MY TURN: NIC governance crisis can be resolved Nov. 5
The risk of NIC losing accreditation is entirely due to poor and inexcusable decisions by the college board majority that included Greg McKenzie. NIC’s risk of losing accreditation started in 2021, a year after McKenzie was elected to the board.
Vote for Eve Knudtsen to replace McKenzie. She will return board control to leadership that will preserve North Idaho College as our community's greatest asset.
For decades, NIC has always been in good standing, financially sound and recognized as our community’s greatest treasure providing education and opportunity not only for Kootenai County, but across our region. Now the College faces the very real threat of losing accreditation (essential to its existence as a higher learning institution) because of bad decisions by three trustees, including McKenzie, who currently have the majority on the five-person board. These trustees typically ignore and/or reject any input from the other two trustees.
Many articles and columns have been written about NIC during the last several years. Several Voter Guides and election interviews have been publicized. What follows is a condensed, chronological recap of the facts surrounding NIC’s unchartered, tumultuous journey that began following the trustee election in November 2020.
NOVEMBER 2020: Greg McKenzie and David Barnes are elected, joining Todd Banducci to form a new board majority.
This election occurred in the middle of COVID with widespread disagreement over mask mandates and vaccines. Masking had nothing to do with the quality and soundness of NIC, or its stellar academic and workforce training programs. Yet, in a recent interview, Greg McKenzie summarized his tenure as trustee saying: “It has been an honor to be the voice of the people and bring back sanity to a place that is charged with teaching sanity, by eliminating the mask mandate imposed during COVID and regularly fighting vaccine mandates.” Vaccine mandates were never considered by the College and while many people disagreed with mask mandates at the time, the governance decisions affecting accreditation made by this bare majority were unrelated to COVID issues.
SEPTEMBER 2021: The board majority, over the objection of the other two trustees, fires then president, Rick MacLennan. The board majority replaced MacLennan with the College’s wrestling coach, who had no experience and arguably was unqualified for that role. MacLennan sued for breach of contract. The lawsuit was settled for $250,000. During that time, the college paid a salary to the interim president (the wrestling coach) and still had to pay out the remaining contract of approximately $250,000 for MacLennan.
JANUARY 2022: Barnes resigns as NIC trustee after his legal residency in South Dakota is exposed in the Cd'A Press. His resignation left a deadlocked board of trustees at 2:2.
APRIL 2022: NIC is sanctioned — given a formal warning by NWCCU — to correct certain issues along with board governance problems. (The NWCCU oversees NIC’s accreditation.)
MAY 2022: The deadlocked board cannot agree on hiring a new president. Two trustees resign, leaving only Banducci and McKenzie. With only two of five seats filled, the board lacked a quorum and under state law, the Idaho State Board of Education appointed three people to fill the vacancies until the next election.
McKenzie and Banducci filed suit to prevent the State Board from filling the vacancies and lost in court.
JULY 2022: Following community-wide involvement in a national search for a president, Nick Swaye is hired and begins working Aug. 1, 2022. Banducci and McKenzie both voted NO to hiring Swayne.
NOVEMBER 22: Board majority returns to McKenzie and Banducci with the election of Mike Waggoner. McKenzie becomes board chair.
Newly elected trustees Brad Corkill and Tarie Zimmerman begin serving as NIC’s board minority.
NOVEMBER-DECEMBER 2022: McKenzie, along with Banducci and Waggoner, commit multiple violations of open meeting laws, resulting in lawsuits being filed.
DECEMBER 2022: McKenzie, along with Banducci and Waggoner, breach a contract yet again by placing President Swayne on indefinite administrative leave. Swayne sues for breach of contract.
Dec. 17, 2022: NIC receives notice from the NWCCU that recent actions (like placing Swayne on paid administrative leave) are putting college at risk of losing accreditation.
Dec. 21, 2022: McKenzie, Banducci and Waggoner, over objections from Corkill and Zimmerman, hire Greg South as interim President, signing an 18-month contract with South at a cost of $400,000 for salary plus signing bonus, benefits and moving and housing allowances. Included in South’s contract was an additional payout penalty of $325,000 for early termination of the contract.
FEBRUARY 2023: NIC receives notice from NWCCU that its accreditation is officially at risk, not because of poor financial or academic problems, but because of decisions by the board.
MARCH 2023: The court orders Swayne’s reinstatement and states in part: “This was an attempted de facto termination of Dr. Swayne and it was not done in good faith.”
NIC continued to pay South $400,000 on his newly signed contract to avoid the penalty payment for early termination.
MARCH 2024: NWCCU cites NIC’s continuing lack of a functioning governing board that is responsible for the quality and integrity of the college. NIC has until April 2025 to resolve its board governance problems.
NOV. 5, 2024: The NIC trustee election is the most important race in our county this year. Vote Eve Knudsten to replace Greg McKenzie.
Thankfully Banducci and Waggoner are not running again. But who we vote for to replace them is critically important. We need to elect trustees who understand the college is currently at risk of losing its accreditation BECAUSE OF BAD BOARD GOVERNANCE.
Rick Durbin and Mary Havercroft unequivocally understand that bad board governance is why NIC’s accreditation is jeopardized. Their opponents, William Lyons and Michael Angiletta, not so much.
According to candidate responses in the Cd'A Press Voter’s Guide, when asked about their understanding of NIC’s current risk to accreditation:
William Lyons stated the college is “… well on a correct path addressing the issues before the April 2025 deadline.”
Rick Durbin, by contrast, replied: “The reason NIC is on show cause is due to the dysfunction and lack of leadership with the current board majority.”
Michaeal Angiletta, who doesn’t answer the question about how long he’s lived here, stated: “Here’s the good news: the college is thriving, particularly in student enrollment … the remaining hurdle to remove the show cause status is to exhibit exemplary board governance, involving both the Board of Trustees and the President.”
Mary Havercoft, a lifelong resident of Idaho, cuts to the chase: “If you read the accreditation report and documents from NWCCU, it is clear that show cause status is due to the inappropriate behavior of the Board and the unwillingness to work on recommendations towards improvement.”