Gov. Mike Easley’s office wasn’t happy to learn that Derry A. Schmidt had returned to work as an engineer for the state Department of Transportation.

DOT dismissed Schmidt after a racially charged confrontation in May 2007 with a school bus driver in the Cary Elementary School parking lot. He was convicted of misdemeanor assault and sentenced in January to 25 days of house arrest and three years’ probation, reports Bruce Siceloff.

Schmidt challenged his firing with the state Office of Administrative Hearings. He dropped the appeal after reaching a confidential settlement with DOT, and he returned to his old job — with a raise he would have received last summer — on June 30.

“The governor’s office is concerned about the decision to reinstate him, and we are looking into it,” Renee Hoffman, Easley’s press secretary, told Dome. She declined to elaborate.

Derry A. Schmidt has returned to work as an engineer for the state Department of Transportation, which dismissed him last year after he was charged with assaulting a Wake County school bus driver.

Schmidt, of Cary, was sentenced in January to 25 days of house arrest and three years’ probation after a jury convicted him of misdemeanor assault. He was arrested in May 2007 after a racially tinged confrontation in the Cary Elementary School parking lot.

The driver testified that Schmidt cursed at her, uttered a racial slur and bumped her with his car.

Schmidt’s attorney, John E. Campion of Raleigh, said Schmidt had challenged his firing with the state Office of Administrative Hearings, reports Bruce Siceloff. He dropped his appeal after reaching a settlement with DOT.

“The settlement terms are confidential, but he has returned to work in the position he held before he was dismissed,” Campion said.

A DOT spokesman confirmed that Schmidt was reinstated on June 30 as a transportation engineer in the transportation planning branch.