WENATCHEE, Wash. – A Washington high school gym teacher on duty when a student drown during swim instruction will receive about $500,000 in a settlement with the Wenatchee school district.

Ed Knaggs was fired by the district in April 2012, roughly six months after he was overseeing a physical education class at the Wenatchee High School pool where student Antonio Reyes drowned in November 2011, the Associated Press reports.

“The freshman, who didn’t know how to swim, was found at the bottom of the pool nearly an hour after the class had ended,” according to the news service.

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Knaggs appealed the firing and Chelan county Superior Court Judge Lesley Allan ruled the district was equally responsible for Reyes’ death. Allan ordered Knaggs to be reinstated with back pay.

Earlier this month, district officials reached a settlement with the former educator that awards him $165,000 in pay to remain on leave through August 2016, as well as legal expenses and back pay.

Knaggs will receive a total of about $500,000 in compensation with the settlement, superintendent Brian Flones told The Wenatchee World.

And that’s in addition to $2 million the district has already paid through a wrongful death settlement with Reyes’ family.

“It’s been a long and difficult legal process,” Flones said. “As we look at it and all the circumstances and the healing process for Ed, the school, the family and the community, we felt this would be in the best interests for all of us to move on.”

“The settlement pays Knaggs his base teaching salary of $82,500 a year. He will also receive standard health benefits and retirement contributions. He can’t work for another school or government agency during the two-year period,” the AP reports.

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The former teacher’s settlement was signed by Flones, Knaggs, and Knaggs’ attorney, though the local teachers union also approved the deal, according to the news service.

While the Knaggs settlement may “be in the best interests of all of us to move on,” it’s certainly not the best use of scarce school dollars, especially considering that the teacher’s lack of oversight likely was a contributing factor in the student’s death.

It seems illogical, to say the least, to pay an employee who made such an egregious mistake two years worth of salary, and back pay, and health benefits, and retirement contributions, to simply not come to work anymore.

Public schools officials should have the authority to permanently terminate teachers who they believe are not responsible enough to do their jobs, regardless of the reason. But in far too many cases, union work rules and state tenure laws award educators protections that are unheard of in the private sector, and it’s obviously costing taxpayers much more than it should.