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Bill would fund short-term retired‑teacher mentoring to help new teachers become classroom‑ready
Summary
House Bill 837 would create a short induction program that pays retired teachers to mentor newly hired teachers for up to 36 hours during their first three months on the job, with a $100,000 per‑year appropriation proposed to the Office of Public Instruction.
House Bill 837, sponsored by Representative Eiseley, would establish a retired‑teacher induction program that pairs retired instructors with newly hired teachers for a short, intensive mentoring period at the start of their first school year.
Under the bill as presented, an induction mentor's work would be limited to 36 hours over the first three months of the school year; compensation for mentors would be funded via a state appropriation of $100,000 from the general fund for each year of the biennium. Eiseley said the program is intended as a “Monday-morning ready” crash induction, not a full mentoring program, focusing on practical, hands-on classroom and program management help — for example, lab equipment, inventory management, vendor relationships and curriculum materials for hands-on classes such as science, art, music or career-and-technical-education courses.
Supporters included Kim Popham of the Montana Federation of Public Employees and Rob Watson representing school administrators and the Coalition of Advocates for Montana's Public Schools. Witnesses told the committee that targeted short-term mentoring can improve teacher retention, especially in rural districts, and is a fiscally modest intervention: sponsors and witnesses estimated the appropriation could support roughly 100 mentor placements depending on local compensation arrangements and the degree to which mentors use the full 36 hours.
Committee members asked how many mentor hours the appropriation would buy and about the benefits of retired‑teacher mentors. The sponsor said per‑district implementation would vary, and mentors might not use the full 36 hours in every case. She described personal experience mentoring a successor and said even brief, early support can keep new teachers in the classroom. The bill does not require districts to participate; supporters described it as locally controlled and designed to align with collective bargaining arrangements where applicable.
The committee closed the hearing; no committee vote was recorded in the transcript. Proponents asked the committee to advance the bill to help with teacher recruitment and retention.
Provenance: sponsor opening at s=5754.67 and hearing close noted at s=6502.96 in the transcript.
