Independence Public School District

Missouri ranks near the bottom of the country for its teacher pay. Faced with staffing shortages, school districts and education leaders are doing what they can to raise salaries.

Families in Independence say they struggle to get information from their school board, and it's gotten more difficult since the board started enforcing a policy limiting public comments.

The schedule change is designed to boost recruiting and keeping staff as schools across the country struggle with teacher shortages.

Art Smith, the parent of a nonbinary child, said the Independence School District’s removal of a book including a non-binary character makes it hard for kids like his to feel welcome. Other parents say the book isn’t age-appropriate.

The district said the decision was about parents having enough information to choose what is appropriate for their children. But the one board member who voted to keep the book in libraries called the move "dangerous."

The budget bill still needs to make it through the contentious Missouri Senate. The $1.95 billion in federal education funds for Missouri includes more than $250 million for the Kansas City area.

Many Kansas City area students will not be required to mask up when they return to class this week despite concerns about the rise in COVID-19 cases.

Independence was one of the first local districts to have kids return to classrooms. Apart from a Zoom outage on the first day, all seems to be going according to plan, says Superintendent Dale Herl.

A check-in with the superintendent of one of the first local districts to have students back in classrooms, how powerful images shape important moments in society, and a selection of weird and wonderful things in "Secret Kansas City."