(a) The minimum salary scale for professional personnel and service personnel employed by the state Department of Education to provide education and support services to residents of state Department of Health and Human Resources facilities, corrections facilities providing services to juvenile and youthful offenders, in the West Virginia schools for the deaf and the blind and in public community and technical colleges providing middle college services is the same as set forth in sections two, three and eight-a of this article. Additionally, those personnel shall receive the equivalent of salary supplements paid to professional and service personnel employed by the county board in the county wherein each facility is located, as set forth in sections five-a and five-b of this article. Professional personnel and service personnel in these facilities who earn advanced classification of training after the effective date of this section shall be paid the advanced salary from the date the classification of training is earned. The professional personnel shall be certified, licensed or trained, and shall meet other eligibility classifications as may be required by the provisions of this chapter and by state board regulations for comparable instructional personnel who are employed by county boards. The professional personnel shall be paid at the equivalent rate of pay of teachers as set forth in section two of this article, but outside the public support plan, plus the equivalent of the salary supplement paid to teachers employed by the county board in the county in which each facility is located, as set forth in section five-a of this article.

(b) Professional personnel employed by the department to provide education services to residents in state Department of Health and Human Resources facilities, corrections facilities providing services to juvenile and youthful offenders, in the West Virginia schools for the deaf and the blind or in public community and technical colleges providing middle college services are afforded all the rights, privileges and benefits established for the professional personnel under this article, subject to the following:

(1) The benefits apply only within the facility at which the professional personnel are employed;

(2) The benefits exclude salaries unless explicitly provided for under this or other sections of this article; and

(3) Seniority for the professional personnel is determined on the basis of the length of time the employee has been professionally employed at the facility, regardless of which state agency was the actual employer.

(c) Professional personnel and service personnel employed by the Department of Education to provide education and support services to residents in state Department of Health and Human Resources facilities, corrections facilities providing services to juvenile and youthful offenders, the West Virginia schools for the deaf and the blind and in public community and technical colleges providing middle college services are state employees.

(d) Additional seniority provisions. --

(1) Notwithstanding any other provision of this section to the contrary, professional and service personnel employed in an educational facility operated by the West Virginia Department of Education accrue seniority at that facility on the basis of the length of time the employee has been employed at the facility. Professional and service personnel whose employment at the facility was preceded immediately by employment with the county board previously providing education services at the facility or whose employment contract was with the county board previously providing education services at the facility:

(A) Retains any seniority accrued during employment by the county board;

(B) Accrues seniority as a regular employee with the county board during employment at the facility;

(C) Attains continuing contract status in accordance with section two, article two, chapter eighteen-a of this code with both the county and the facility if the sum of the years employed by the county and the facility equals the statutory number required for continuing contract status; and

(D) Retains and continues to accrue county and facility seniority in the event of reemployment by the county as a result of direct transfer from the facility or recall from the preferred list.

(2) Reductions in work force in the facility or employment by the facility or county board are made in accordance with the provisions of sections seven-a and eight-b of this chapter. Only years of employment within the facility are considered for purposes of reduction in force within the facility.

(3) The seniority conferred in this section applies retroactively to all affected professional and service personnel, but the rights incidental to the seniority commence on the effective date of this section.

(4) Amendments made to this section during the 2009 regular session of the Legislature do not abrogate any rights, privileges or benefits bestowed under previous enactments of this section.