2005 West Virginia Code - §18-7A-3. — Definitions.

§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 shall also 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 such retroactive salary payments to be allocated to and deemed 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 West Virginia Board of Regents [abolished]; or (d) the Teachers Retirement Board.
(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 the first day of July and ending the following thirtieth day of June of any designated year.
(19) "Present member" means a present teacher who is a member of the retirement system.
(20) "Present teacher" means any person who was a teacher within the thirty-five years beginning the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred thirty-four, and whose membership in the retirement system is currently active.
(21) "Prior service" means all service as a teacher completed prior to the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred forty-one, 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 the first day of April 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; and (l) employees of the State Board of School Finance, if that person was formerly employed as a teacher in the public schools.
(30) "Total service" means all service as a teacher 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.

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