(a) Nonteaching employees shall mean all persons, except teachers, regularly employed for full-time service by the following educational agencies: (a) Any county board of education, (b) the state Board of Education, (c) the West Virginia board of regents, and (d) the Teachers' Retirement Board.

(b) Such nonteaching employees shall be entitled to all the rights, privileges and benefits provided for teachers by this article, upon the same terms and conditions as are herein prescribed for teachers. Any member who was employed as a regular full-time employee in a nonteaching capacity by a Board of Education, school principal or school administrator, prior to the time he became eligible for membership in the state Teachers Retirement System, shall be granted prior service credit for such service upon making application to the retirement board and providing satisfactory evidence of such service.

(c) Except as provided in section thirteen-b of this article, employees of the cooperative extension service and its predecessors in title, (agriculture extension division, West Virginia extension agency, and West Virginia University cooperative extension service) shall be entitled to all the rights, privileges and benefits provided for teachers by this article, upon the same terms and conditions as are herein prescribed for teachers. Any member of the extension service or its predecessors in title, who was employed for thirty hours or more per week, prior to the time he became eligible for membership in the state Teachers Retirement System, shall be granted service credit for such service upon making application to the retirement board and providing satisfactory evidence of such service. When the prior service is credited, each member of the retirement system so credited shall contribute an amount equal to the amount he would have contributed had he been a member of the retirement system during the period credited.