HELENA — A bill its sponsor called “easy-peasy” would allow retired teachers to keep their benefits while returning to tutor their replacements.
The House State Administration Committee heard the first testimony on House Bill 359 Tuesday. Rep. Jamie Isaly, D-Bozeman, is sponsoring the bill.
“This just opens the door for retired teachers to perhaps get paid to help newly hired teachers that are taking over in their past teaching role without jeopardizing their retirement distribution,” Isaly said.
Rob Watson, Executive Director of the School Administrators of Montana and proponent of the bill, said that three years ago, around 30% of Montana teachers left the profession in their first five years.
“So one of the things nationwide that's proved effective is having robust mentoring programs in the first couple of years,” Watson said.
The Montana Office of Public Instruction requires some sort of new teacher mentorship program for a school to be accredited. Under current teachers’ retirement system laws, newly retired teachers cannot return to their schools for 120 days.
”But by the time school starts in August or September, if a retired teacher hasn't come back in, chances are they've moved on and they're doing something else,” Watson said.
Watson said HB 359 would allow those teachers to start mentoring immediately. The bill saw no opponents in its Tuesday hearing.
House Bill 340 is also making its way through the House, a bill that also aims to increase retention rates through bolstering teacher training and mentorship.
Clayton Murphy is a reporter with the UM Legislative News Service, a partnership of the University of Montana School of Journalism, the Montana Broadcasters Association, the Montana Newspaper Association and the Greater Montana Foundation. Murphy can be reached at clayton.murphy@umconnect.umt.edu.
