NEA THREATENS SUIT OVER RETREAT

The Missouri National Education Association says it will take the Cape Girardeau Board of Education to court if the board holds its planned annual retreat this weekend in St. Louis.

In a letter delivered this week to board members' homes, NEA attorney Lisa Van Amburg said holding the meeting in St. Louis effectively cuts off public access.

The retreat is scheduled for Friday and Saturday at the Hampton Inn in St. Louis.

Van Amburg, whose St. Louis office serves as general counsel to the statewide teachers union, asked the board to hold its planning session in the Cape Girardeau area.

Several school board members called the NEA letter an act of intimidation and said they have no intentions of changing the retreat location.

Apparently no one from the local NEA chapter contacted board members about concerns over the retreat before the letters were mailed.

Both board president Ed Thompson and board member Pat Ruopp listed two main reasons why the retreat was scheduled out of town. One was the availability of Missouri School Board Association executives for in-service training in St. Louis. The other was the absence of interruptions from family and work. They said an out-of-town session allowed for more intensive study.

Joe Russell, the district's attorney, replied to the NEA letter Wednesday, citing a Kansas City school case in which both a trial court and an appellate court had upheld a meeting outside the district.

Russell told the Southeast Missourian that case involved a retreat by Kansas City school board members at the Lake of the Ozarks. The purpose of that retreat was to resolve some of the board's personality conflicts.

In its letters, the state NEA also took issue with plans to discuss the Cape Girardeau superintendent's performance in closed session -- again alleging a violation of the Missouri Open Meetings law.

In the letters, Van Amburg warned that if a court determined that a member of the board had purposefully violated the open meetings law, that member could be subject to a civil fine.

But Russell said he thinks a closed session is appropriate for discussing Clark's personnel records.

Board members stressed that any vote on Clark's contract will come during an open session, most likely at Wednesday's regular monthly meeting in Cape Girardeau.

"We're not going to vote on anything up there except where we're going to dinner," said Thompson, the board president.

Superintendent Clark said the retreats are a long-standing tradition of the district.

He said the news media are always invited to the retreats. In the past, the Community Teachers Association has been invited too, but it wasn't this year "because of the strenuous schedule."

Friday's schedule at the retreat includes sessions from 3 to 9 p.m., and Saturday's agenda begins at 8 a.m. The last two hours of the Saturday morning sessions are closed to the public. This is when the board plans to conduct its evaluation of the superintendent.

"This is not fun and relaxation; this is hard work," the superintendent said.

Clark estimated the cost of the retreat would be approximately $1,000.

Van Amburg, the NEA attorney, also claimed in her letters to board members that reasonable public notice hadn't been given for the retreat. Russell said all the proper postings of the meeting had been made.

"Her letter indicates she may not have all the information or had some information that was not correct," said Russell.