Finally, someone in the leadership of Harford County Public Schools had the courage and the decency to do the right thing.
It was beyond refreshing when Robert Frisch, an elected member of the Harford County Board of Education, said during a recent board meeting to Ryan Burbey, the head of the county's teachers union: "I do want to say to you, directly, I am sorry."
Frisch was expressing his regret that Burbey had been banned from school buildings for much of the 2014-15 school year for an alleged incident that one state school agency ruled, most likely, didn't happen.
In its typical, misguided fashion, the school system leadership circled the wagons and left Frisch on the outside.
As Aegis staff writer David Anderson reported in Wednesday's paper: Board President Nancy Reynolds said Tuesday that she had not been aware Frisch planned to issue an apology.
"There was no discussion as to his comments, so his comments did represent his opinion," she said.
Instead of adding her apology to Frisch's, which would have been the right thing to do, Reynolds chose to make it clear that Frisch is on his own, outside the circle of trust of the school system's leadership.
While others on the school board and in the administration of Barbara Canavan, the school superintendent, are keeping mum about the Burbey affair, it's a serious issue that highlights serious fissures in Harford County Public Schools.
Here's what happened: A YMCA staffer in an after-school program being run in an elementary school claimed Burbey had cursed at her and had otherwise been belligerent. Burbey has steadfastly denied that claim.
Harford County Public Schools officials reacted to the allegation by banning Burbey from school buildings, except for the Bel Air headquarters, for what remained of the 2014-15 school year.
Eventually, the state's Public School Labor Relations Board not only criticized Harford County Public Schools for banning Burbey, but also said the school system in doing so had committed an unfair labor practice. That state labor relations board also ordered Harford County Public Schools to place a notice in each of its buildings stating it would not further interfere with union activities.
This unfair labor practice, sadly and wrongly, comes on the heels of many years of the school system negotiating salary increases and other compensation issues with unions representing some of its employees that it has no way to pay.
Those labor negotiations then roll up into a budget that unfairly asks the county government for tens of millions of dollars more, that it has almost no chance of getting, in its next budget.
Frisch, in addition to being the only Harford County Public Schools leader strong enough to admit the school system was wrong in the shameful Burbey matter, was also correct in his other comments about the school system's actions.
He said the school board "must become more engaged" in labor matters because "it remains the board who is ultimately responsible" for school system decisions.
We agree. But more importantly, it's time for the Harford County Public Schools leadership to perform like leaders and grown-ups, not like some of the more than 37,000 students with whose education they are entrusted.