If we didn’t know better, we’d say the Johnston County Board of Education was ungrateful. After County Commissioners found the money for a new high school in the Cleveland community, the best the Board of Education could do was complain that the financing plan would delay the school’s construction.

Surely, we must have stepped out of the room when the Board of Education expressed its heartfelt thanks for the financing. After all, all commissioners did was do something they were loath to do — borrow $30 million without voter approval. (Commissioners are now waiting for the Local Government Commission to say it’s OK to use lottery proceeds to pay back that money.)

Commissioners could have asked voters to sign off on the borrowing. But if the school board thought a month delay was long, how about the 90 or more days needed to get a bond issue on the ballot and before voters?

Or commissioners could have depleted their cash reserves to pay for the high school. But the Local Government Commission would have frowned on that move, and so would have bond-rating agencies. Ultimately, that would have been worse for the school board than a month delay, because the county would have faced higher interest rates on future debt. As a result, the county would have found itself able to borrow fewer dollars for school needs.

As best we can tell, County Commissioners took the only sensible path to building a new high school in the Cleveland community. A little thanks would be in order.