We’re not sold on the idea that a new high school can be built in Bertie County.

We’re equally not sold that one can’t be.

What we do believe is that now, not later is the time for frank and honest discussions about the future plans of the Bertie County Commissioners and the Bertie County Board of Education to get students out of one of the worst facilities in the state of North Carolina.

Monday night the school board took a positive step. They asked for information to see what the possible tax impact would be to build a new Bertie High School at an approximate cost of $25 million.

Numbers have been thrown about, but no one has set down, calculated retiring debt and all other factors to see what would be necessary to build a new high school.

For too many years, everyone has been sitting around nodding when someone says a new high school needs to be build. The aging facility should have been replaced years ago, but it wasn’t. Now students are forced to attend a school that is not structurally sound, is in ill-repair and simply does not allow for a quality educational environment.

All of that may not matter, however, if the county cannot afford to build a new high school now.

The two boards can discuss the need and the finances and both are important, but neither can meet the needs of the students of Bertie County until they are willing to put politics aside and sit down and work together.

If the school cannot be built now, the commissioners and board of education still need to sit down together and work out a plan to allow it to happen as soon as it is feasible.

Sitting around nodding that it should happen hasn’t gotten anything done. Now is the time to make sure the talk stops and the hard work begins.

The beneficiaries will be the students of Bertie County Schools.