A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to appropriate additional funds for mentoring services for teachers and to modify the manner in which these funds may be used, as recommended by the Joint Legislative Study Committee on Public school funding formulas.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Public Instruction the sum of seven million nine hundred thousand dollars ($7,900,000) in recurring funds for the 2008‑2009 fiscal year to increase funding for mentoring services.
Funds for mentoring services shall be allotted to local school administrative units based on the number of employees who (i) are paid with State, federal, or local funds and (ii) are either teachers paid on the first or second steps of the teacher salary schedule or instructional support personnel paid on the first step of the instructional support personnel salary schedule.
Local school administrative units shall use these funds to provide mentoring support to eligible employees in accordance with a plan approved by the State Board of Education. The plan shall include information on how all mentors in the local school administrative unit will be adequately trained to provide mentoring support.
SECTION 2.  This act becomes effective July 1, 2008.