It’s rare that many days pass when this newspaper is not copied on an email from Douglas C. McBroom to representatives of the Public Schools of Robeson County in which he asks hard questions.

McBroom, whom some might remember as standing in front of the Board of Education this past year and asking all its members to resign, has become a rock in the system’s shoe, a pain that just won’t go away. But the reason McBroom keeps on asking questions is he rarely gets any answers.

School board officials are using a strategy often employed by local boards. When confronted with questions that make them squirm, they ignore the questions, and wait for the complainant to grow weary and retreat. It is a strategy that is rewarded more often than not.

McBroom has shown incredible staying power. He was at Tuesday’s board meeting, and the board moved the public comment period to the end of the agenda, after the closed session. Petty — but McBroom stayed and said his piece.

We are sure that McBroom copies us on the emails for a couple of reasons: To make us aware of his grievance and to make it plain to school board members that we are informed, thereby applying more pressure on the board. While we appreciate the sentiment, we aren’t really convinced that the Board of Education cares what we think, certainly not the four members who will be exiting in July.

Among other questions, McBroom has asked the board to revisit all the votes in which Loistine DeFreece’s might have been critical and says those votes need to be repeated. He points out that for a period of time in 2019 DeFreece, who resigned in October and was denied on March 3 a bid to recapture a board seat, represented District 1 but lived outside the district in violation of board policy. He argues the votes were illegal, making the results invalid.

He also wants DeFreece to reimburse the system her stipend for that period, as well as any expenses she might have passed on to the school system.

McBroom also has asked for a total accounting of all the expenses incurred by school board members during 2019.

As recent as Wednesday morning, he asked a school board member why that person had made a motion to allow John Simmons, who was elected on March 3 as the District 1 representative, to go ahead and join the board in advance of the normal swearing-in during July. He provided policy showing that was forbidden.

We know McBroom is inspired somewhat by an experience with the school system in which he believed his concerns were ignored. But his motivation doesn’t really matter. His concerns are legitimate, and his questions deserving of answers.

We do want to draw a distinction here. Superintendent Shanita Wooten has been responsive, but she is reliant on others, including the board, to provide answers. For instance, it’s not her call to ask for votes to be cast again, or for DeFreece to reimburse the system.

We have found Wooten and her administration to be the most transparent of any dating all the way back to 1996, which says a lot about hers, and a little about those that preceded hers.

The Board of Education, as it is constructed on July 14, will be much different than it is today, with five of its 11 members being freshly sworn in. Our advice to that school board is to quickly embrace transparency, and to be responsive to queries from the public and the press.

It would be a refreshing change from the board’s current strategy, which explains the public’s inherent distrust of the Board of Education and why four of its members are soon to be former members. We hope the new board can learn from the old board that it exists to serve the public, not stiff-arm it.