School Board members approved a settlement — reduced from $16,200 to $5,200 — between the Iowa City School District and the Iowa Occupational Safety and Health Division of Labor Services Tuesday night.

Safety officials reduced the fine, issued this summer, after district officials contested some of the safety violations they discovered.

District officials contested the fine because they believed they were actually in compliance on many of the issues safety officials cited.

“We wanted to demonstrate to Occupational Safety and Health that we do take safety seriously,” said Paul Bobek, the executive director of administrative services.

District officials have developed a better system to annually review safety systems they have in place, he said.

Safety officials originally cited 11 violations, including asbestos-related concerns. The fine reduction did not reflect which issues the district was in compliance on, Bobek said, and the roughly $5,000 fine combined costs for all the remaining violations.

By Holly Hines