If $1,000 is to go to each mentor in a given year and $300 per teacher mentor is given to the district for "other" costs, does the state stipulate how these "other" funds must be used?
The $1,300 is allocated to the district mentor program based on the number of beginning teachers in their first year of teaching starting with the fall semester, not per mentor. The remaining $300 after the $500 minimum per semester for the mentor is paid, may go toward the employer's share of contributions to federal social security (FICA) and the Iowa public employees' retirement system for a pension and annuity retirement system (IPERS). Other possibilities might include using the $300 to help pay for the mentor training. Refer to Iowa Administrative Code Chapter 281–98 for appropriate and inappropriate uses of categorical funding.