A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to establish a mentor program to provide ongoing support for prinicpals entering the profession.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  G.S. 115C‑296 is amended by adding a new subsection to read:
"(e1)	The State Board of Education shall develop a mentor program to provide ongoing support for principals entering the profession and for principals from other states who have been in the profession for less than five years. In developing the mentor program, the State Board shall conduct a comprehensive study of the needs of these principals and how those needs can be met through an orientation and mentor support program. The State Board shall develop and coordinate a mentor principal training program and shall specify the amount of time and the nature of the support the mentors must provide to the principals. The State Board shall develop criteria for selecting excellent, experienced, and qualified principals to be mentors in the program."
SECTION 2.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Public Instruction the sum of four million dollars ($4,000,000) for the 2007‑2008 fiscal year and the sum of four million dollars ($4,000,000) for the 2008‑2009 fiscal year for a mentor program to provide ongoing support for principals entering the profession and for principals from other states who have been in the profession for less than five years.  Local boards of education shall use these funds to provide mentoring support for two years to all State‑paid newly certified principals and for one year to all principals from other states who have been in the profession for less than five years.
The State Board of Education may grant flexibility to a local board of education regarding the use of mentor funds to use full‑time mentors to provide mentoring support, provided the local board submits a detailed plan on the use of the funds to the State Board and the State Board approves that plan. The plan shall include information on how all mentors in the local school administrative unit will be adequately trained to provide mentoring support.
SECTION 3.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2007.