Four years ago, Ejessica Brown had a Goldilocks moment. But when 5-year-old Ejessica woke up, the surprise was finding herself alone in a classroom trailer at Raleigh's Powell Elementary.

That incident has turned into a $18,770 settlement for the girl, now 9, and an admission from the Wake school board that she was left alone. The deal still has to be approved by a judge.

For at least a year, Ejessica's mother has been pursuing financial compensation for the day her daughter was forgotten by school officials. Last September, Crystal Brown demanded $76,230 from the school board's insurance company to settle the case.

The parties compromised at 25 percent of the mother's demand. The money will be held in trust by the Wake Clerk of Superior Court until 2015, when Ejessica turns 18.

The three-hour episode on Nov. 21, 2002, began during dismissal at Powell. By the time the kindergartner wandered to the main building, it was dark outside.

According to a Raleigh police report, Ejessica went missing between 3 p.m. and 6:20 p.m. that day. The report says her father, Theodore Brown, called authorities at 6:20 p.m. to report his daughter missing.

Raleigh police spokesman Jim Sughrue described the responding officer's narrative of the incident.

"She had apparently fallen asleep in a modular classroom or trailer sometime in the afternoon not too long before school was to let out. Somehow, she was missed," Sughrue said. "She awoke in the trailer, left the trailer and, apparently, went to one of the back doors of the school -- the rear entrance of the school -- and knocked on the door. A janitor who was still there let her in and started making the appropriate contacts."

Sughrue confirmed that at least one school administrator was searching the campus when Ejessica turned up.

"By the time [the father] arrived at the school, the juvenile had been found," Sughrue said.

Then-PTA president Rhonda Beatty remembers that evening. At about 6:20 p.m., she was headed to Powell for a 7 p.m. PTA board meeting.

"I got a phone call from another parent telling me that a child was missing," said Beatty, a volunteer and stay-at-home mother of three who had two children at Powell that year.

Beatty said the girl's older brother told a day care van driver that his little sister had not boarded the bus and that he later told officials at the day care center that his sister hadn't been on the bus.

The incident is no secret on the tight-knit campus of Powell, a magnet school in East Raleigh.

Revelations of the settlement, however, emerged in the public record through court documents appointing Raleigh lawyer Jason Tuttle as Ejessica's guardian ad litem to ensure that the child's best interest is protected in the deal. Ejessica and her mother, Crystal Brown, are named as plaintiffs in the case.

Bill McNeal, who was the Wake superintendent of schools in 2002 and recently retired from the district, said Monday that he "vaguely" remembers the incident, but couldn't offer any details.

Those who will sign the confidential settlement, including Ejessica's parents and her guardian ad litem, cannot talk about its terms.

"The school board admits that Ejessica was unattended on Nov. 21, 2002, for a period of time but denies any negligence or liability," said Neal Ramee, the Raleigh lawyer who represents the school board and its insurance company.

The settlement will be paid by Utica Mutual Insurance Co. based on a commercial general liability insurance policy issued in the name of the Wake County Board of Education, court papers say.

"Neither the insurance company nor the school board will comment on a pending case when there are minors involved and a settlement," Ramee said.

Crystal Brown also declined to comment for this story.

Beatty, the former Powell PTA president, said she was concerned about Ejessica that day.

"It's a little person and you want to do everything you can to keep her safe," she said. "Nobody meant for it to happen."