If the news that the Public Schools of Robeson County will get stuck with a $15,000 attorney’s fee because of the recklessness of the block on the school board we call The Six made you angry, prepare to get angrier.

It didn’t have to happen — and we aren’t speaking of the original decision on Jan. 10 when Dwayne Smith, Randy Lawson, Steve Martin, Charles Bullard, Brian Freeman and Peggy Wilkins-Chavis went rogue and, most certainly after colluding in violation of open-meeting laws, decided to fire Superintendent Tommy Lowry and hire Virginia educator William Graves without first advertising the job, which was required by the board’s own policy.

There were other chances to get off the train, but The Six decided to give you the bill for their deeds.

A recap for anyone who has been asleep.

After The Six fired Lowry and tried to hire Graves, a lawsuit was filed, alleging they had met illegally outside the public view to hatch the plot, and had violated their own policy. The Six, instead of using the North Carolina School Boards Association to provide legal representation, didn’t consult that organization first and decided to hire their own lawyer, a high-powered one, Neil Yarborough, out of Fayetteville.

Yarborough did his work, threatening to put the plaintiffs, two students of the system who are of modest means, at risk financially, and the three lawyers who filed to lawsuit and did their work for free, Gary Locklear, Joshua Malcolm and Tiffany Powers, backed down — but not without first getting the school board to withdraw the Graves offer and advertise the position, allowing them to declare a small victory.

Yarborough sent the local system a bill for $15,000, and it was forwarded to the N.C. School Boards Association, which sent it back. Had it accepted the bill, the local system would have been on the hook for just a $5,000 deductible.

The state association rejected the request for payment apparently for two reasons. The association has a trust to help local systems with attorney fees, but it asks that it be given the chance to provide the lawyer, and that it be advised in advance of a lawyer being hired. The Six, who were sued individually as well as for being part of the full board, did neither, so no reimbursement is forthcoming.

We won’t suggest that $15,000 is a bunch of money for a system with a budget of about $250 million a year. But don’t tell that to a teacher who is digging into his or her pocket to buy supplies for that child whose family can’t afford to do so.

The cost of Jan. 10 is much higher. There is the buyout of Lowry’s contract, which has to be factored in, and the cost of a superintendent’s search whose results will most likely be ignored. Raise your hand if you think any of The Six won’t try again to hire Graves.

So we believe it is a matter of principle, a willingness by these board members to act as they please and then hand you the bill. All or any of them have a chance to prove us wrong. Conveniently, $15,00o can be divided by six evenly, so if any of The Six writes a reimbursement check of $2,500 to the school system, we will be glad to tell you about it.

They also have a chance to make the spending of about a quarter million dollars to get a new superintendent more palatable for the taxpaying public. That can be done by honoring the search, and hiring the candidate that would best be able to lead our struggling school system.