Our May 25 edition carried a story about corrective action taken with five members of the Grant School Board for using part of an executive session last summer to talk about matters that should have been discussed in open session. While Oregon law allows public bodies like school boards to go into executive session — where the general public is excluded and journalists are directed not to report on the proceedings — there are strict limits on when they can do so.

The public has the strongest possible interest in having access to the deliberations of elected officials, and it is a fundamental part of our mission as a newspaper to notify our readers when we believe those officials are improperly operating out of the public eye. In this case, the Eagle took the unusual step of filing a complaint with the Oregon Government Ethics Commission in order to get a definitive ruling on whether the board members violated the law. The commission determined that they had done so and voted to send each member who took part in the session a letter of education.

The steps taken by the ethics commission — part of a negotiated settlement agreement with the board members — address the problem not through punishment but through education on the law. We think that is an appropriate response.

To be clear, we don’t believe any of the school board members acted maliciously in this instance. Yes, as elected officials, they should be aware of the laws that govern executive sessions and take care to abide by those laws. But we also recognize that it can be easy for those discussions to veer off-track, especially when the public body doesn’t have an attorney in the room to remind them of exactly where the legal boundaries are.

And we have nothing but respect for anyone who is willing to serve their community by sitting on the local school board — even more so in such emotionally fraught and politically charged times as these. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, school boards across the country have become focal points for discontent over burdensome public health measures aimed at slowing the spread of the disease. In many cases, school board members have become the targets of anger and vitriol over decisions made at the state or federal level over which they have no control.

So while we take a measure of satisfaction in knowing that the Grant School Board will be more careful in the future not to stray beyond the limits of Oregon’s open meetings law, we also offer our sincere appreciation to the school board members for their continued willingness to do a difficult job in the most trying of circumstances. We should all be grateful for their service.