A state audit of the Bethel Park School District turned up poor record-keeping and inaccurate reporting that led to the district receiving overpayments of more than $200,000 in state reimbursements.
The overpayment — $220,913 in total – came from inaccurate numbers regarding student transportation reported to the state Department of Education. The audit covered the 2016-2017 school year through 2019-2020.
James Cromie, a spokesperson for the district, said better procedures have been put into place to prevent such errors going forward.
“The overpayments were the unfortunate result of the district not having the proper documentation on file for the number of non-public students listed on its state transportation reports during the 2017 through 2020 fiscal years,” Cromie said in a statement. “The district has since developed new procedures to help it maintain the proper documentation for all students who use Bethel Park School District transportation and to correct any potential reporting mistakes going forward.”
School districts receive two types of transportation reimbursements from the state: one for regular transportation that is based on the number of students, number of vehicles, and number of miles.
The other type is a supplemental transportation reimbursement, which is based on the number of private and charter school students transported over the course of the school year.
The report notes that it is key for the district to keep track of how many nonpublic school students and charter school students it transports. The district over-reported that data by more the 500 over the course of five years, which led to the district receiving thousands of dollars more than it should have received each year.
Families of students in charter and private schools have to submit a written request to the district each year in order for the student to use district transportation, yet the report found “the district made multiple errors when categorizing and reporting
The auditor noted that employees tasked with keeping the transportation data weren’t properly trained, nor was there a proper review process in place.
