Sec. 6. 5 MRSA §18252, as amended by PL 2001, c. 699, §3, is further amended to read:

§18252. Membership in districts with Social Security coverage

under Social Security Section 218 agreement

An employee who is or would be covered by the United States Social Security Act as a result of employment by a participating local district having a so-called "Social Security Section 218 agreement" may elect to join, not to join, to cease contributions to or to withdraw from the retirement system under the following conditions.

1. New employees. A new employee may join the retirement system at the beginning of his employment or on any anniversary of the beginning of his employment, so long as he the employee is still an employee of the participating local district and the district continues to be a participating local district.

2. Employee who is participating member. An employee who is a participating member of the retirement system and who wishes may elect to withdraw from cease contributions to the system may and, at the employee's discretion, may withdraw accumulated contributions in accordance with the procedures in section 18306.

3. Employee who has previously ceased contributions. An employee who has previously withdrawn from elected to cease contributions to the retirement system, whether or not accumulated contributions have been withdrawn, may choose to rejoin the system within 3 years of withdrawal at any time under the following conditions.

A. The If the employee withdrew accumulated contributions and is rejoining the system within 3 years of the date that a refund was paid under section 18306, the employee must repay to the retirement system an amount equivalent to the withdrawn accumulated contributions plus the amount of interest which that would be required of any terminated employee who had become reemployed and had elected to rejoin the retirement system and to repay the contributions.

A-1.__If the employee withdrew accumulated contributions and is rejoining the system more than 3 years from the date that a refund was paid under section 18306, the employee may not