COSTA MESA, NEWPORT BEACH : Judge Rejects Lawsuit Against School District

A federal judge Tuesday rejected an age-discrimination lawsuit filed against the Newport-Mesa Unified School District by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

U.S. District Judge Gary Taylor found that the school district has not been discriminating against older applicants who generally command higher salaries than less-experienced applicants. The ruling affirmed Taylor’s tentative decision last month.

The EEOC accused the school district last August of regularly discriminating against teachers who are older than 40. In the suit, which was a test case for California, the commission cited the case of a 42-year-old woman with 16 years’ experience who was turned down in favor of a younger woman hired for $12,000 per year less.

The suit was the first to challenge the widespread practice in the state’s public schools of hiring teachers based, in part, on applicants’ potential salaries.

Taylor found that the school district had not discriminated against Marilyn Weinman, who applied for a kindergarten teaching position in 1991. Taylor said the district’s decision was not discriminatory because it was not based on a blanket policy against hiring older people. Rather, the district evaluated her case individually.

“There is no evidence the district’s hiring decisions are based on the average cost of employing older teachers,” Taylor wrote. “Weinman was not rejected because older teachers generally have higher salaries. She was rejected because she would have cost more than the person who was hired.”

District officials were pleased by the court’s ruling.

“I think it’s terrific,” school board member Martha Fluor said. “I’m very confident in our hiring procedure. While we continue to hire the best possible person, clearly if we have two equally qualified people, but one who is less expensive, we are going to go with the less expensive teacher. I think you’ll find that in any school district in the state of California.”

Attorneys who handled the EEOC lawsuit could not be reached for comment.