PASADENA, Texas (AP) - A fifth-grade teacher will resign at the end of the semester, as part of a settlement with school district officials who considered firing her over letters her students wrote to the state's top education official.

Vicki Williams, 50, has been assigned a desk job, officials said Friday.

Last spring, the Mae Smythe Elementary School teacher instructed her students to write letters to state legislators voicing their concerns about education issues.

According to district officials, Williams coached her students on what to write. Officials said they were particularly concerned about references some students made to the 1979 suicide of Rep. Kent Grusendorf's teenage son.

Grusendorf, R-Arlington, is chairman of the House public education committee, and an advocate of school vouchers and streamlining state education spending. He could not be reached for comment.

The Pasadena Independent School District board is expected to vote Tuesday at its regular meeting on whether to accept the agreement between the school district and Williams' lawyers.

Kevin Lungwitz, Texas State Teachers Association general counsel, and Williams' lawyer, said he doesn't know how she introduced the topic of the suicide of Grusendorf's son with the children.

"But she did tell them he had suffered this type of tragedy," Lungwitz said. "I can assure you it was not done maliciously but in an attempt to explain his political motivation and the letters from the kids bear that out."

He said only a few of the letters refer to the suicide.

Prior to this incident, Williams had an unblemished career with the district and received the highest job reviews that a teacher can attain in the district, Lungwitz said.

As a member of the teacher's association and president of the Pasadena Educators Association, Williams participated in a lobbying trip to Austin during her spring break in March. She dropped the letters off at the office of Rep. Joe Moreno, D-Houston, who later delivered them to Grusendorf, who chairs the public education committee.

Many of the students pleaded for legislators to spare field trips, textbooks and teacher salaries from the budget ax, the Houston Chronicle reported in its Saturday editions.

The letters eventually landed in the hands of district officials who accused Williams of flouting the school system's standard of professional conduct.

"Students wrote letters to Rep. Grusendorf containing inappropriate personal attacks, some of which specifically referenced his personal tragedy," Pasadena Superintendent Rick Schneider said in a prepared statement released Friday.

It is unclear whether Williams read the letters before she took them to Austin.

"I think one of her biggest mistakes was not fully proofing the letters and she admits that," Lungwitz said. "She has been forthright about that from day one."

Schneider said the district has a responsibility to protect young children from being used to advance a teacher's personal views. "In this case, the teacher used poor judgment and clearly crossed the line," he said. "It is an unfortunate incident for her, the school district, and, most importantly, for Rep. Grusendorf and the children involved."

Pasadena is 10 miles outside of Houston.