CHICAGO HEIGHTS | The former Sandridge Elementary School principal who was secretly recorded having sex with a teacher in his office at school will have his education credentials suspended for two years.

Leroy Coleman averted a public hearing before a state-appointed hearing officer Friday and the possible revocation of his teaching and administrative certificates when he agreed to a settlement reached between his attorneys and those representing the Illinois State Board of Education just prior to the hearing's start.

MORE: Read the State Superintendent's consent order and the the stipulations.

"What my client wanted was to save the public airing of this two-year-old matter," Raymond Wigell, an attorney for Coleman, said afterward. "This is a circus having to do with the past."

Coleman stepped down from his job as principal in April 2007 after copies of a DVD recording began circulating showing him having sex in his office with Janet Lofton, a Sandridge teacher at the time, on various occasions between December 2006 and January 2007. The video also showed Coleman hugging and touching then-teacher aide Anjayla Reed on a separate occasion. Along with Coleman, Lofton and Reed also resigned from Sandridge.

Lofton, Reed, former Sandridge Elementary District 172 School Board President Bettina Grivetti-Collins and Sandridge employees Dyana and Jack McCleverty were at the hearing after having been subpoenaed by the state board as potential witnesses. Coleman, two District 172 attorneys, the district's superintendent and board president also were observers.

For the past two years, District 172 attorneys have been asking for a public hearing and for Coleman's teaching and administrative certificates to be suspended and ultimately revoked.

Charges against Coleman were dismissed by the suburban Cook County regional superintendent's office after a Nov. 30, 2007, hearing was held in closed session. Anthony G. Scariano, a District 172 attorney, objected, and he and fellow attorney Alan M. Mullins refused to participate further and walked out. Mullins then called upon Illinois State Superintendent Christopher Koch to conduct a public hearing and revoke Coleman's certificates permanently or at least suspend them for five years.

Under the terms of the settlement, Coleman's credentials will be reinstated by the state board of education after the two-year suspension period "in the absence of any additional conduct warranting further action."

But District 172 attorney Jack Murphy said he does not think the two-year suspension of Coleman's certificates was sufficient.

"It doesn't represent the gravity of what he was charged with," he said.

Murphy said the settlement is "outrageous" because it contains no acknowledgement from Coleman that he did anything wrong.

"They're (the Illinois State Board of Education) giving him a huge break," he said.

The district has a lawsuit pending against Coleman in Cook County Circuit Court. A status hearing on the case is set for Monday.