditation. Its stars, and we use that term loosely, are McKenzie, Banducci and Waggoner.

Episodes last from roughly 3 to 12 minutes. Gookin posted the most recent video, Part 11, on Wednesday. It is 8 minutes and 44 seconds of genius unleashed: https://bit.ly/3vrm6Rf

“The three North Idaho College trustees ‘rated and vetted’ by the local GOP are supposed to be ‘conservatives.’ Yet they're spending money faster than the US Congress! What about accreditation? Never mind,” Gookin writes in the video’s teaser.

In Part 11, Gookin casts the three trustees in the stunning roles of big spenders on wholly unnecessary items — largely at taxpayer expense — against the backdrop of the college’s very survival being completely ignored. Together, McKenzie, Banducci and Waggoner are “opening the budget,” in their words, to pay for two presidents, add women’s wrestling and further invest in athletics.

Meantime, a Jan. 4 deadline is bearing down on trustees to explain why the guillotine of accreditation revocation should not come slashing down on NIC’s neck. But Todd, Greg and Mike are too busy whipping out the taxpayers’ checkbook and licking their chops over women’s wrestling to worry about something as minor as that.

Use the link above or go to your browser and type in Kootenai Rants for the full series of On the Road to Disaccreditation. But be prepared.

You’re not going to simply receive accurate analysis of logic-defying, vomit-inducing malpractice. With Gookin beside you, you’ll be witnessing institutional homicide, knowing there might not be a darned thing you can do now to prevent it.