There is yet another scandal brewing involving the Lawrence public schools. This one has the potential to be the most serious of all.

The state Office of Campaign and Political Finance is investigating whether three School Committee members and other politicians had signs and campaign literature printed at no cost on the School Department's printing press.

The investigation is the result of allegations made by School Committee member Sammy Reyes. Reyes says that three of his fellow committee members — Peter Larocque, Gregory Morris and Priscilla Baez — and former committee member Omaira Mejia benefited by the free use of the school's $600,000 printing press.

Reyes says the state Ethics Commission also is investigating an earlier complaint of his that Baez used the school printing press for her campaign signs and mailings. Baez is the sister of Mark Rivera, the former special assistant to Superintendent Wilfredo Laboy.

These are merely allegations at this point, nothing more. However, should the investigations show they have merit, it would be a serious breach of campaign law and ethical standards by both the candidates and the school administration.

In Massachusetts, candidates for public office are prohibited from using public resources such as employee time, paper, copiers and vehicles for campaign purposes. If the allegations prove true, the candidates could face fines or a broader investigation by Attorney General Martha Coakley's office.

Morris said in a e-mail to our reporters Jill Harmacinski and Mark E. Vogler that he had no knowledge of any campaign literature being produced for him. Larocque and Baez did not respond to their repeated requests for comment.

The three current School Committee members generally have been supporters of Laboy. The committee has been divided with members James Vittorioso, Martina Cruz and Reyes calling for strong discipline of Laboy in the wake of the scandal over background checks into more than 400 people.

The allegations are serious because they raise the specter of Laboy using the school printing press and other resources to aid the campaigns of those inclined to view him favorably. That would usurp one of the main roles of the School Committee — to provide thorough and unbiased reviews of Laboy's performance.

And where is the superintendent himself while yet another scandal rips through his school system? He is in the Dominican Republic recuperating on six to eight weeks of medical leave for stress.

The list of misdeeds and mismanagement in the Lawrence school system continues to grow: the "snoopgate" affair, the high school drinking incident, the heavy-handed discipline of an Italian language teacher over a lasagna party, and on and on. None of it is serving the students of Lawrence well.

The sooner the Office of Campaign and Political Finance and the Ethics Commission can complete their investigations the better. A fractured School Committee and a superintendent missing-in-action aren't doing much to keep the city's schools focused on their primary mission — educating the children of Lawrence.