2009 Nebraska Code
Chapter 79 SCHOOLS
79-978 Terms, defined.

79-978. Terms, defined.

For purposes of the Class V School Employees Retirement Act, unless the context otherwise requires:

(1) Retirement system or system means the School Employees' Retirement System of (corporate name of the school district as described in section 79-405) as provided for by the act;

(2) Board means the board of education of the school district;

(3) Trustee means a trustee provided for in section 79-980;

(4) Employee means the following enumerated persons receiving compensation from the school district: (a) Regular teachers and administrators employed on a written contract basis; and (b) regular employees, not included in subdivision (4)(a) of this section, hired upon a full-time basis, which basis shall contemplate a workweek of not less than thirty hours;

(5) Member means any employee included in the membership of the retirement system or any former employee who has made contributions to the system and has not received a refund;

(6) Annuitant means any member receiving an allowance;

(7) Beneficiary means any person entitled to receive or receiving a benefit by reason of the death of a member;

(8) Membership service means service on or after September 1, 1951, as an employee of the school district and a member of the system for which compensation is paid by the school district. Credit for more than one year of membership service shall not be allowed for service rendered in any fiscal year. Beginning September 1, 2005, a member shall be credited with a year of membership service for each fiscal year in which the member performs one thousand or more hours of compensated service as an employee of the school district. An hour of compensated service shall include any hour for which the member is compensated by the school district during periods where no service is performed due to vacation or approved leave. If a member performs less than one thousand hours of compensated service during a fiscal year, one-tenth of a year of membership service shall be credited for each one hundred hours of compensated service by the member in such fiscal year. In determining a member's total membership service, all periods of membership service, including fractional years of membership service in one-tenth-year increments, shall be aggregated;

(9) Prior service means service rendered prior to September 1, 1951, for which credit is allowed under section 79-999, service rendered by retired employees receiving benefits under preexisting systems, and service for which credit is allowed under sections 79-990, 79-991, 79-994, 79-995, and 79-997;

(10) Creditable service means the sum of the membership service and the prior service, measured in one-tenth-year increments;

(11) Compensation means salary or wages payable by the school district before reduction for contributions picked up under section 414(h) of the Internal Revenue Code, elective contributions made pursuant to section 125 or 403(b) of the code, or amounts not currently includible in income by reason of section 132(f)(4) of the code, subject to the applicable limitations of section 401(a)(17) of the code;

(12) Military service means service in the uniformed services as defined in 38 U.S.C. 4301 et seq., as such provision existed on March 27, 1997;

(13) Accumulated contributions means the sum of amounts contributed by a member of the system together with regular interest credited thereon;

(14) Regular interest means interest (a) on the total contributions of the member prior to the close of the last preceding fiscal year, (b) compounded annually, and (c) at rates to be determined annually by the board, which shall have the sole, absolute, and final discretionary authority to make such determination, except that the rate for any given year in no event shall exceed the actual percentage of net earnings of the system during the last preceding fiscal year;

(15) Retirement date means the date of retirement of a member for service or disability as fixed by the board;

(16) Normal retirement date means the end of the month during which the member attains age sixty-five and has completed at least five years of membership service;

(17) Early retirement date means that month and year selected by a member having at least ten years of creditable service which includes a minimum of five years of membership service and who has attained age fifty-five;

(18) Retirement allowance means the total annual retirement benefit payable to a member for service or disability;

(19) Annuity means annual payments, for both prior service and membership service, for life as provided in the Class V School Employees Retirement Act;

(20) Actuarial tables means:

(a) For determining the actuarial equivalent of any annuities other than joint and survivorship annuities, a unisex mortality table using twenty-five percent of the male mortality and seventy-five percent of the female mortality from the 1994 Group Annuity Mortality Table with a One Year Setback and using an interest rate of eight percent compounded annually; and

(b) For joint and survivorship annuities, a unisex retiree mortality table using sixty-five percent of the male mortality and thirty-five percent of the female mortality from the 1994 Group Annuity Mortality Table with a One Year Setback and using an interest rate of eight percent compounded annually and a unisex joint annuitant mortality table using thirty-five percent of the male mortality and sixty-five percent of the female mortality from the 1994 Group Annuity Mortality Table with a One Year Setback and using an interest rate of eight percent compounded annually;

(21) Actuarial equivalent means the equality in value of the retirement allowance for early retirement or the retirement allowance for an optional form of annuity, or both, with the normal form of the annuity to be paid, as determined by the application of the appropriate actuarial table, except that use of such actuarial tables shall not effect a reduction in benefits accrued prior to September 1, 1985, as determined by the actuarial tables in use prior to such date;

(22) Fiscal year means the period beginning September 1 in any year and ending on August 31 of the next succeeding year;

(23) Primary beneficiary means the person or persons entitled to receive or receiving a benefit by reason of the death of a member; and

(24) Secondary beneficiary means the person or persons entitled to receive or receiving a benefit by reason of the death of all primary beneficiaries prior to the death of the member. If no primary beneficiary survives the member, secondary beneficiaries shall be treated in the same manner as primary beneficiaries.

Source

Laws 1951, c. 274, § 1, p. 910;
Laws 1953, c. 308, § 1, p. 1025;
Laws 1967, c. 544, § 1, p. 1786;
Laws 1976, LB 994, § 1;
Laws 1982, LB 131, § 1;
Laws 1985, LB 215, § 1;
Laws 1987, LB 298, § 5;
Laws 1988, LB 1142, § 9;
Laws 1988, LB 551, § 2;
Laws 1989, LB 237, § 1;
Laws 1991, LB 350, § 1;
Laws 1992, LB 1001, § 20;
Laws 1993, LB 107, § 1;
Laws 1995, LB 505, § 1;
R.S.Supp.,1995, § 79-1032;
Laws 1996, LB 900, § 613;
Laws 1997, LB 347, § 28;
Laws 1997, LB 623, § 28;
Laws 1998, LB 497, § 6;
Laws 2000, LB 155, § 1;
Laws 2005, LB 364, § 11;
Laws 2010, LB950, § 17.
Operative Date: July 1, 2010

Cross References

For supplemental retirement benefits, see sections 79-940 to 79-947.