The legal tab for the Natchez-Adams School District grew again Wednesday.

U.S. District Court Judge David Bramlette added more pay and retirement benefits to the award a jury gave to former district principal Cindy Idom who argued that district leaders racially discriminated against her.

Based on court evidence and the jury’s decision, Bramlette’s decision seems sound and rooted in good, common sense, given the circumstances.

Not counting its own legal fees, the total liability against the district now stands at approximately $640,000.

Two more wrongful termination lawsuits are still pending in circuit court.

At what point will the Natchez-Adams School Board members address the matter publicly?

Given the court’s ruling, hopefully, members of the board will be adult enough to publicly apologize to Idom, who served the district with distinction for years before the latest ugliness.

In addition, we again suggest, despite the district’s best efforts to control the tone of public comment and its work to “poll the community” and the district’s own employees about morale, the district leadership’s credibility is shot.

The two top leaders of the district should be removed from their positions for failure to fairly treat its employees.

Until that’s done the damage to the district will continue to grow monetarily as more lawsuits head to trial.

More worrisome, however, is the high cost of rebuilding the district’s reputation, which will likely take years to fully accomplish.