However, Salford School principal Marlene Campbell rejected the offer within two days and also rejected an increased offer for an unspecified amount ''within hours'', ERA member Mike Loftus said in a decision on costs released on Wednesday.
In the decision he ordered Ms Campbell to pay the school $21,000 as a contribution towards its costs incurred in successfully defending the bulk of her claims at a six-day ERA hearing held last year.
The order can be appealed within 28 days.
Ms Campbell, who was suspended in late 2013 and dismissed in March last year, is still pursuing her personal grievance claim, seeking to clear her name and be reinstated to her job.
She won a partial victory at last year's hearing, when Mr Loftus found she was unjustifiably suspended by the school's limited statutory manager Peter Macdonald and ordered the school to pay her $5000.
But Mr Loftus dismissed Ms Campbell's claims she had been unjustifiably dismissed by school commissioner Nicola Hornsey and had been poorly treated by Ms Hornsey and Mr McDonald.
Her application for reinstatement was declined.
In its application for costs associated with the hearing the school said it had spent just over $150,000, excluding GST, including organising 20 witnesses and more than 1000 pages of evidence.
It said Ms Campbell should pay costs of $85,000, partly because she had rejected the two settlement offers made well before preparations for the hearing began.
In response, Ms Campbell said costs of around $15,000 would be fair because the offers did not provide for reinstatement to her job as she wanted, and because she had already suffered considerably financially and professionally.
Mr Loftus said Ms Campbell should pay costs because ''the school's level of success [at the hearing] totally overwhelmed Ms Campbell's''.
He calculated costs at the standard rate of $3500 per day.
Ms Hornsey said on Thursday almost all the school's expenses were covered by insurance and anything paid by Ms Campbell now would also go to the insurer.
The school had paid a $10,000 excess and had also met some other expenses associated with the hearing, she said.
However, the figure of $150,000 was still growing, Ms Hornsey said.
Ms Campbell appealed the ERA decision and another six-day Employment Court hearing was held last month.
Ms Hornsey said she did not know how much the school had spent on the appeal, as invoices were going straight to the insurer.
The appeal decision has not been released yet, but Ms Hornsey said the school would be putting in another claim for costs if the appeal was dismissed.
Ms Campbell could not be contacted for comment yesterday.
