Phil Shar, fired last year as the girls high school basketball coach in the West Mifflin Area School District, has settled a federal lawsuit he filed against the district for $30,000.

Mr. Shar was terminated in a 5-4 vote of the school board in June after then-superintendent Patrick Risha opened his contract because the coach had publicly criticized Mr. Risha. The board replaced Mr. Shar with one of his assistants.

Mr. Shar then ran a write-in campaign for the school board and won, beating incumbent Diana Olasz and creating a new board majority. Shortly after the election, Mr. Risha retired with two years remaining on his contract.

Mr. Shar sued in December, alleging in U.S. District Court that he had been terminated wrongly and that his right to free speech had been violated. Defendants were the school district, school board members and Mr. Risha.

The suit sought compensatory damages, Mr. Shar's reinstatement as coach and an order permanently forbidding the defendants from discriminating against or retaliating against him.

There is no mention in the settlement document about Mr. Shar returning to coaching.

The settlement says that Mr. Shar, his family, the school district, school directors and Mr. Risha "agree that they will keep confidential the terms of any amount paid under this settlement agreement ... as well as any underlying disputes among them, except as required to be disclosed by law."

The document was released to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in response to a Right To Know request.

The settlement also states that those involved agreed "not to disparage, or make disparaging remarks" about each other, but points out that this does not mean Mr. Shar cannot speak out about matters that come before the school board.

The settlement also contains a clause that notes the payment on behalf of the district, the board and Mr. Risha does not constitute any admission of legal wrongdoing.

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