MY TURN: KCRCC to blame for problems at NIC
North Idaho College is in trouble ever since the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee decided to politicize local boards, including school boards, city councils and the NIC board of trustees.
KCRCC's ultimate goal is to gain control of all the elected positions in Kootenai County, giving them ultimate power. KCRCC flooded the county with flashy mailbox flyers influencing a majority of the citizens. They send out their glossy flyers before each election, and put in the newspaper which people to vote for.
As we know many people don't have the time or inclination to research and follow what's happening politically. They vote for the people their leader suggests.
This has caused so much trouble in our county affecting NIC negatively. Before KCRCC and its extremists moved here, people served because they wanted to volunteer their time to better their community. Now especially at NIC, the board members sponsored by the KCRCC want power and want to run everything. They aren't happy having presidents like MacLennan and Swayne who are good presidents and stick up for what is right for the college. So Banducci, McKenzie and Waggoner fire them or put them on leave until their newly hired overpaid attorney, Art Macomber, can find something in President Swayne's contract that they can use as a firing offense.
This has caused so much turmoil at the school. It also has caused the college to lose or have to pay millions of dollars. There have been three votes of "No Confidence" for these three board members by faculty and students at the college.
The three trustees mentioned above have hired interim presidents twice that they can control. This has caused great concern about the school losing accreditation. In the past few months, those three trustees stated that accreditation was not so important and NIC would never lose it. The newly hired interim president is saying accreditation is serious. He is trying to smooth the things over that these same trustees have caused.
After causing all of this upheaval. They now want us to believe they can fix it. The only fix that would work is that Banducci, McKenzie and Waggoner need to resign or a recall needs to happen. The lawsuits currently going on might save the school but it might be too late.
It is ironic that the taxpayers of Kootenai County have to pay attorney Art Macomber $325 an hour and have already paid him $25,000 for December so he can learn about Idaho meeting and educational law. The only reason they hired him is that he is someone who will do the bidding for the three board members. In essence, we are paying to help NIC fail.
If the three board members would just relent and go back to the way it was when they gained power again this last election, they would have Dr. Swayne as the president. They would not waste all that money paying an interim president with his new hires and flunky attorney trying to save accreditation. The faculty and student body would be happy and NIC could make progress again.
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Don and Diann Wilhelm are residents of Rathdrum.