The three candidates backed by Save NIC swept the North Idaho College Board of Trustees races.

The victory is a clear sign that their message of maintaining accreditation at the college landed with Kootenai County voters.

• Eve Knudtsen bested incumbent Greg McKenzie with 55.7% of the vote to McKenzie’s 44.3%.
• Rick Durbin won 52.3% of the vote to William Lyons’ 47.8%.
• The closest race was between retired teacher Mary Havercroft with 51.2% to recent Oregon transplant Michael Angiletta’s 48.8%.

The three trustee-elects will officially take over at the November 20 board of trustees meeting. They will. have just a few weeks to address concerns from the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities before the commission reached a decision on NIC’s accreditation status.

The central issue standing in the way of retaining accreditation, an evaluation report released last week maintained, has been good governance. The college has until the April United States Department of Education deadline to return to good standing with the NWCCU.

McKenzie, Lyons and Angiletta were endorsed by the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee and ran on a platform of “Make NIC Great Again.” 

As a group, the KCRCC candidates didn’t see governance as the main issue. Instead, they say the NWCCU’s push for diversity, equity and inclusion is at the heart of the accreditation battle.

Knudtsen, Havercroft, and Durbin argued a loss of accreditation would put the school in jeopardy. Their main goal for running was to retain accreditation and continue educational opportunities proper for North Idahoans. 

Knudtsen woke up Wednesday morning and started getting ready for work, like most other days as she said she got dressed had her time with God.

“I’m thanking him for all the blessings that he has bestowed on me and now what he has done for our college,” Knudtsen said.

Knudtsen said she’s ready to work hard the next few weeks to prove to the NWCCU that the new board is capable of good governance. The NWCCU is set to make a decision on NIC’s status at their January meeting.

Durbin said Wednesday morning the three new trustee-elects are excited to work with the current board minority to resolve accreditation issues.

“Just super blessed to have the opportunity to serve NIC,” Durbin said. “I’m excited to roll up our sleeves and get to work.”

Havercroft said she was “on a high” after the final results came in Wednesday morning before thanking her supporters. She too noted she expects to work well with the current board minority.

“I just think that we’re going to be able to work well together and we’re going to be able to get a lot of things done,” Havercroft said.

The candidates endorsed by the KCRCC did not immediately respond to request for comment Wednesday morning.

Chair of the central committee, Brent Regan, touted the KCRCC’s success on election night, with candidates the party endorsed winning 25 out of 28 races. The three NIC trustee races were the exception.

“I am very proud of the candidates and the campaigns they ran,” Regan wrote in an email. “I wish the new NIC Trustee elects all the best and look forward to North Idaho College continuing on its current upward trajectory.”

Christa Hazel, who helped found the advocacy group Save NIC,  was thrilled with the results.

“We had a clear concise message that our college matters and that we had just been subjected to drama, excess spending,” she said.”I’m just really pleased that our voters chose to save North Idaho College.”

With the newly elected trustees to take the helm in just two weeks, Hazel said, she hopes they can resolve governance concerns from the NWCCU.  She harkened back to 2022 when McKenzie and former trustees Todd Banducci and Mike Waggoner took the majority and held four meetings in the month of December.

“Things can happen quickly,” she said.

The evaluation report released last week said morale on campus showed “tentative” improvement but no one interviewed thought the trajectory of good governance was sustainable. With this election, that changes, Hazel said.

“Inexperience and partisan agendas is what brought NIC to the brink,” she said. “We don’t have that with the new board majority we just elected.”

The candidates

Zone 3: Durbin v. Lyons

Durbin, 54, graduated from Post Falls High School before going on to NIC on a wrestling scholarship. He received his associate’s degree before continuing on to the University of Idaho.

He and his wife have three adult children and seven grandchildren. Their oldest son is an NIC graduate while their middle son is a student at the college. 

Durbin is running solely due to the accreditation issue, he said. 

“I believe the dysfunction by the board majority has really put us in a tough spot,” Durbin said. “Their role is of course to manage and hold accountable the president, approve budgets and policy. It’s really that simple.” 

Lyons moved to Idaho five years ago after a career as an account manager in the Los Angeles area, according to his candidate page on the KCRCC website. 

He is a lifelong Republican who said he became involved as a volunteer in the KCRCC as soon as he moved to the area. 

“I am running because the NIC is moving in a very ‘Left Wing’ style, and I feel the Board of trustees needs to take a more constrictive style of rule with current NIC operations,” Lyons wrote on his candidate page. 

Zone 4: Knudtsen v. McKenzie

Knudtsen, 61, knows the need for a skilled workforce in the area as the owner of Knudtsen Chevrolet, which NIC has provided her business and others like it. 

“I’m running because North Idaho College is a really highly functioning college but it needs to get returned to full accreditation,” she said. “If we were to lose accreditation we would be on the brink of closure.” 

Knudtsen has raised nearly $30,000, by far the most out of all the NIC trustee candidates. Her opponent, McKenzie, has raised just over $1,500.

McKenzie, 37, moved to North Idaho in 2013 from San Diego to raise his young children. He is an engineer for the U.S. Navy while his wife homeschools their children, according to his KCRCC website. He was first elected to the board of trustees in 2020. 

Zone 5: Havercroft v. Angiletta 

Havercroft, 71, spent most of her career at the Lakeland School District in Rathdrum, first as an elementary school teacher, then in the central office as the special services director, and then as a school administrator. 

She dealt with policy and budgets, especially when it came to managing the district’s special education program. 

She’s now retired along with her husband, who was also a longtime teacher and coach at the high school. She spent the last few years helping with her grandchildren but always knew that she wanted to find a way to volunteer. 

When NIC governance issues came to light, she felt it was the right time to step up. 

“A couple years ago the board was in a very good place to resolve the accreditation issue and I think that people just need to understand that accreditation is just a normal part of education institutions,” she said.

Angiletta, 54, moved to Idaho in 2021 to start a family with his wife. He touts his experience as a business owner and small business coach, along with his prior work as an executive in large companies and the experience NIC needs. 

Angiletta does some of that business coaching at NIC’s Workforce Training Center which he told The Spokesman-Review he considers volunteering, even though “they insist on paying.” He also said in that interview that defending accreditation is still the top priority.

Angiletta founded Secure Idaho Elections, an organization that has vocally opposed Proposition 1, which would create an open primary election and establish ranked-choice voting in general elections. 

“I’m running because I am fighting for my children’s future. NIC’s focus should be vocational in nature, ensuring students are prepared for specific trades, with an emphasis on practical skills and job-specific training,” Angiletta wrote on his KCRCC candidate page.