President Rick MacLennan terminated by NIC’s Board

A 3-2 vote by the Board of Trustees terminated McLennan’s employment at Wednesday’s meeting. MacLennan, whose last day is Thursday evening, and was the longest-acting president at North Idaho community college.

 The motion was presented by Trustee Michael Barnes and was supported by Chairman Todd Banducci and Trustee Greg McKenzie. Trustee Christie Woods and Ken Howard voted against the firing of McLennan. During the meeting, the Trustee’s and Chairman shared their thoughts behind the termination of MacLennan.

Trustee Woods spoke during the motion of open discussion and said “It doesn’t make sense at all, to remove the President’, she says, “We can move forward, work together, try to form a team.”

A notion was by Trustee Howard who said, “Once this president is dismissed, and the votes are going to do it, we now have to find another president. And we have to find an interim leader because you can’t find a president instantaneously.” Trustee Howard also said that it is best to wait until January or December to elect a new President, and that it is too late due to the start of the new school year. 

Vice President of Instruction, Lita Burns is now the stand-in acting president of North Idaho College, starting Friday.