BEAUFORT -- A victim of a convicted child molester and former teacher will get more than $500,000 in a settlement approved by the Beaufort County Board of Education on Tuesday.

The board voted 9-0 to pay $563,500 out of the district's budget to the eighth victim of Philip Underwood-Sheppard. The settlement will not increase taxes.

Reading from a prepared statement at a school board meeting, board Chairman Fred Washington Jr. said the district chose to settle with the victim immediately to avoid a protracted legal dispute that would cost taxpayers money and prevent the victim from moving on.

"We deeply regret the harm that Underwood-Sheppard brought onto these students," he said. "The board is hopeful that by settling this now, we have taken another step toward concluding a tragic and sad episode in our county."

Underwood-Sheppard, a former music teacher at Coosa Elementary School, was sentenced to 25 years in prison in 2003 after pleading guilty to molesting at least nine students between the ages of 6 and 13 from 1999 to 2002. The County Council finalized a $4.6 million settlement in August for six victims, and a seventh case was settled and paid by district

liability insurers. A ninth victim died.

To pay for the $4.6 million settlement, the County Council passed a small tax increase in school operations taxes paired with an equivalent offset in school debt taxes. Primary homeowners actually saved money on their tax bills.

The district sued S.C. School Boards Insurance Trust and United National Insurance, a liability insurer, in June to recover the cost of the settlements. United National claims state tort law treats the molestation cases as a single incident and paid out only $300,000. The seven other victims each received $758,333, Washington said.

It is unclear when the insurance lawsuit will be resolved.

On Tuesday, the board directed the Wyche law firm in Greenville to look into recovering money from those insurers to cover the eighth victim's settlement.

The eighth victim sued in October and rejected a $300,000 settlement offer in February. The district and the victim agreed to mediation, which took place Friday in Charleston, said Tom Holloway, a Beaufort attorney representing the victim.

"I'm pleased the district acknowledged their fault in the matter," he said. "This is the eighth case, and I think that we've all learned a lot about the dangers of pedophiles in the schools, and by resolving the cases the way they did, I know the district is acknowledging their responsibility to these families."