The North Allegheny School District owes the A.W. Beattie Career Center nearly $700,000 after the discovery of a clerical error that resulted in the district not paying its proper share for over four years to the vocational and technical education school in McCandless.
That happened because the number of North Allegheny students attending A.W. Beattie was undercounted from 2021 to 2024, according to A.W. Beattie Executive Director Eric Heasley and Greg Stein, president of Beattie’s Joint Operating Committee and a Hampton School Board member.
Because North Allegheny wasn’t paying enough, the eight other districts that belong to A.W. Beattie were paying too much. Those eight districts will get that money back as a credit on their payments for the 2025-26 school year.
“They will be immediately made whole,” Stein said.
The credits being issued to the other districts are Shaler Area, $139,311; North Hills, $132,810; Deer Lakes, $95,864; Hampton, $83,831; Northgate, $63,897; Pine-Richland, $56,843; Avonworth, $49,703; and Fox Chapel Area, $47,634.
North Allegheny will pay what it owes over eight years, having it paid in full by July 31, 2033, district spokesman Randy Gore said.
“Although North Allegheny submitted accurate enrollment data to support proper allocation determination, the district was undercharged and did not contribute its full proportional share,” Superintendent Brendan Hyland said in a statement. “Once this discrepancy was identified and communicated to us, North Allegheny representatives collaborated with the Joint Operating Committee to reach an agreement that ensures the district is able to provide its fair share based on proper allocation figures.”
As North Allegheny pays what it owes, A.W. Beattie will cover the shortfall from its fund balance, Heasley said.
Beattie has $664,000 in its unrestricted fund balance, according to the school’s 2025-26 proposed budget.
“We’ll manage. We’ll be fine,” Heasley said. “It won’t affect programming. That’s the key for everybody.”
The nine school districts that participate in A.W. Beattie contribute toward its operating budget and debt service based on their attendance, using a five-year average, Stein said.
North Allegheny sends the most students to Beattie, 206 this school year. That’s followed by North Hills, 200; Shaler, 134; Deer Lakes, 131; Northgate, 87; Hampton, 84; Pine-Richland, 69; Fox Chapel, 60; and Avonworth, 49, according to Heasley.
The problem occurred when some of the 10th grade students coming to Beattie from North Allegheny’s junior high school were not counted, Stein said.
“I missed catching it,” Heasley said.
By how much North Allegheny’s enrollment was undercounted was not immediately available.
“It’s a mistake,” Stein said. “There’s no gain by any party from the mistake or anything else.”
To ensure such an error does not happen again, an auditor will verify the districts’ attendance as part of the annual audit process, Beattie spokesman Shawn Annarelli said.
Beattie’s proposed 2025-26 budget is about $12 million, up from about $11.6 million this year. The nine member districts contribute a total of $7.6 million, including about $1.4 million for bond debt.
The districts’ total contributions to Beattie for 2025-26, including bond debt, is North Allegheny, $1.6 million; North Hills, $1.3 million; Shaler, $1.1 million; Deer Lakes, $822,000; Hampton, $728,000; Fox Chapel, $557,000; Pine-Richland, $533,000; Northgate, $500,000; and Avonworth, $454,000.
The districts’ bond debt shares are North Allegheny, $337,000; Fox Chapel, $216,000; North Hills, $203,000; Shaler, $190,000; Pine-Richland, $156,000; Hampton, $120,000; Deer Lakes, $70,000; Avonworth, $51,000; and Northgate, $44,000.