LOCAL NEA TAKES WAIT-AND-SEE APPROACH TO RETREAT

A spokesman for the Cape Girardeau National Education Association said her group will wait and see what happens at the Cape Girardeau Board of Education's St. Louis retreat before deciding if legal action will be taken.

The retreat begins today and concludes Saturday at the Hampton Inn, 2211 Market.

Earlier this week, the Missouri National Education Association threatened to take the board to court if it held the retreat as planned.

However, Brenda Woemmel of the Cape Girardeau NEA said no specific action is planned. "We will evaluate the situation depending upon what happens in St. Louis this weekend," she said.

Meanwhile, Jean Maneke, an attorney for the Missouri Press Association, said the retreat violates Missouri's Open Meetings Law. Maneke said changes in the law make it more difficult for school boards to hold retreats.

The local NEA chapter asked its state organization for an opinion about the legality of the meeting in relation to the open meetings law.

"We basically were looking for information," Woemmel said. "Also, if they were doing something that was going to be illegal, we wanted them to have plenty of notice so they could change their plans."

In a letter delivered to board members' homes earlier this week, Missouri NEA attorney Lisa Van Amburg said holding the retreat out of town cuts off public access to the meeting in violation of the law. Also, she said, discussing the superintendent's performance in a closed meeting violates the law.

Cape Girardeau School District attorney Joe Russell disagreed. He cited a case involving a retreat by Kansas City school board members at Lake of the Ozarks. The purpose of that retreat was to resolve some of the board's personality conflicts.

The Kansas City case is outdated, Maneke said. The law was changed to add a definition for public business not in effect when the Kansas City case was decided. But no case has been heard under the new definition, adopted in August 1993.