January 28, 1991

Ms. Connie Posey
Route 66, Box 22
Corley, West Virginia 26616

Dear Ms. Posey:

You have asked:

1. Are my three and one half years of secretarial employment at Glenville State College creditable toward the twelve years necessary to be reclassified from a Secretary II to a Secretary III?

No, because W.Va. Code 18A-4-8 prescribes in the Secretary III definition that this promotion (by operation of law) happens to ". . . any personnel who have served in a position which meets the definitions of 'secretary II' or 'secretary III' herein for twelve years, . . ." and these secretaries II and III are secretaries who are employed by a county board of education to serve in the public school system. A state college is not part of the public school system.

According to W.Va. Code 18A-4-5b, on the other hand, you can get work experience pay for your college secretarial work. This is a personnel policy matter for the county board of education; however, it must be uniform in granting supplementary salary to its classification categories of service employees.

2. If this is not creditable as work experience, can it be counted toward retirement?

As stated above, this can be work experience although not "years of employment"* which would count toward promotion to Secretary III by operation of law.

_______________

* W.Va. Code 18A-4-8 reads in part, "'Years of employment' means the number of years which an employee classified as service personnel has been employed by a county board of education in any position . . ." 

Ms. Connie Posey
January 28, 1991
Page 2

Your question about retirement credit should be addressed to:

The Teachers' Retirement Board
Capitol Complex, Building 5, Room 1014 1900 Kanawha Boulevard, East
Charleston, West Virginia 25305
Telephone (304) 348-3570 or 1-800-642-8509

Hoping that I have been of service, I am,

Sincerely,

/s/

Henry Marockie
State Superintendent of Schools

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