(a) In accordance with Code Section 47-4-40, full-time public school lunchroom, maintenance, or warehouse managers or supervisors or full-time public school transportation managers or supervisors including those employed by postsecondary vocational-technical schools governed by the Department of Technical and Adult Education may elect to become members of the Teachers Retirement System of Georgia. Any such personnel exercising such option shall begin making the employee contributions required by this chapter.

(b) Members (1) who were previously eligible for membership in the Public School Employees Retirement System and whose duties were or have been changed in such a manner so as to have made them eligible for membership in the Teachers Retirement System of Georgia and (2) any personnel specified in subsection (a) of this Code section who elect to become members of the Teachers Retirement System of Georgia shall be permitted to establish credit for service rendered in a public school system prior to the date such employees become or became members of the Teachers Retirement System of Georgia, provided that such service would be or would have been normally allowable as creditable service under the Public School Employees Retirement System; provided, further, that such members must pay the employee contributions on the salary earned by such members during the years of service sought to be so established, plus applicable accrued regular interest compounded annually to the dates of payment at the rates adopted by the board of trustees. Such members or the local boards of education by which the members are employed at the time the service is established shall pay the employer contributions on the earnable compensation of such members that would have been paid to the Teachers Retirement System of Georgia, plus applicable accrued regular interest compounded annually to the dates of payment at the rates adopted by the board of trustees.

(c) The State of Georgia shall be the employer of personnel specified in subsection (a) of this Code section for the purposes of employer contributions on membership service rendered by such members after they become members of the Teachers Retirement System of Georgia; provided, however, that a local school system shall pay the employer contributions for the number of its managers or supervisors in each category of employment set forth in subsection (a) of this Code section who are members of this retirement system pursuant to this Code section which exceeds one person or 7 percent, whichever is greater, of the total number of employees of such local school system in such category; provided, further, that the state shall continue to pay employer contributions for all members who became members of this system pursuant to this Code section prior to April 1, 1992.