The Board of Education for the Public Schools of Robeson County had a good night on Tuesday.

It has been rare that we have used those words assembled as such in reference to our school board, but we do so today — and gladly.

Two days ago, the members of the school board demonstrated the kind of leadership that we believe has been absent, raising their hands in favor of the teachers and students in our school system with a pledge to get them valuable resources, even if they don’t know where the money will come from to pay the bill.

Additionally on Tuesday, the school board promised to spend almost $1 million providing air-conditioning for the gyms at St. Pauls Elementary, Rowland Middle and R.B. Dean Elementary schools, continuing a multi-years project to bring our dilapidated schools into the 21st century.

Following an impressive presentation that drew applause from Brian Freeman, an educator himself and the chairman of the board’s Curriculum Committee, the board voted to spend as much as $7 million over three years to buy instructional materials, including textbooks and virtual textbooks, to put in the hands of students tools that will enable their learning. Included as well was training and professional development for teachers.

“What I don’t like is that 92 percent of our schools are C, D, and F’s. They’re failing and something needs to change,” Freeman said, a reference to the system’s annual report card that measures achievement. “If we are short $2.5 million … we are going to have to roll up our sleeves and find that money.”

The school board did this even as Erica Setzer, the system’s chief financial officer, cautioned its members that she didn’t know where the money would come from to pay the vendor. The system is flying blind as the General Assembly, which hasn’t had an education-friendly reputation, works on its budget, and federal money is not made available until the fall. So the system is making a leap of faith while trying to equip the teachers and students at a cost of as much as $7 million — $2.5 million of which has to be found.

The No. 1 complaint we get about our school system — and we get a lot of complaints concerning it — is the lack of textbooks and other resources provided to students. Parents don’t understand how the school board can find money to buy out superintendent contracts, pay for four assistant superintendents at a bloated central office, and hire firms to conduct and then ignore superintendent searches, but can’t find money for educational materials.

We struggle to understand as well, but we know too that there are different pots of money, and it isn’t always possible to reroute dollars to buy the supplies our students need. It seems, however, that the pot that is most often raided is the one for supplies, leaving teachers and parents to pick up the bill; too often nobody pays and the child does without.

Tuesday indicated a new direction for the school board, which has often been fractured but on this night worked and spoke as one. We hope that the board continues the same path, and that it will be blessed by a tailwind that is desperately needed to push this county into the future.