With three North Idaho College trustee seats on the ballot, next month’s election could put an end to the board’s years-long strife or send the college in a different direction.
After back and forth with the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, the region’s accrediting body, a lack of good governance is the last hurdle for the college to clear to retain accreditation.
Except one group of candidates doesn’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.
Incumbent Greg McKenzie and candidates William Lyons and Michael Angiletta, who are endorsed by the Kootenai Republican County Central Committee (KCRCC), are running on a platform of “Make NIC Great Again.”
Trustee candidates Eve Knudtsen, Mary Havercroft, and Rick Durbin argue a loss of accreditation would put the school in jeopardy. Their main goal for running is to retain accreditation and continue educational opportunities proper for North Idahoans.
Accreditation
The NWCCU team will visit NIC one last time this month, before the college hit its deadline to return to good standing. For about a year, NIC has operated under a show-cause sanction, the last step before losing accreditation entirely.
No college in Idaho has ever lost accreditation.
The Coeur d’Alene Press published a timeline of the events surrounding accreditation this week. Those events include the KCRCC faction firing former university president Rick MacLennan without cause and paying two new presidents at the same time, both of which led to lawsuits.
Knudtsen, Durbin and Havercroft promise to follow procedure and avoid decisions that result in lawsuits.
Meanwhile, KCRCC chair Brent Regan argued the root cause of the accreditation investigation is not poor governance but instead NWCCU trying to strongarm the college into adding diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
“Part of NWCCU’s mission, and listed as a core value (in French “coeur” translates to “heart” in English), is to promote ‘diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging, and social justice within the organization and among member institutions,’” Regan wrote in an email to EdNews this week. “DEI has demonstrated to have a corrosive, detrimental impact on the organizations that have embraced it.”
When asked to define DEI and why such policies are detrimental, Regan pointed to his recent column in the Coeur d’Alene Press as his answer. Conservative groups across the country have pushed to remove university DEI policies, that seek to increase inclusion and parity for marginalized groups.
He cites a 2021 complaint to the NWCCU by the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Rights, which criticizes the election of former Chair Todd Banducci and two other unnamed candidates who opposed programs like the school’s diversity council. Those candidates presumably were McKenzie and Michael Barnes, who resigned after questions about his residency. The majority of the letter, however, focuses on politicization and unprofessional behavior on the non-partisan board.
Regan said “attempts to remove DEI-inspired policies ” led the task force to file the complaint. He also argued that the NWCCU holds a monopoly over accreditation, which he opposes.
Regan said he would like Idaho laws to change to allow for multiple accrediting bodies. He did not say whether or not he would like to see the college forgo accreditation.
He said NIC’s role is “to provide marketable job skills to the students of our community.”
The KCRCC-endorsed trustee candidates did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Critics like Christa Hazel — a lifelong Republican concerned about the future of the college, who helped found the advocacy group Save NIC — say they are concerned by the KCRCC faction’s lack of a clear plan.
“There is no transparent strategy that has been provided to the public by what is on the agenda for NIC,” Hazel said. “They have not afforded the community the respect of transparency.”
Save NIC, and its political action committee, Save NIC Now, endorsed Durbin, Knudtsen and Havercroft.
“The time for talk is over. We’ve got three strong, no-nonsense, Conservative-minded candidates—Rick Durbin, Eve Knudtsen, and Mary Havercroft,” Jim Coleman, committee chair wrote in a news release. “They’re not here to play games. They’re here to clean up the board and get NIC back on track. If you care about NIC and the future of this community, these are the folks you need to vote for.”
Meet the candidates
Local financial advisor Durbin faces retiree Lyons in Zone 3 for the seat vacated by Todd Banducci.
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.”
Durbin said he believes many North Idaho residents are confused about the board majority’s behavior.
“Everyone that I talk to is in the same boat,” he said. “They have no idea why the board majority is doing what they’re doing.”
His goals for the college are to assure it continues to exist for generations to come, while remaining fiscally responsible.
He called out the “frivolous” spending by the current board majority in employing two presidents and taking actions that resulted in multiple lawsuits.
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 did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
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.
Incumbent McKenzie faces owner of Knudtsen Chevrolet, Eve Knudtsen in Zone 4.
Legacy means a lot to Knudtsen. Her grandfather was one of NIC’s early trustees, she discovered during her campaign. She also runs the family business which she plans to pass on to her daughter.
North Idaho College, Knudtsen said, is part of helping other families build their own legacies.
Knudtsen, 61, knows the need for a skilled workforce in the area, 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 said she too is concerned by the excessive spending on lawsuits, legal fees, and paying two university presidents at once caused by the current board majority’s action.
“The financial risk at the college has stemmed from lawsuits and bad decisionmaking,” she said.
She said there is little clarity from her opponent and the KCRCC candidates on what their plan is for the college.
“Nobody has any idea,” she said. “There’s just a ton of speculation but no clarity.”
She touts her experience on a variety of area boards, like the NIC Foundation, Kootenai Health Foundation, Coeur d’Alene Area Economic Development Corporation and chair of the GM Women Dealers Advisory Council.
“That college and the president and the students the faculty and the staff, they really all deserve to have a board of trustees who will listen to them and work with them,” she said.
Knudtsen has raised over $28,000, 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. McKenzie did not respond to multiple requests for comment or a detailed list of questions sent by EdNews.
When asked at the Coeur d’Alene Press’s candidate forum last month why he’s running for re-election McKenzie said he loves the college and the community. He said the college is at a better place now that it was four years ago when he joined the board.
In response to a question on his vision for the college at that same forum, McKenzie said it’s important the trustees have buy-in from the college community when creating goals.
“That’s incredible, incredibly important question the only problem I have with that is the question of my vision and as a trustee. We’re a policy board and we make sure that, we basically, the college adheres to the policies that the board approves and those policies are gone through the participatory governance process and has input from all stakeholders so a trustee like myself, I can have a vision, like I totally support workforce training, CTE,” McKenzie said. “I can vocally say that and I normally have those conversations one-on-one with the president, and support him in his vision and make sure he’s hearing what I and my community and all five trustees who are sitting on the board are hearing and they’re able to get back to it.”
Angiletta, a recent Oregon transplant, faces Havercroft, a retired Lakeland School District teacher and administrator in Zone 5.
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.
Like her fellow candidates who are endorsed by Save NIC, Havercroft pointed to how the current board majority’s decisions have cost the school money, specifically putting President Nick Swayne on leave without a stated reason.
“It’s just like any other organization, there’s things that are protections for the people involved,” she said. “And it’s not that you can’t do it, but you have to have a reason and you need to go through the correct steps.”
Those decisions led to legal action.
“We have a lot of self-induced lawsuits that aren’t defensible,” she said. “Its caused a lot of chaos and a lot of money.”
She too is confused on the KCRCC’s candidates ultimate goal for the college calling the lack of clarity “confusing and frustrating.”
“I think so many people have a history with NIC whether it’s they went there themselves, or have family members gone there, or they’ve been involved in some way,” she said. “I just can’t believe the number of people that have a real vested interest in NIC. And, you know, I don’t think they can believe it, you know, or fully understand it.”
With her years of administrative experience in education, Havercroft hopes to be a stable leader on the board, which in turn she said will reduce stress and uncertainty for faculty, staff and students.
“It’s just the board needs to get so that they’re acting more effectively and not wasting money,” she said. “And then, you know, they can concentrate on the programs and the things that they should be concentrating on.”
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.
The trustees should reflect the conservative values of the community, he added.
Angiletta did not respond to numerous requests for comment.
