The Mid-Prairie School district has moved to incentivize certain positions within the district. The Iowa Department of Education has identified 17 different areas in which there is a shortage of teachers at this time in the state. Examples include those who instruct students with disabilities such as the hearing or visually impaired, industrial technology, family and consumer sciences, foreign language, agriculture, science, business, counselors, mathematics, librarians, social studies and early childhood education. The district has seen this shortage first hand with many of the positions available in these categories receiving at most one applicant during their most recent hiring searches.

To combat the shortage, the board discussed a $5,000 hiring bonus to be paid to teachers that are identified in these categories. This would be paid to the teacher hired in two sums, $2,500 on September 25th, 2021 and $2,500 on September 25th, 2022 if the teacher is still a district employee. This is a policy that the board can choose to review and decide annually whether or not to reinstate the bonus and in what amount. Applicants in the listed shortage areas are eligible to receive the bonus this academic year.