NIC's accreditation crisis, by the numbers

COEUR d’ALENE — One year after an attempt by the board majority at North Idaho College to oust President Nick Swayne, the college remains under a show-cause sanction, the last step before loss of accreditation.

Though the turmoil can be traced back to 2020, it was decisions made in December 2022 that led to the sanction from NIC’s accreditor, the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities.

It’s hard to gauge the full impact of NIC's accreditation troubles on current and prospective students, college staff and faculty and on the community that has relied on NIC for 90 years.

The financial cost is easier to calculate. 

Legal bills

When the board majority voted last December to place Swayne on indefinite administrative leave for no disciplinary reason, it kicked off a flurry of lawsuits, including Swayne’s successful bid for reinstatement.

NIC has paid $511,404 to multiple attorneys and law firms as of Dec. 15. The bulk of the legal bills — $227,127 over the last year — were paid to ESIS, the college’s insurer, which assigned attorneys Kelly Drew and Brittany Adams to represent NIC in four separate lawsuits.

The college also hired two different attorneys since December 2022.

A year ago, NIC trustees Todd Banducci, Greg McKenzie and Mike Waggoner voted to hire Art Macomber as college attorney.

Macomber’s initial rate was $325 per hour. He later increased his hourly rate to $400 per hour, citing criticism from the public over his work at NIC. The college’s previous legal counsel billed at a rate of $200 per hour.

As of Dec. 15, the college has paid Macomber $174,144.

In late August, the board voted 3-2 to hire attorney D. Colton Boyles at a rate of $275 per hour. Boyles had no prior experience in education law and scored lowest out of four applicants for the position.

NIC has paid Boyles $54,120 in the four months since his hiring.

Following his successful lawsuit for reinstatement, a Kootenai County judge ordered NIC to pay Swayne $151,316.24 in attorney fees and costs. Because legal counsel for the college failed to object to Swayne’s motion for fees and costs within the statutory time frame, the court determined NIC waived any objection to paying.

The struggle over Swayne’s reinstatement is not quite over.

After a Kootenai County judge ordered NIC to reinstate Swayne while his case worked through the system, NIC attempted to have the order reversed and later agreed not to fight Swayne’s reinstatement anymore. But in August, NIC filed an appeal with the Idaho Supreme Court.

NIC was also ordered to pay $18,969.69 in attorney fees and costs to The Coeur d’Alene Press, after the newspaper successfully sued over public records requests the college unlawfully denied. The court ordered NIC to produce a number of employment contracts, including those of employees hired by former interim president Greg South, as well as several unredacted invoices from college legal counsel.

The college recently settled a lawsuit with Mike Gridley that challenged the validity of the contract between NIC and attorney Art Macomber, as well as that of Greg South. The terms of the settlement aren’t publicly known.

Still in play is a new lawsuit filed by Swayne, which alleges the college violated Idaho’s public records laws by denying his request for a copy of an investigate report he says involves allegations against him by another NIC employee. A hearing in the matter is scheduled for Dec. 29.

NIC paid $56,013.08 to Spokane-based firm Randall Danskin to investigate the personnel matter and produce the report, according to the college.

Though the report was completed in October, the board has yet to take action on its contents and it remains unavailable to the public.

The cost of two presidents

Since last December, the college has paid an estimated $368,250 to former interim president Greg South.

He was on the job for just 75 days before trustees complied with a court order to reinstate Swayne and placed South on paid administrative leave, where he has remained ever since.

South’s 18-month contract, which runs through June 2024 with an option to extend it, contains a number of financial perks, as well as a hefty payout if the board terminates him without cause before the contract is up. The payout is equivalent to 12 months of South’s base pay of $235,000.

If the board terminates South for cause, he will be paid his annual base salary for the remainder of the term or for three months, whichever is less.

“Given the current NIC and community environment,” the contract says, South received a $35,000 signing bonus. He also received up to $27,000 to cover moving expenses, as well as a $3,000 monthly housing allowance worth $36,000 per year.

During a recent visit to NIC’s campus, some board members revealed to accreditors that they’ve kept South waiting in the wings to replace Swayne.

“These board members stated that they did not support Dr. Swayne as a permanent president and that the rationale behind not negotiating a termination of Dr. South’s contract was, indeed, so that the board could reinstate Dr. South as president in the event that Dr. Swayne’s contract could be terminated,” accreditors wrote in a peer evaluation report published in November.

But the board expressed a different sentiment Dec. 20, after a closed session where trustees discussed Gridley’s lawsuit.

“The board of trustees would like to announce that it has no intent to remove Dr. Swayne as president of North Idaho College,” board chair Mike Waggoner said during the Dec. 20 meeting. “That’s the official position of the board.”

Swayne’s annual pay is $230,000. He also receives a $2,500 monthly housing allowance and reimbursement of “reasonable, actual expenses” associated with his move to Idaho. The college’s retirement contribution for Swayne is 10% of his base pay, or $23,000.

“This is outrageous,” Banducci said of Swayne’s contract in a July 2022 board meeting, six months before approving South’s more lucrative contract. “This is a gold-plated contract. The public needs to know.”

Accreditation costs

Site visits from accreditors and travel necessitated by the show cause sanction have cost NIC approximately $62,621.78 since last December.

Evaluators from the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities have visited NIC twice in the last year, during which they met with Swayne, the trustees, college staff and faculty, NIC students and others.

NIC incurred costs from the visits. The April 26 and 27 visit cost the college $27,000, which includes expenses such as travel costs and hotel fees for the peer evaluation team. The second site visit this year, which occurred Oct. 29 through Nov. 1, cost $24,500.

In June, six NIC representatives, including Swayne and then-board chair Greg McKenzie, met with accreditors in Seattle for a hearing on the college’s accreditation.

The trip cost approximately $5,135 in total, according to NIC — $2,200 for airfare, $2,120 for hotels and $815 in miscellaneous expenses, such as meals and parking.

The show cause sanction has had a ripple effect. As a result of the sanction, the Joint Review Committee on Education in Radiological Technology conducted a required, unannounced site visit to NIC in February. JCERT is the accrediting body for NIC’s radiography technology program.

The site visit cost NIC $5,986.78, which includes a $2,500 consultation fee, as well as other costs associated with the visit, such as airfare, baggage fees, hotel costs and meals for the two visiting consultants.

Evaluators from JCERT found NIC’s program to be in substantial compliance with all standards, the highest possible finding, but noted the actions of trustees have “potentially compromised the institution’s accreditation status, indicating a lack of support for the program at the institutional level.”

Board training

Since December 2022, North Idaho College has paid $69,031.02 to the Association of Community College Trustees, a nonprofit educational organization of governing boards. The payments to ACCT include the cost of board training, as well as trainer travel.

NIC’s accreditor has acknowledged the board’s continued training on appropriate and effective governance with ACCT consultants, but noted in the fall 2023 peer evaluation report that the college has not yet demonstrated “an effective governance structure” and lacks “a functioning governing board responsible for the quality and integrity of the institution.”

Both elements are part of the accreditation standards NIC must meet.