Students Make Recall Bid Official Three Nic Trustees Targeted For Ousting President, Hiking Fees

North Idaho College students on Tuesday officially launched their effort to recall three of the school’s trustees.

A petition drafted by the Associated Students of NIC was approved by Kootenai County Clerk Dan English.

Now, students will ask county voters to sign that petition in order to get the names of Jeanne Givens, Barb Chamberlain and Bob Ely on the Nov. 4 ballot.

Those three trustees are targeted for recall mostly because of their unexplained decision to oust NIC president Bob Bennett and raise student fees. Two other board members, Sue Thilo and Steve Widmyer, quit in the wake of Bennett’s forced resignation this spring.

The students face a big task: To get 14,828 signatures of registered voters per trustee. That’s based on the number of people who voted in the last trustee election, which had a high turnout.

There are only 52,000 registered voters in the county.

The students have 60 days in which to collect enough valid signatures.

If they don’t make the deadline, the vote would be scheduled for Feb. 3, English said.

, DataTimes