The Board of Education for the Public Schools of Robeson County, given a chance for a major public show of support for the schools superintendent whom it hired recently under dubious circumstances, failed this week when given that chance.

School board members on Tuesday couldn’t come to an agreement on whether Superintendent Tommy Lowry’s recommendation that a grade-floor policy of 59 or a hybrid be adopted, and instead divided into three camps while ultimately waiting for another day to deliver a no-win decision that is guaranteed to anger some.

Lowry has recommended a grade floor of 59, which is a single point below passing, saying the policy is designed to keep students from falling so hopelessly behind that they just throw up their arms in frustration and make a life-altering decision to drop out of school. Lowry’s reasoning — and it’s hard to counter — is that educators have a much better chance of rerouting a student in a positive direction if that student is in a classroom and not on the street.

Grade-floor policies, which were unheard of when Baby Boomers were matriculating, are now fairly standard, but typically not as generous as what Lowry is proposing. Of course back then you couldn’t curse a teacher and not worry about ramifications, so a lot has changed.

On Tuesday, there were three camps — those who favored the 59 floor, those who favored a floor but wanted it lower at 55, and the hardliners, those who believe that ultimately it isn’t in a student’s interest to give that person something he or she has not earned.

School board members assigned themselves some homework, promising to return to their districts and meet with educators at the schools they represent for feedback, and then return to make a decision. The educators with whom this newspaper has talked, and there have been many, spoke with a single voice, saying that they understood the value of a ground-floor policy, but that 59 was too generous. We know as well that educators who were fine with the 59 floor were less likely to contact the local newspaper to complain, so we don’t have confidence our sampling is representative.

We think we know where all this will land — and that is with a compromise, somewhere in the middle. There are more school board members in favor of a floor than there are against it, so expect them to huddle and come up with an arbitrary number that is agreeable to all of them.

That’s actually how good government works.

The public will have a chance to speak on March 15.