The Suffolk School Board has set a public work session this afternoon on the proposed 2017-2018 school budget. Judging from the widespread public disgust displayed on social media over that elected body’s actions regarding a $23,000 raise for School Superintendent Deran Whitney, School Board members will probably be glad this isn’t a public hearing.

In fact, the budget could be approved during this meeting, and the controversial raise — granted retroactively to July during a September meeting of the board — is exceedingly unlikely to be affected by any action the board might take today.

Teachers, bus drivers and other school system employees would surely like to see increases in the 14-percent range that Whitney received. That outcome is also unlikely.

And any change the board proposes that calls for steep increases in funding by the city faces an uphill battle, as the City Council that would be tasked with funding those increases would surely face a vocal contingent of Suffolk taxpayers protesting the necessary rise in property taxes.

It’s a bad situation all around. Teachers and bus drivers and other faculty and staff deserve to be paid well for the hard and thankless work they do. Taxpayers have an understandable right to want to hold onto their own hard-earned dollars, and the City Council, which has wrestled with its own demons in the matters of employee compensation and public oversight, will be caught in the middle.

Whether the school superintendent had received his pay increase or not, school system employees would likely have been clamoring for more money this year than the average 2.4-percent hike that is proposed.

But the School Board conceded the high ground in the matter by granting this raise in secret and only owning up to the action when folks started questioning line items in the proposed budget.

Governing in the light of day might not be any easier than governing in secrecy, but sunshine ensures at least that everyone knows the facts and has at least an opportunity to understand the decision-making process.

We can only hope the School Board learns a lesson from the mess it has created this year.