SKIPPING SCHOOL: DISTRICT LEADERS DEFEND CANCELLED CLASSES FOR CONFERENCE, HUNTING

What's a good reason to dismiss school for the day.

Area school administrators and teachers defended recent dismissals for a state teachers' meeting and for deer hunting season. Both were well-executed because they addressed issues of safety, attendance and professional development, they said. A Doniphan School District spokesperson said the district is completing a week-long vacation during the peak hunting season. The district has taken this vacation for many years because "we're rural and we have lots of students ride the bus and come through the woods where there's lots of hunting."Cape Girardeau was one of at least three school districts from the Missouri State Teachers Association that dismissed classes so teachers could attend the general conference Friday in St. Louis. An estimated 4,000 teachers attended the meeting, which is held in alternate years in St. Louis and Kansas City to allow its more than 42,000 members the opportunity to attend professional development workshops and review educational material.

Bruce Moe, MSTA communications director, said no attendance records are kept because the meeting is free and open to anyone who wants to attend. General attendance appears to have remained steady over the years, he said. Attendance was recorded for the delegates assembly held Thursday, and more than 1,000 delegates were on hand to represent their school districts."It's not a fee-based convention so people do not have to register," Moe said. " All I can tell you is the facility is always full." Cape Girardeau teachers were not required to document whether they would attend the meeting, so only the district's 10 delegates have records of their attendance.

Farmington School District also dismissed for the teachers' meeting, but will remain in session throughout deer season. "We'd never get away with that one," said Superintendent Dr. David Cramp.

Cramp said teachers were required to inform administers whether they would attend the meeting or work at the school Friday. The requirement is a means of determining whether faculty participation warrants a day off from school, he said." We encourage them to go to meetings and we don't go down to check how many are at the shopping mall, but we are confident that our teachers are either at the meeting or here working," said Cramp.

Meadow Heights School District does not dismiss school for either deer hunting or the MSTA general conference, although years ago the district dismissed for both events. Superintendent Duane Schindler said classes most likely remain is session because both events appear to have lost significance to teachers and students.

Deer season affected school attendance "because there are a lot of people who go deer hunting in Bollinger County," he said. He said MSTA meetings lost significance because the meetings are so general in nature."Teachers just don't attend those types of things as they once did," said Schindler. "Professional development allows teachers to go to a lot of workshops more geared to individual areas they teach, and they are not as likely to attend the more general meetings."Carol Brice, president of the Cape Girardeau Community Teachers Association, said although she was unsure how many nondelegates from Cape Girardeau attended the MSTA meeting, she was certain that everyone at the meeting gained valuable knowledge about issues affecting education in the state."I think it's nice that they provided us an opportunity to go and be trained for free," Brice said. " The programs are good and if they go they will get something out of them."