REGION'S TEACHERS GATHER FOR MEETING

About 3,000 teachers and school administrators are expected in Cape Girardeau Friday for the 122nd annual Missouri State Teachers Association Meeting. The meeting will be held at the Show Me Center.

Attendance hasn't been reached the 3,000 mark in three years, but a combination of good weather and good timing mean the annual MSTA meeting will draw a crowd, said Sheryl Smith, MSTA Southeast district director.

"The weather's been cooperating and most schools are going to be out this Friday, so we believe the attendance will be good this year," she said. "In the past, we've had to use that as a snow day or school's haven't dismissed for the day other reasons, and that's caused conflicts."

MSTA delegates from local chapters will meet Thursday night to elect officers and consider resolutions for the state meeting. The delegates also will attend a banquet recognizing winners of the Community Teachers Association Leaders of the Year awards and the Meritorious Service awards.

Math teachers Penny Hahs of Sikeston and Carole De Vecchio of Oak Ridge are the CTA Leaders of the Year. Dr. Ruth Ann Roberts, who has worked in area schools since 1968 and currently serves as Sikeston schools curriculum director, is one of two Meritorious Service honorees selected by delegates this year. Also receiving the award is J.Y. Miller, a 32-year teaching veteran who has taught in the Caruthersville school district for 24 years.

The MSTA meetings have been a mainstay in the region for many years. The group has been assembling since the first meeting was held in Piedmont in 1878, Smith said.

The early meetings were organized with the help of faculty at the Normal School to spread information from the statewide MSTA convention, which most local members were unable to attend. And the meetings have been held annually since with very few lapses. In 1918, the meeting was canceled because of a flu epidemic.

The purpose of the meeting has changed over the years to meet participants' needs, Smith said. As modes of transportation and communication improved, the meeting shifted to an emphasis on general professional development.

Teachers and administrators met to discuss relevant educational topics, and speakers addressed the general assembly on issues that affected everyone, she said.

Today, most teachers attend the district meeting to gain information specific to their educational department, Smith said. "We don't have the edge on professional development that there was in the past; everything dealing with education has tended to become very departmentalized, and now we tend to fraction ourselves to our own areas of interest."

Although emphasis is now placed on specialized concerns, the goal of providing teachers and school administrators an opportunity to compare notes and share information is still an important one, Smith said. "It really is the only opportunity for all teachers of all departments at all levels, and all administrators, to get together and share."