Missouri Board of Education President Charlie Shields wants the state to check into whether K-12 teachers can be given a bonus to help retain them next school year. During today’s board meeting, Shields, of northwest Missouri’s St. Joseph, says he wants the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education to explore what measures can be taken to keep teachers around. Last October, Shields made the same request with federal coronavirus dollars.

 

The coronavirus pandemic has added a great deal of stress to the workload of Missouri’s roughly 70,000 pre-K-12 public school teachers.