Grandstanding notwithstanding, the matter of whether Poland Regional High School Committee members are violating the law with their e-mail communications is serious and needs to be addressed.

On Wednesday night at the school committee meeting, Dave Griffiths, who’s a member of the committee, ambushed the others with a two-page statement condemning the board’s e-mail behavior. Griffiths maintains that the board is using e-mail inappropriately and in a way that approximates a meeting. With a few exceptions, Maine law requires that all governmental meetings be held in public, even those at which no vote is made.

Other board members didn’t take kindly to the display and mostly dismissed Griffiths’ complaints.

Ike Levine, the chairman of the committee, called the stunt for what it was: Grandstanding, saying that Griffiths could have had the issue added to an upcoming agenda for discussion.

Trying to answer Griffiths’ concerns, Levine provided the Sun Journal with several examples of e-mail that has been exchanged between board members and staff. The e-mails are perfectly innocent. There’s nothing in them that would lead us to believe Levine and the other board members are trying to hide their discussions or decisions from the public.

However, the back and forth in the e-mails between more than three members of the board appears to violate the spirit of Maine’s Freedom of Access laws. Anytime three or more members of an elected board get together, whether in person or electronically, it represents a meeting and must meet the requirements of the state’s open meeting laws. The e-mail exchanges fail that standard.

Last year, when the issue of e-mail was first brought up, the board’s attorney advised its members that it was a “gray area” in the law. Levine has said that if the board is breaking the law, it will do better.

Then the board needs to do better. While there appears to be no malice in the board’s actions, there’s no good reason to conduct the public’s business in gray areas of the law. Bring it into the light where it belongs.