The cost was "definitely in line" with what the school pays for other speakers, Principal Peter Anderson said. The money did not come from taxpayers; Anderson said he took the money from one of "a number of accounts that have been sitting around for years, with small amounts of money in them."

The school reimbursed speaker Mazin Qumsiyeh $138 in mileage for driving between his Connecticut home and Andover and paid speaker Joe Carr $211 for a plane ticket, Anderson said. Anderson did not know where Carr flew from.

Andover High School typically pays speakers an honorarium and, if they decline, offers to pay their travel expenses instead, Anderson said.

The Jan. 5 presentations by Wheels of Justice, an activist group that opponents say is extremist and anti-Israel, came at the end of a two-month controversy at the school. Anderson canceled the speakers' first planned visit in October but reversed his decision after teachers union President Tom Meyers threatened a First Amendment lawsuit.

The school hosted separate presentations for students during the day and for the general public that night. Anderson cut the public forum short after many adults in the crowd taunted and yelled at the speakers.

The School Department also paid its lawyers for consultations during the controversy. The cost of those services was not available yesterday, Superintendent Claudia Bach said.