The North Idaho College Board of Trustees appointed Brad Murray of Rathdrum to the new Trustee Zone 5 seat Wednesday, filling out the board until the elections in November.

Murray retired as superintendent of the Lakeland School District this spring after a 36-year career in Idaho public schools. He was selected over Geri Wile of Post Falls for the seat.

“We were highly impressed with both candidates,” said Board Chair Ken Howard. “My first thought was I wish we could have gotten both of them in there as trustees. Both have philosophies of wanting to give back to the community.”

Howard said the first motion to be made at the special meeting Wednesday was to nominate Murray as the Zone 5 Trustee and the motion passed 4-0.

“I’m looking forward to getting to know NIC more than I know now,” he said. “We’ll see where this ends up, but I’m looking forward to it.”

Murray will serve on the board for two meetings until the election in November when he will run against Geri Wile, again. Voting is not restricted to residents of the zone; everyone in Kootenai County can vote on NIC board positions.

“Our fear was that selecting somebody would influence the election, but our duty was to get a full functioning board as quickly as possible,” Howard said. “And we did.”