Senate Bill No. 720
(By Senators Browning and Deem)
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[Introduced March 23, 2009; referred to the Committee on
Education; then to the Committee on Pensions; and then to the
Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §18-7A-3 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to including service as a member of
a county board of education to be included as credit for
service for the state Teachers Retirement System.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §18-7A-3 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 7A. STATE TEACHERS RETIREMENT SYSTEM.
§18-7A-3. Definitions.
(a) As used in this article, unless the context clearly
require a different meaning:
(1) "Accumulated contributions" means all deposits and all
deductions from the gross salary of a contributor plus regular
interest.
(2) "Accumulated net benefit" means the aggregate amount of
all benefits paid to or on behalf of a retired member.
(3) "Annuities" means the annual retirement payments for life
granted beneficiaries in accordance with this article.
(4) "Average final salary" means the average of the five
highest fiscal year salaries earned as a member within the last
fifteen fiscal years of total service credit, including military
service as provided in this article, or if total service is less
than fifteen years, the average annual salary for the period on
which contributions were made.
(5) "Beneficiary" means the recipient of annuity payments made
under the retirement system.
(6) "Contributor" means a member of the retirement system who
has an account in the teachers accumulation fund.
(7) "Deposit" means a voluntary payment to his or her account
by a member.
(8) "Employer" means the agency of and within the state which
has employed or employs a member.
(9) "Employment term" means employment for at least ten
months, a month being defined as twenty employment days.
(10) "Gross salary" means the fixed annual or periodic cash
wages paid by a participating public employer to a member for
performing duties for the participating public employer for which
the member was hired. Gross salary also shall include retroactive payments made to a member to correct a clerical error, or pursuant
to a court order or final order of an administrative agency charged
with enforcing federal or state law pertaining to the member's
rights to employment or wages, with all the retroactive salary
payments to be allocated to and considered paid in the periods in
which the work was or would have been done. Gross salary shall not
include lump sum payments for bonuses, early retirement incentives,
severance pay, or any other fringe benefit of any kind including,
but not limited to, transportation allowances, automobiles or
automobile allowances, or lump sum payments for unused, accrued
leave of any type or character.
(11) "Internal Revenue Code" means the Internal Revenue Code
of 1986, as it has been amended.
(12) "Member" means a member of the retirement system.
(13) "Members of the administrative staff of the public
schools" means deans of instruction, deans of men, deans of women,
and financial and administrative secretaries.
(14) "Members of the extension staff of the public schools"
means every agricultural agent, boys' and girls' club agent and
every member of the agricultural extension staff whose work is not
primarily stenographic, clerical or secretarial.
(15) "New entrant" means a teacher who is not a present
teacher.
(16) "Nonteaching member" means any person, except a teacher member, who is regularly employed for full-time service by: (a)
Any county board of education; (b) the State Board of Education;
(c) the Higher Education Policy Commission, the West Virginia
Council for Community and Technical College Education or a
governing board, as defined in section two, article one, chapter
eighteen-b of this code; or (d) the Teachers' Retirement Board:
Provided, That any person whose employment with the Higher
Education Policy Commission, the West Virginia Council for
Community and Technical College Education or a governing board
commences on or after July 1, 1991, is not considered a nonteaching
member.
(17) "Pick-up service" means service that a member was
entitled to, but which the employer has not withheld or paid for.
(18) "Plan year" means the twelve-month period commencing on
July 1, and ending the following June 30 of any designated year.
(19) "Present member" means a present teacher or member of a
county board of education
who is a member of the retirement system.
(20) "Present teacher" means any person who was a teacher or
member of a county board of education
within the thirty-five years
beginning July 1, 1934, and whose membership in the retirement
system is currently active.
(21) "Prior service" means all service as a teacher or member
of a county board of education
completed prior to July 1, 1941, and
all service of a present member who was employed as a teacher, and did not contribute to a retirement account because he or she was
legally ineligible for membership during the service.
(22) "Public schools" means all publicly supported schools,
including colleges and universities in this state.
(23) "Refund beneficiary" means the estate of a deceased
contributor or a person he or she has nominated as beneficiary of
his or her contributions by written designation duly executed and
filed with the retirement board.
(24) "Refund interest" means interest compounded, according to
the formula established in legislative rules, series seven of the
Consolidated Public Retirement Board.
(25) "Regular interest" means interest at four percent
compounded annually, or a higher earnable rate if set forth in the
formula established in legislative rules, series seven of the
Consolidated Public Retirement Board.
(26) "Regularly employed for full-time service" means
employment in a regular position or job throughout the employment
term regardless of the number of hours worked or the method of pay.
(27) "Required beginning date" means April 1 of the calendar
year following the later of: (a) The calendar year in which the
member attains age seventy and one-half years; or (b) the calendar
year in which the member retires or ceases covered employment under
the system after having attained the age of seventy and one-half
years.
(28) "Retirement system" means the State Teachers' Retirement
System provided for in this article.
(29) "Teacher member" means the following persons, if
regularly employed for full-time service: (a) Any person employed
for instructional service in the public schools of West Virginia;
(b) principals; (c) public school librarians; (d) superintendents
of schools and assistant county superintendents of schools; (e) any
county school attendance director holding a West Virginia teacher's
certificate; (f) the Executive Secretary of the Retirement Board;
(g) members of the research, extension, administrative or library
staffs of the public schools; (h) the State Superintendent of
Schools, heads and assistant heads of the divisions under his or
her supervision, or any other employee under the state
superintendent performing services of an educational nature; (i)
employees of the State Board of Education who are performing
services of an educational nature; (j) any person employed in a
nonteaching capacity by the State Board of Education, any county
board of education, the State Department of Education or the
Teachers' Retirement Board, if that person was formerly employed as
a teacher in the public schools; (k) all classroom teachers,
principals and educational administrators in schools under the
supervision of the Division of Corrections, the Division of Health
or the Division of Human Services; (l) employees of the State Board
of School Finance, if that person was formerly employed as a teacher in the public schools; and (m) any person designated as a
21st Century Learner Fellow pursuant to section eleven, article
three, chapter eighteen-a of this code who elects to remain a
member of the Teachers' Retirement System provided for in this
article: Provided, That members of county boards of education
shall also be included as teacher members.
(30) "Total service" means all service as a teacher or member
of a county board of education while a member of the retirement
system since last becoming a member and, in addition thereto,
credit for prior service, if any.
The masculine gender shall be construed so as to include the
feminine.
Age in excess of seventy years shall be considered to be
seventy years.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is include service as a member
of a county board of education to be included as credit for service
for the State Teachers Retirement System.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.
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