References:

UCA 49-13-408

It is the current policy of the Weber School District Board of Education to provide assistance to employees who wish to apply for early retirement benefits by purchasing service credit through Utah Public Employee’s Non-Contributory Retirement System as provided under Section 49-13-408 of the Utah Code Annotated (the State’s Credit Program).

This policy shall be implemented according to the following program:

1. To be eligible to participate, the employee must have a minimum of 10 years of service with Weber School District and be eligible to participate in the District’s early retirement benefit program.
   
   
2. To be eligible to participate, an employee must have elected and be eligible to participate in the State’s Credit Program which has, among others, the following conditions.
   
   
   • 2.1 The employee may purchase only the number of years of retirement credit needed to qualify for retirement eligibility without any actuarial reduction of benefits.
     
     
   • 2.2 The employee must have 25 years in the Utah State Retirement System and may purchase no more than a total of five years of retirement credit.
     
     
   • 2.3 The purchase must enable the employee to meet the retirement eligibility requirements of the Public Employee’s Non-Contributory Retirement System without an actuarial reduction.
     
     
3. The District will pay for the purchase of an eligible employee’s service credit as follows:
   
   
   • 3.1 Through the end of the first fiscal year of the early retirement incentive benefit, the employee may authorize the District to use his/her early retirement benefit to purchase one year service credit with no penalty for the employee. If more of the early retirement incentive is needed to purchase additional years, the employee will pay a penalty of 3% of the amount used to offset the District’s loss in interest earnings.
     
     
   • 3.2 The employee may, to the extent permissible, use 401(k) plan assets to facilitate this payment.
     
     
   • 3.3 The employee will be required to pay 5% of the total cost of all years purchased. The District contribution from any benefit program cannot exceed 95% of the total amount to purchase service credit.
     
     
   • 3.4 The employee will be responsible for all of the employee taxes which may result from participating in this program; the District will be held harmless from any tax liability or other problems an employee may have in connection with this policy.
     
     
   • 3.5 The employee must retire immediately upon purchasing such service credit.
     
     
   • 3.6 To the extent required by the State’s Credit Program, this program shall be operated on a nondiscriminatory participation standard for all of the District’s employees who are eligible for the District’s early retirement benefit program. 

Approved by the Board 11/02/2005