The City's Pulse Newsletter

Professional Technical Workforce Education is at the top. It is the number one objective of the number one goal for North Idaho College. That should be reassuring. The college spent eight months working with community members to develop their five year Strategic Plan, and at the very top of the list is Professional Technical Education (PTE).

The PTE program is important because it includes the skills based learning so desperately needed in our region. Idaho's PTE web site states they are "devoted to preparing students for occupations requiring other than a four-year college degrees as well as training workers already in the workplace." Think hands-on skills like auto mechanics, electrical, welding, plumbing and carpentry. But also think technical training, computer skills, health care support careers and more.

We must have a diversely educated employment population to keep and recruit businesses which offer stable, career-level jobs for our citizens. If we have a workforce of only academically prepared people, we will turn away technical and manufacturing companies. We need balance, and right now the scales are tipped.

Many business leaders in our community have pushed, prodded and pulled until the PTE program at NIC is finally in the spotlight. The State allocated nearly a half million dollars for PTE statewide last year but to help bolster these important programs Senator Jim Hammonds and Rep. Frank Henderson, both of Post Falls, worked diligently to secure an additional $250,000 for the six Idaho PTE schools this year. They were successful.

The College of Southern Idaho, which is the community college down in Twin Falls, took the extra state money and added even more than usual from its general fund to give its PTE program a big boost.

But NIC behaved quite differently. They took the additional $42,000 of state money for PTE but cut their own general funding for the program by $33,000, leaving NIC's PTE spinning in place and well behind the efforts of southern Idaho.

I asked NIC Trustee Vice Chair Christie Wood, last month when we met for coffee, why the budget for PTE was cut when it is their number one strategic goal? She said she was unaware of the cut and would look into the question. Yet just weeks later, she voted along with the whole Board to approve the budget, PTE cuts and all.

The Press reported last Sunday that NIC President Priscilla Bell was granted a 5% salary increase which, along with additional benefits, raises her compensation to $179,250, including $1000 per month for housing. Trustee Christie Wood called this decision "a great show of confidence".

Where is the college's confidence in PTE, their number one goal? Where is their confidence in the students who now face a tuition increase? President Bell received 5% more pay but the students will pay 7.4% more in tuition. And the promise of expanded PTE offerings will not be supported by actual budgetary strength.

NIC's new Strategic Plan lists values which include "serving the community", "ensuring access to education & training" and "maintaining accountability". All nice words, all good intentions. But the actions of the NIC Board send a different message.

Our community has clearly voiced that PTE is of utmost importance. The students need cost effective access to this type of education and training. Yet, with NIC's budget cuts for PTE, coupled with tuition increases and more money funneled to executive compensation, the Board's accountability comes seriously into question. Their actions do not match the words on their plan. Or as Benjamin Franklin wrote, "Well done is better than well said."

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Well, Newsletter Readers, there has been a big reaction to the column above which ran last Sunday on the OpEd page of the CdA Press. The local blogs have been afire with commentary. Those on the CdA Press site were mainly supportive and called for more accountability from NIC. Those on another blog went directly to personal attacks toward citizens asking for transparency. They spent no energy discussing the issue of PTE or its funding, but dissolved quickly into name calling and insults. That type of behavior does nothing to further the needs of our community.

NIC Trustee Christie Wood also went on the blogs in response to my column. She wrote unkind and untrue things about me personally, then said my information about PTE was totally false. But Christie was wrong. My information is correct and has been verified multiple times. In fact, a second blog letter by Christie the next day, admits the PTE budget was cut by $33,000, as I wrote, but makes excuses for the Board's actions.

My point in writing my column on this topic is that NIC's Board is not staying true to their new Strategic Goals. Cutting any money from the PTE budget is inappropriate. . (And don't fall for their 4.5% increase excuse, because that money is from the State, which the NIC Board can't touch. It's the general fund money they messed with.)

Another indicator of this same mindset is their budget item "Grant-in-Aid", (Financial Aid) which was cut by $150,000. And remember, they're raising tuition too. Yet during the unveiling of their Strategic Plan at the May meeting I attended, the plan committee stated one of the strongest, most frequent requests from the public was for NIC to keep education as affordable as possible.

Thank you to the many readers who sent me alerts on this topic. There's a lot of work be done in getting information out to the public, but together we can improve our community and increase government transparency.

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