A Mercer County Common Pleas Court judge will decide if three schools districts can borrow money to cover health-care costs that must be paid by June 30.

Farrell, Sharon and Reynolds school districts have petitioned the court to borrow up to $900,000 each to pay an unanticipated bill from the Western Pennsylvania Schools Health Care Consortium. The hearing is set for 9:30 a.m. April 9.

The consortium -- which is made up of 12 school districts, seven from Mercer County -- pays the health-care costs of its member districts' employees. School directors learned in February that the consortium is about $4 million in debt and the member districts must pay that debt.

School districts that need to borrow money must petition the court for permission because, by law, school districts are not allowed to have unfunded debt.

Sharon owes the consortium $680,000; Farrell, $519,000; and Reynolds, $400,000.

West Middlesex school directors used $247,000 of the district's fund balance to pay the consortium, and Jamestown school officials said the district saved money in case of a bad health care year. Jamestown will use that savings to pay its $162,000 bill.

It is unknown how Hermitage and Commodore Perry will pay their portions of the debt.

West Middlesex school directors said Monday they are going to talk to representatives from Keystone Research Inc., Greenville, about conducting an audit of the consortium's finances to determine how the debt was incurred.