Full opinion text
OPINION VERON, District Judge. This matter was originally filed by the named plaintiffs, Johnnie Adams, Wilbert D. Rochelle, Melton Alfred, Margaret Oscar and Arthur Lewis, individually and as a class action claiming a broad range of allegedly discriminatory employment practices of the Jefferson Davis Parish School Board. All of the originally named plaintiffs were certified teachers employed by the Jefferson Davis Parish School Board who were serving in various professional capacities within the Jefferson Davis Parish School System. Subsequently by amended complaints, Hilda Beloney, a lunchroom worker, Dazzetta Thorne, an applicant for a clerical position, and Jessie Allison, a teacher-coach, were added as named plaintiffs. The action was brought pursuant to Title VII of the Civil Rights Acts of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000c, as amended, with the original named plaintiffs having filed charges with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) alleging discrimination on the basis of race. Plaintiff Margaret Oscar also alleged discrimination on the basis of sex. This suit was also instituted pursuant to 42 U.S.C. Sections 1981 and 1983 and jurisdiction was invoked pursuant to 28 U.S.C. Sections 1343(3), (4), 2201, 1331, and the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution. In general, as this Court found in its ruling of October 11,1977, plaintiffs asserted in their complaints that they represented the class of all employees or potential employees of defendants (the individual school board members were also sued in their individual and official capacities) who have been or will be discriminated against because of their race. It was claimed that the alleged discrimination took the form of refusal to hire certain black applicants as well as the refusal to elevate various faculty members, clerical employees, members of coaching staffs, etc. to higher positions solely because they are black. The plaintiffs also alleged that the defendants followed a policy that discouraged blacks from applying for employment or advancement. The plaintiffs moved for class certification, a hearing was held, and this Court conditionally certified a class as follows: “All present and former black employees and all black applicants as of or at any time after August 30,1975, of the Jefferson Davis Parish School Board in any clerical, supervisor, principal, coach (including assistant coaches), music teacher and lunchroom manager job classifications.” The original complaint of plaintiffs was filed on August 31, 1976. The originally named plaintiffs had filed charges of discrimination with the EEOC on or about August 26, 1976 and amended their original complaint on January 11, 1977 alleging that on November 15, 1976 they, that is, Johnnie Adams,. Melton Alfred, Margaret Oscar, Wilbert D. Rochelle and Arthur Lewis, received the statutory notice of right to sue from the United States Department of Justice. The defendants thereafter moved for partial summary judgment dismissing any claims of the plaintiffs or of the plaintiff class which arose prior to August 31, 1975 which were brought pursuant to 42 U.S.C. Sections 1981 or 1983 and any claims which may have been alleged which arose more than 180 days prior to the date of the filing of plaintiffs’ charges with the EEOC. In addition defendants moved that all claims for relief in the nature of back-pay or other monetary damages were barred by the passage of the statute of limitations for any claim that arose prior to August 31, 1975. The Court granted the defendants’ motion for partial summary judgment. This matter was then set down for trial and trial commenced on September 10, 1980 and concluded on September 24, 1980. Plaintiffs allege that they were victims of purposeful racial discrimination (disparate treatment) and also that the employment policies of the Jefferson Davis School Board had a disproportionate exclusionary impact (disparate impact) upon them as blacks. In deciding the merits of those allegations, we will first review the law applicable to plaintiffs’ claims of purposeful racial discrimination and then apply that law to the evidence presented in connection with the various positions which plaintiffs claim they were denied because of their race. We will then consider plaintiffs’ claims that the employment procedures used by the defendants had a disproportionate exclusionary impact on blacks. I. PURPOSEFUL DISCRIMINATION (Disparate Treatment) To establish a prima facie case of purposeful racial employment discrimination under Title VII the Supreme Court has held that a plaintiff must present evidence from which an inference may be drawn that he was denied a job because of his race. See McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 93 S.Ct. 1817, 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1971). While the McDonnell Douglas decision acknowledged that the proof necessary to raise such an inference will vary from case to case, the Court suggested that a plaintiff could satisfy his initial burden with evidence showing “(i) that he belongs to a racial minority, (ii) that he applied and was qualified for a job for which the employer was seeking applications, (iii) that despite his qualifications, he was rejected, and (iv) that after his rejection the position remained open and the employer continued to seek applicants from persons of [plaintiff’s] qualifications.” Id. at 802, 93 S.Ct. at 1824. In this Circuit, if the employer has a history of racial discrimination, such history may be a component in a plaintiff’s prima facie case. In Lee v. Washington County Bd. of Education, 625 F.2d 1235 (5th Cir. 1980) a case involving black public school teachers claiming that they were denied promotions because of their race, the court held that proof of an immediate past history of racial discrimination would alone be sufficient to shift the burden to the local school board to explain their decisions. If the history of racial discrimination was more remote in time to when the challenged decisions were made, the Lee court held that it would still be relevant evidence but that some other evidence of discrimination was necessary to establish a prima facie case. Such other evidence was provided in Lee in the form of statistics showing that few if any black teachers were promoted into certain positions from the time the school system was ordered desegregated until the time suit was filed. In the present case the Jefferson Davis School Board has a history of racial discrimination. Until ordered by this court to desegregate in 1970, see Gordon v. Jefferson Davis Parish School Board, 315 F.Supp. 901 (W.D.La.1970), a dual system of schools was maintained in the parish for white and black children. While we are uncertain as to whether this history may be considered an immediate past history of discrimination and if so, whether plaintiffs would nonetheless have to prove as a part of their prima facie case that they were qualified for the jobs they sought, we assume that the history of racial discrimination in Jefferson Davis Parish when paired with the statistical evidence offered by plaintiffs established a prima facie case of racial discrimination in connection with some jobs and thus shifted to the defendants the burden of explaining their decisions. In McDonnell Douglas the Supreme Court held that a Title VII defendant may rebut a plaintiffs prima facie case by articulating “some legitimate, non-discriminatory reason” for the employment decisions at issue. Id. 411 U.S. at 802, 93 S.Ct. at 1824. In Texas Dept. of Community Affairs v. Burdine, - U.S. -, 101 S.Ct. 1089, 67 L.Ed.2d 207 (1981), the Supreme Court held that McDonnell Douglas does not require a defendant to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the reasons articulated were in fact those which governed the decision. In explaining what McDonnell Douglas requires of a defendant, the Bur-dine court stated that “the employer need only produce admissible evidence which would allow the trier of fact rationally to conclude that the employment decision had not been motivated by discriminatory animus.” Id. at - U.S. at -, 101 S.Ct. at 1096. The Burdine Court also held that the employer defendant need not offer comparative evidence showing that the person chosen for a given job was more qualified than a plaintiff who was rejected. In that regard the Court noted that Title VII does not require an employer to give preference to an employee protected by Title VII “whenever that [employee’s] objective qualifications [are] equal to those of a white male applicant.” Id. - U.S. at -, 101 S.Ct. at 1097. The court went on to state that “the employer has discretion to choose among equally qualified candidates, provided the decision is not based upon unlawful criteria.” Id. While the Burdine Court did not directly state that a defendant must offer proof that the person chosen for a job was as objectively qualified for the position as the plaintiff, such a requirement may be inferred from the decision for two reasons. First, if the employer did not offer such evidence, the trier of fact would have difficulty rationally concluding that the employment decisions were not motivated by discriminatory animus. Secondly, the Court speaks of an employer having discretion to choose between equally qualified candidates for the job. Presumably, unless the candidates were equally qualified, an employer would not have such discretion or at least if he did, he would not be able to exercise it in favor of a less qualified candidate without risk of liability to a more qualified candidate protected by Title VII. Since legitimate non-racial factors which influenced the exercise of an employer’s discretion are what must be articulated in order to rebut a plaintiff’s prima facie case, we assume that an employer could not do so unless he could show that his decision was made in a context which afforded him the discretion to choose between the plaintiff and the person chosen. Because that discretion would seem to exist only when the plaintiff and the person chosen are objectively equally qualified for the job, it would follow that the defendant must offer evidence which would permit the fact finder rationally to conclude that the employer’s decision was made in such a context. See Robbins v. White-Wilson Medical Clinic, Inc., 642 F.2d 153 (5th Cir. 1981). Assuming then that an employer may not rebut a plaintiff’s prima facie case unless he offers some evidence which would permit the court to conclude that the person chosen was as objectively qualified for the job as the plaintiff, we must consider what the defendant must offer in the way of a standard against which the qualifications of the candidates may be measured. We are guided in determining what a proper standard may be in this case by two recent decisions rendered by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in cases similar to this one. In Lee v. Conecuh County Bd. of Ed., 634 F.2d 959 (5th Cir. 1981), a black public school teacher in Alabama claimed that he was denied several principalships because of his race. The State of Alabama required that before a teacher could be made a principal, he had to be specially certified by the state. Presumably to be certified a teacher either had to pass a test or satisfy certain objective academic and work experience requirements e. g., a master’s degree plus five years teaching experience. The Plaintiff in Conecuh was properly certified but the white individuals who received the principalships for which he applied were not. The school board had adopted no criteria to be used in lieu of the state requirements which it chose to ignore. In evaluating the school board’s efforts to articulate legitimate non-racial reasons for their decisions, the Conecuh Court noted that: The defendants’ ability to prove legitimate reasons for their decision was undermined by their failure to adopt written, objective criteria for selecting principals. The trial court stated that it was unable to conclude whether [the plaintiff] was better qualified than white candidates for principalships ‘for the Board has not adopted any such non-racial objective criteria and until this is done the Court will never be in a position to adequately consider the propriety of any principal selection made by the Board.’ The defendant’s contention that they acted for legitimate reasons could therefore not rest on the assertion that any of the applicants chosen were more qualified than [the plaintiff] and it was impossible for them to carry the burden of proving that ‘those hired or promoted were more qualified than the plaintiff.’ Falcon v. General Telephone Company of the Southwest, 626 F.2d [369] at 378 [5th Cir. 1980] Id. at 963. Although in the wake of Burdine, a school board need no longer prove that the person hired was more qualified than the plaintiff, the Conecuh Court’s discussion of written objective criteria is still relevant to our determination of what standard our defendants must offer to show that the persons they promoted were as qualified as the plaintiffs. However, to read that portion of the decision as imposing an extremely heavy burden on school boards which have not developed their own set of written objective criteria but which adhere to the state standards would seem to bring the decision into conflict with the holding in Hereford v. Huntsville Bd. of Ed., 574 F.2d 268 (5th Cir. 1979). In Hereford, another Alabama case involving alleged discrimination in the promotion of black public school teachers, the plaintiffs had urged the court to require the local school board to adopt and use objective criteria for promotion decisions, cf. Singleton v. Jackson Municipal Separate School District, 419 F.2d 1211 (5th Cir. 1969) cert. denied, 396 U.S. 1032, 90 S.Ct. 612, 24 L.Ed.2d 530 (1969), (objective criteria must be used in making demotions resulting from integration related staff reductions). The Hereford court rejected plaintiffs’ argument holding that Singleton was not applicable to promotions. The court further noted that “in filling job vacancies, a school board’s decisions may be based on certain subjective factors such as an applicant’s knowledge of his subject, philosophy on education and life in general, appearances, leadership ability and aggressiveness.” Id. at 270. The Hereford Court’s specific rejection of the plaintiffs’ argument that the school board there involved be required to adopt and use objective criteria seems to be contrary to the Conecuh Court’s apparent conclusion that without such criteria a school board would have a difficult if not impossible task in trying to rebut a plaintiff’s prima facie case. Since the Conecuh court did not overrule Hereford but indeed, cited it favorably, as have other courts, we must assume that the two decisions may be reconciled with one another. To that end it is important to note that unlike the Conecuh court, the court in Hereford gave no indication that the defendants in that case had promoted uncertified white applicants over certified black applicants. Since it is unlikely that such a practice would have gone unnoticed by the court, we feel we may assume that the teachers receiving promotions in Hereford were properly certified for the jobs they received. If that is true then the Hereford decision would seem to approve subjective factors being taken into account whenever a school board must choose between candidates who, by the standards established by the state, are equally qualified for the job being offered. Such a conclusion is warranted by the fact that in the absence of local objective criteria, the only official objective qualifications for any job at issue would have been those established by the state. It is doubtful that the court would have approved employment decisions based on subjective factors unless some evidence existed showing that the persons chosen were objectively qualified for the position. The only means available in Hereford for making such a showing would have been the standards developed by the state. Our examination of Hereford and Conecuh leads us to conclude that they can best be reconciled with one another by applying them in different contexts. In this regard, we feel that the Conecuh decision would be most applicable in cases where the evidence shows that, judged by the governing standards for the job in question, the plaintiff was clearly more qualified than the person who received the job. In that context, the case can be read consistently with Burdine as imposing an extremely heavy burden upon the defendant who attempts to justify his actions with proof that his decisions were based on potentially proper subjective considerations. However, in cases where the defendants can show that by the standards governing the job, the person promoted was as qualified as the plaintiff, we feel that the Hereford decision and Burdine should apply, enabling the defendants to justify their decisions with evidence that they were based on legitimate non-racial subjective factors. In this case we feel that the governing standards for the jobs under review are provided by the Louisiana Department of Education. That department is the state agency responsible for the administration of the Louisiana public school system. It has developed standards governing the qualifications which a teacher must possess in order to be employed in various positions at public schools in the state. Those standards require that before a teacher may be employed in a given position he must possess a valid Louisiana teacher’s certificate upon which appears an endorsement authorizing him to be employed in that position. See Dept. of Ed. Bulletin 746, Louisiana Standards for State Certification of School Personnel, 3 (1976). To receive such an endorsement the teacher must satisfy objective requirements established by the department. Id. at 7. Those requirements are based on the teacher’s educational background and teaching experience. A local school board may hire any teacher whose certificate includes an endorsement authorizing that teacher to be employed in the position being filled. So far as the State Department of Education is concerned any teacher whose certificate includes an endorsement authorizing him to be employed in a given job, is as objectively qualified for that position as any other teacher whose certificate includes the same endorsement. Because they have a greater expertise in such matters than we do, we defer to the judgment of the Department of Education concerning the qualifications which a teacher must possess in order to be employed in various positions. Accordingly, to the extent that the Burdine decision may require a defendant to show that the person chosen for a job was as qualified as the plaintiff, we feel that the defendants in this case may satisfy that element of their burden with proof that the teacher hired for a given position possessed a teacher’s certificate upon which appeared an endorsement authorizing him to be employed in that position. In applying the foregoing discussion to the case at hand we feel that with regard to the various promotions challenged by the plaintiffs we should first determine whether the person selected for the position possessed the qualifications required by the standards governing the job. Next we will consider whether the black applicants for that position also possessed the requisite qualifications. If we find that the person selected and one or more black applicants possessed the requisite qualifications we will then evaluate the reasons offered by the defendants in light of the Burdine and Hereford decisions. Should we find that the defendants have articulated legitimate non-racial reasons for their decisions, we will examine the evidence offered by plaintiffs to show that the reasons given by the defendants were merely a pretext for discrimination. See McDonnell Douglas, supra, 411 U.S. at 804, 93 S.Ct. at 1825; Burdine, supra, at - U.S. at -, 101 S.Ct. at 1092-1093. Our examination begins with the system-wide supervisory positions and proceeds through the other disputed decisions and claims in this case. A. SUPERVISORY POSITIONS The supervisory positions at issue in this case are those which must be occupied by a certified teacher, and for which the Louisiana Department of Education has developed requirements which must be satisfied before a teacher may be authorized to be employed in those positions. We thus reject plaintiffs’ argument, raised for the first time at trial, that Title I co-ordinators and directors be considered Supervisors. Aside from the fact that no evidence was introduced showing that a director or a co-ordinator actually supervised anyone within the school system who was not a part of a Title I program, the requirements which must be satisfied to be employed as a director or co-ordinator are entirely different from those which must be satisfied in order for a person to be employed as a supervisor. See Price v. Franklin Parish School Board, 389 So.2d 430 (La.App.1980). The two types of jobs are therefore distinct from one another and as a result we hold that directors and co-ordinators of Title I programs are not included in the class of supervisors conditionally certified by this court. With regard to the superintendent and supervisor positions under consideration in this case, the statistics offered by the plaintiffs show that of the seven supervisors and superintendents employed by the defendants immediately prior to this suit being filed in August, 1976, six were white and one was black. The statistics also show that of the nine persons promoted to supervisory positions between the date of desegregation, June 8, 1970 and the date suit was filed, eight were white and one was black. To arrive at those figures the plaintiffs counted the promotion of Louis Gaudet from a supervisor to Superintendent as two promotions. Their reason for doing so is that Gaudet was first made an Assistant Superintendent and then two years later the Superintendent. However the evidence is clear that Gaudet was chosen to be Superintendent first and merely served as an Assistant Superintendent to prepare him for assuming the responsibilities of the other job. The school typically employs only one Assistant Superintendent but while Gaudet was an Assistant Superintendent the School Board employed another individual as an Assistant Superintendent. When that person retired and Gaudet was made Superintendent, the School Board returned to its previous practice of having one Assistant Superintendent. For that reason, we find that Gaudet’s service as an Assistant Superintendent and his ultimate assumption of the Superintendent’s responsibilities, were but a single promotion whereby he became Superintendent after first receiving something akin to on the job training. Whether we treat Gaudet’s advancement from a supervisor to Superintendent as one or two promotions, the statistics offered by plaintiffs, plus the school system’s history of racial discrimination raise an inference, albeit a feeble one, that between desegregation and the time suit was filed the School Board discriminated against black applicants for supervisory positions. See Lee supra. We must therefore consider the evidence presented by the defendants with regard to the supervisory promotions occurring during the time relevant to plaintiffs’ claims i. e. August 30, 1975 through the date of trial, September 1980. The evidence showed that between August 30, 1975 and the date of trial, the Jefferson Davis Parish School Board filled through promotion four vacancies occurring in its system-wide supervisory staff. Those vacancies occurred in the following positions: Assistant Superintendent, Supervisor of Secondary Instruction (hereinafter referred to occasionally as Supervisor of Secondary Education), Supervisor of Child Welfare and Attendance and Supervisor of Special Education. 1. ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT During the summer prior to the 1976-77 school year, the Jefferson Davis Parish School Board solicited and received applications for the position of Assistant Superintendent of Schools. After interviewing each applicant for the job, the Board by secret ballot selected Allen Fitzgerald. Mr. Fitzgerald is white and was at the time of his selection authorized to be employed as an Assistant superintendent. The two black applicants for the position, Melton Alfred and Wilbert Rochelle, were also authorized to be so employed. We must therefore consider the reasons offered by the defendants for their selection of Mr. Fitzgerald. The evidence revealed that the Assistant Superintendent is the second highest professional position within the Jefferson Davis Parish School system. The person in that position has administrative responsibilities extending to every facet of the system. The evidence also showed that experience as a supervisor of education provides the best background for assuming the responsibilities of the Assistant Superintendent. A supervisor of education is responsible for the system-wide administration of an educational program offered by the parish school system, e. g. high schools, grade schools, etc. Though not as extensive, the administrative responsibilities of a supervisor are more comparable to those of the Assistant Superintendent than are the responsibilities of any other professional position in the parish schools save that of the Superintendent. Because of that we feel that the three supervisors of education who applied for the Assistant Superintendent position were the most qualified applicants for the job. Those three individuals were Allen Fitzgerald, Supervisor of Secondary Education, Plaintiff Wilbert Rochelle, Supervisor of Special Education and Freddie Whitford, Supervisor of Elementary Education. By our finding that the above named supervisors were the most qualified applicants for the position of Assistant Superintendent we also find that Melton Alfred was not denied the job because of his race. Having spent his entire career as a classroom teacher, Alfred had no administrative experience of any consequence and certainly none which provided him with as good a background for assuming the extensive responsibilities of the Assistant Superintendent as that gained by those applicants with experience as supervisors. Since one of the applicants with supervisory experience was black, we find that with regard to Melton Alfred, defendants rebutted his prima facie case with evidence which permits us rationally to conclude that their decision to hire a person with supervisory experience was based on legitimate non-racial reasons and was not motivated by a discriminatory animus. Having concluded that Alfred was not denied the job because of his race, the balance of our consideration of this claim is devoted to the reasons offered by the defendants for their selection of Fitzgerald over Rochelle. The defendants claim that they chose Fitzgerald rather than Rochelle because Fitzgerald had demonstrated during school board meetings a greater knowledge of matters within the realm of his responsibilities than had Rochelle. The evidence showed that during school board meetings members of the school board would often ask the supervisors questions about matters related to those areas of the school system for which the supervisor was responsible. Members of the school board testified that Fitzgerald would always respond to those questions with an answer but Rochelle would request time to check into the matter promising that an answer would be forthcoming at a later time. The significance of the difference between how Fitzgerald and Rochelle answered those questions lies in the difference between their responsibilities as supervisors. The evidence showed that the number of students and faculty involved in programs administered by Fitzgerald as Supervisor of Secondary Education was greater than the number involved in programs administered by Rochelle as Supervisory of Special Education. Because of that, Fitzgerald’s job entailed greater administrative responsibilities than did Rochelle’s position. As a consequence, the difference between the promptness with which Rochelle and Fitzgerald answered questions led the school board to conclude that Fitzgerald not only had a better knowledge of matters for which he was responsible but also that he was more able than Rochelle to assume the extensive responsibilities of the Assistant Superintendent. As noted by the Hereford Court, an applicant’s knowledge of his subject is a legitimate non-racial reason upon which a school board may base a promotion decision. The uncontroverted testimony of members of the Jefferson Davis Parish School Board was that they chose Allen Fitzgerald over Wilbert Rochelle because they perceived Fitzgerald as being more knowledgeable about matters for which he was responsible than was Rochelle. We therefore find that the defendants rebutted plaintiffs’ prima facie case with evidence which permits us rationally to conclude that their decision to choose Allen Fitzgerald as the Assistant Superintendent was based on legitimate non-racial reasons and was not motivated by discriminatory animus. The plaintiffs offered no evidence suggesting that the reasons offered by the defendants were a mere pretext for discrimination. We therefore find that the plaintiffs Melton Alfred and Wilbert Rochelle failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that they were denied the job of Assistant Superintendent because of their race. 2. SUPERVISOR OF SECONDARY EDUCATION During the summer prior to the 1976-77 school year, the Jefferson Davis Parish School Board solicited and received applications for the position of Supervisor of Secondary Education. After interviewing each applicant for the job, the board by secret ballot selected Mr. J. E. Harelson. Mr. Harelson is white and was at the time of his selection authorized to be employed as a Supervisor of Secondary Education Two black teachers who applied for the job, Melton Alfred and Birdell Perkins, were also authorized to be so employed. The only other black applicant, plaintiff Michael Lavan, was not at that time authorized to be employed as a supervisor. His claim that he was denied the job because of his race is therefore without merit because he was not qualified for the position. However, since Perkins and Alfred were qualified, we must consider the reasons offered by the defendants for their selection of Harelson. The defendants claim that Harelson was chosen because of his extensive administrative experience at the high school level. The evidence revealed that for eleven years prior to his promotion, Harelson had been the principal of Jennings High School, the largest high school in Jefferson Davis Parish. Since the Supervisor of Secondary Education is responsible for the system-wide administration of the parish high schools, Harelson’s experience as principal at the largest high school in the parish provided him with the best background of all the applicants for assuming the responsibilities of the Supervisor of Secondary Education. The evidence showed that Perkins and Alfred did not have administrative experience at the high school or any other level. Both had spent their entire careers as classroom teachers. White applicants for the job had similar backgrounds. They too were not chosen to be Supervisor of Secondary Education. We therefore find that the defendants rebutted plaintiffs’ prima facie case with evidence which permits us rationally to conclude that their decision to choose J. E. Harelson as Supervisor of Secondary Education was based on legitimate non-racial reasons and was not motivated by discriminatory animus. The plaintiffs offered no evidence suggesting that the reasons offered by the defendants were a mere pretext for discrimination. We therefore find that the plaintiffs, Melton Alfred, Birdell Perkins and Michael Lavan, failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that they were denied the job of Supervisor of Secondary Education because of their race. 3. SUPERVISOR OF CHILD WELFARE AND ATTENDANCE During the summer prior to the 1976-77 school year, the Jefferson Davis Parish School Board solicited and received applications for the position of Supervisor of Child Welfare and Attendance. After interviewing each applicant for the job, the board by secret ballot selected Mr. Virgil Perrin. Mr. Perrin was authorized to be employed as a Supervisor of Child Welfare and Attendance. The two black applicants for the job, Margaret Oscar and Michael Lavan, were not authorized to be so employed. We thus find that the evidence permits us to conclude that Lavan and Oscar were denied the job for the legitimate non-racial reason that they were not qualified for the position and that their rejection was not motivated by a racial, or in the case of Mrs. Oscar, a sexual, discriminatory animus. The plaintiffs neither did nor could they offer evidence suggesting that the reasons offered by the defendant were a mere pretext for discrimination. We therefore find that the plaintiffs Margaret Oscar and Michael Lavan failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that they were denied the position of Supervisor of Child Welfare and Attendance because of their race or with Oscar, her sex. 4. SUPERVISOR OF SPECIAL EDUCATION During the summer prior to the 1979-80 school year, the Jefferson Davis Parish School board solicited and received applications for the position of Supervisor of Special Education. Upon the recommendation of Louis Gaudet, the School Board selected Ms. Mary Ellen Hawkins for the job. Ms. Hawkins is white and the evidence shows that she was authorized to be employed as the Supervisor of Special Education. Johnnie Adams, the only black applicant for the position, reluctantly admitted during his trial testimony that he was not authorized to be employed as the Supervisor of Special Education. We thus need not consider the reasons offered by the defendants for their selection of Ms. Hawkins. Adams’ claim that he was denied the job because of his race is without merit. B. PRINCIPALSHIPS The statistics presented by the plaintiff showed that between desegregation and the time suit was filed, all of the ten principalships filled through promotion were awarded to white teachers. The statistics also showed that of the fifteen principalships existing immediately prior to the filing of this suit, thirteen were occupied by white teachers and two were occupied by black teachers. These statistics, when paired with the school system’s history of racial discrimination, raises the inference that black applicants for principalships may have been denied the jobs because of their race. See Lee supra. We must therefore examine the evidence presented with regard to the principalships filled through promotion between August 30, 1975 and the date of trial. Between August 30,1975 and the date of trial the defendants filled through promotion eleven principalships. Three of those principalships were filled with black teachers and for obvious reasons the plaintiffs do not feel those promotions were improperly influenced by race. A black teacher was also selected to be principal of Central Elementary School but as will be discussed more fully below, that decision is being challenged by the plaintiffs. For all but two of the principalships filled during this period, there were both white and black applicants. No blacks applied for the Lake Arthur principalship in 1979, even though the position was advertised. There were no applicants for the Northside Junior High principalship. That position was awarded to Johnnie Adams without any applications having been taken. That promotion is also not being challenged. The plaintiffs do challenge the seven promotions where a white teacher was named principal of a school and there were both black and white applicants for the job. Although each challenged promotion will be examined separately, as we examined the supervisory promotions, we find that when viewed as a whole the evidence reveals that the defendants followed a practice of naming as the principal of a school, a teacher or an assistant principal working at that school. In each case where that practice was followed, the defendants offered as a reason for their decision the familiarity which the teacher or assistant principal had with the students, faculty, parents and community of the school. Since that reason was central to the explanations offered by the defendants for so many of their challenged decisions, we feel that our examination of the facts surrounding each promotion can be expedited if, at this point, we determine whether or not experience at a school constitutes a legitimate non-racial basis for a school board’s selection of a teacher with such experience to be the principal of that school. We feel that it does. Our conclusion is based upon the public nature of the principal’s job. Because a principal of a school located in a small rural community is a conspicuous public servant, his prospects for success will depend if not entirely at least in large part upon whether he has the confidence of the public he serves. While such confidence may be gained through demonstrated competence, it is essential that the principal be accepted by the community. As a result, in selecting a person to be a principal, a school board need consider not only whether a given applicant can assume the responsibilities of the job, but also, whether he is likely to be accepted by those who he will serve and with whom he will work. In making this latter determination a school board can find no guarantees in the fact that an applicant has the degrees and certificates required for the job. When a professional position is being filled, many if not all of the applicants will possess the required degrees or certificates. Such things do not tell an employer how well an applicant is likely to fit into a given work environment. To gain an insight on that question, an employer must evaluate an applicant on the basis of subjective factors such as the applicant’s “knowledge of his subject, philosophy of life and education in general, appearance, references, leadership and aggressiveness.” Hereford, supra, at 270. To school boards selecting principals, these considerations are no less important than they are to law firms or judges selecting associates and law clerks. We read Hereford as a recognition of that fact. The rationale underlying the Hereford Court’s approval of subjective factors being taken into account would seem to support a school board’s giving decisive weight to the fact that an applicant for a principalship is presently employed at the school where the job is being offered. An applicant with such experience would presumptively share or at least be aware of and sensitive to community philosophies and attitudes on education, life, appearances etc. He also knows and is known by those who he will serve and with whom he will work. Since a person with such experience has probably already been accepted by those involved with the school, the likelihood that he will be accepted as the school’s principal would seem to be greater than would be the case with someone without such experience. Because of that, we feel that, unless the school board has reason to conclude otherwise, experience at a school where a principalship is being offered is a legitimate reason for the school board to conclude that an applicant with such experience is more likely to be accepted by the people involved with the school and therefore more likely to be a successful principal than an applicant without such experience. Experience at a school also provides a school board with some assurance that a teacher or an assistant principal with such experience will be able to assume the responsibilities of being the principal of that school. A teacher and particularly an assistant principal with such experience has had an opportunity to observe first hand how the school is being run. He should thus not only have some knowledge as to how to manage the school but he will probably also have some ideas as to how the school can be better managed. As a result, we feel that experience at a school is a legitimate reason for a school board to conclude that a teacher with such experience will be more able to assume the responsibilities of the job than another teacher without such experience. The type of experience we are discussing can be considered a non-racial factor in this case because no evidence has been offered suggesting that black teachers in Jefferson Davis Parish have been discriminatorily denied such experience. Indeed, the evidence in this case is to the contrary. At each school in the parish about 25% of the teachers employed and thus 25% of all teachers with present experience at a given school were black. There was no contention made by the plaintiffs that the number of black teachers employed at each school was less than that which would be expected in the absence of any racial discrimination on the part of the defendants. We accordingly find that experience at the school where a principalship is being offered was in this case not only a legitimate reason upon which the defendants could base their decisions but also a non-racial one. Turning now to the evidence presented with regard to the principalships at issue in this case, we will continue to examine the reasons offered by the defendants for their decisions when the evidence reveals that the person selected and one or more black applicants for the job were authorized to be employed as a principal. In those cases, when the reasons offered by the defendants include the experience of the person selected at the school in question, our conclusion that such experience is a legitimate non-racial basis for an employment decision will permit us to limit our review of the evidence to the determination of whether or not the defendants’ decision was based on the reasons claimed. In those cases where the reasons offered do not include the person’s experience at the school in question, we will consider the reasons offered in the same fashion that we did those offered in connection with the supervisory promotions. 1. Lacassine High School During the summer prior to the 1976-77 school year, the Jefferson Davis Parish School Board, upon the recommendation of Louis F. Gaudet, Superintendent of Schools, selected Ms. Margaret Guilbeau to be principal of Lacassine High School. Ms. Guilbeau was authorized to be employed as a principal. One of the black applicants, Margaret Oscar, was not so authorized and as a result we may conclude that her rejection was not based upon her race or sex. The two other blacks who applied for the job, Johnnie Adams and Arthur Lewis, were both authorized to be employed as a principal. We must therefore consider the reasons offered by the defendants for their selection of Ms. Guilbeau. Superintendent Gaudet testified that Ms. Guilbeau was selected because of her experience in Lacassine. The evidence showed that not only was Ms. Guilbeau a native of Lacassine, and like its residents spoke French fluently, she had also taught at the school for several years and had served briefly as its acting principal during the school year prior to her permanent appointment. For reasons we have already given, we feel that experience at the school where a principalship is being offered is a legitimate non-discriminatory reason for selecting a person with such experience as the school’s principal. The evidence in this case shows that Ms. Guilbeau was the only applicant for the job with experience at the school. That she was chosen for that reason may be inferred from the fact that other applicants with greater administrative experience but without any experience at Lacassine were rejected. We therefore find that the defendants rebutted plaintiffs’ prima facie case with evidence which permits u's rationally to conclude that their decision to hire Ms. Guilbeau was based on legitimate nonracial reasons and was not motivated by discriminatory animus. The plaintiffs offered no evidence suggesting that the reasons offered by the defendants were a mere pretext for discrimination. We therefore find that the plaintiffs, Margaret Oscar, Johnnie Adams and Arthur Lewis, failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that they were denied the job of principal of Lacassine High School because of their race. 2. Ward Elementary During the summer prior to the 1976-77 school year, the Jefferson Davis Parish School Board, upon the recommendation of Louis Gaudet, selected Mr. Robert Vincent to be the principal of Ward Elementary School. Mr. Vincent was authorized to be so employed. Johnnie Adams, the only black applicant for the job, was also authorized to be a principal so we must consider the reasons offered by the defendants for their selection of Vincent. Gaudet testified that Vincent was chosen because of his experience at Ward Elementary. That experience was deemed particularly important because of the school’s history. The evidence showed that Ward Elementary had been operated as an all black elementary school until it was closed after this court’s 1970 desegregation order. When it was later scheduled to be reopened, many of the parents whose children were to attend the school were apprehensive about sending their children to an integrated facility. There was concern in the community that those apprehensions would translate into trouble at the school. Virgil Perrin, who was named principal of the school, is given credit for having defused that tension through the use of several innovative techniques designed to promote communication among the parents and thus reduce their concerns. The evidence showed that Robert Vincent had served under Perrin as a teacher from the time the school was reopened until he was chosen to fill the vacancy created in the principalship by Perrin’s promotion to Supervisor of Child Welfare and Attendance. Because Vincent had worked with Perrin and thus had an opportunity to observe first hand the way in which Perrin preserved racial harmony at the school, the defendants felt that Vincent could be expected to carry on the Perrin tradition. Although Johnnie Adams taught at Ward when it was an all black school, the evidence showed that Vincent was the only applicant for the job who had experience at the school after it had been reopened. We find that the reasons offered by the defendants for why Vincent’s experience at Ward Elementary led them to perceive him as the candidate for the job who was most likely to facilitate the tranquil maintenance of the school as an integrated facility closely parallel those which underlie our conclusion that experience at a school is a legitimate non-racial reason for a school board to select a person with such experience to be the principal of that school. That the reasons offered by the defendants were in fact those which governed their decision may be inferred from the fact that other applicants with greater administrative experience but no experience at the reopened Ward were rejected. We therefore find that the defendants rebutted plaintiff’s prima facie case with evidence which permits us rationally to conclude that their decision to hire Robert Vincent as principal of Ward Elementary was based on legitimate non-racial reasons and was not motivated by discriminatory animus. The plaintiffs offered no evidence suggesting that the reasons offered by the defendants were a mere pretext for discrimination. We therefore find that the plaintiff, Johnnie Adams, failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that he was denied the job of principal of Ward Elementary School because of his race. 3. Jennings High School, Lake Arthur Elementary, and Welsh-Roanoke Junior High School Between August 1975 and the date of trial, the Jefferson Davis Parish School Board, upon the recommendation of Louis Gaudet, selected the following white individuals to be the principal of the school appearing next to their names: 1. Paul DeLaCroix — Jennings High School (1976) 2. Thomas Hymel — Lake Arthur Elementary (1976) 3. Richard Sockrider — Welsh-Roanoke Jr. High, (1978) Each of these people was authorized to be employed as a principal. Johnnie Adams, the only black who applied for each position, was also authorized to be so employed. We must therefore consider the reasons offered by the defendants for their decisions. Superintendent Gaudet testified that his decision in each instance was based upon the fact that the person chosen had experience at the school or in the community where the principalship was being offered. As we have already indicated, such experience would be a legitimate non-racial reason upon which to base the decisions at issue provided that the evidence presented permits us to conclude that the decisions were based on that reason. The evidence reveals that at the time they were chosen, DeLaCroix and Sockrider were employed as the assistant principal of the school where they became the principal. DeLaCroix had been the assistant principal at Jennings High School for five years and Sockrider at Welsh-Roanoke Junior High for seven years. Hymel had been the assistant principal at Lake Arthur High School for two years. The evidence also showed that Johnnie Adams did not have experience at any of these schools and that for each position the person chosen was the only applicant who did have administrative experience at the school or in the community where the position was available. In evaluating the evidence we find it difficult if not impossible to conclude that DeLaCroix, Hymel and Sockrider were chosen over Adams for any reason other than the administrative experience they had gained as assistant principals at the schools and in the communities where the jobs were being offered. We therefore find that with regard to the principalships at Jennings High School, Lake Arthur Elementary and Welsh-Roanoke Junior High, the defendants rebutted plaintiff’s prima facie case with evidence which permits us rationally to conclude that their decisions were based on legitimate non-racial reasons and were not motivated by discriminatory animus. The plaintiffs offered no evidence suggesting that the reasons offered by the defendants were a mere pretext for discrimination. We therefore find that the plaintiff, Johnnie Adams, failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that he was denied the job of principal of Jennings High School, Lake Arthur Elementary and Welsh-Roanoke Jr. High because of his race. 4. Fenton High School During the summer prior to the 1978-79 school year, the Jefferson Davis Parish School Board announced an opening in the principalship at Fenton High School. The board received six applications for the job. After each candidate was interviewed Mr. Louis Gaudet recommended Gene Alcock for the position. Alcock was authorized to be employed as a principal and was selected by the school board. Since Johnnie Adams, the only black applicant, was also authorized to be so employed, we must consider the reasons offered by the defendants for their selection of Alcock. The selection of Alcock was a deviation from the defendants’ apparent practice of promoting an individual with experience at the school where the job was being offered. At the time he was chosen Alcock was the assistant principal at Welsh High School. Superintendent Gaudet testified that because of school related political strife in Fenton he felt that someone without significant contacts with the community was needed to restore political tranquility. He viewed Alcock as the man for the job. The evidence revealed that at the time the school board was considering the applicants for the Fenton principalship, the cornmunity was deeply divided over a local school board election. The divisions in the community were reflected in the school itself and among the candidates for the principalship. Alton Bass, the school’s long time assistant principal and an applicant for the principalship, was apparently actively involved with one of Fenton’s feuding political factions. Johnnie Adams admitted that he too had taken an active role in the conflict though he denied that his involvement was widely known in the community. The evidence also showed that Alcock was opposed by one of the groups in Fenton but no evidence was introduced suggesting that he had taken an active role in the town’s squabble. In examining the evidence presented in connection with the Fenton principalship, we must first consider whether the reasons offered by the defendants for their selection of Alcock can be considered legitimate and non-racial. In that regard we feel that non-racial factors which are relevant to a job being filled constitute legitimate nonracial reasons upon which an employer may base his selection of an applicant who is otherwise qualified for the job. There is no dispute in this case that Alcock was qualified for the job. Nor is there any contention that race was in any way an issue in the school related politics which divided Fenton at the time this decision was made. So, our inquiry is limited to the question of whether the extent to which an applicant participated in those politics was a factor relevant to the Fenton principalship and thus a legitimate factor upon which the defendants could base their decision. We think that it was. As mentioned earlier, when the job at issue is the principalship of a school, a relevant consideration for the school board is the likelihood that an applicant for the job can gain the confidence of the community in which the school is located. When that school is located in a community as deeply divided over school-related politics as Fen-ton was at the time when the decision here at issue was made, a factor relevant to an applicant’s ability to gain the confidence of that community would be the extent, if any, to which he participated in those politics. An applicant who had actively involved himself in the political strife of the community could not be expected to readily gain the confidence of at least those members of the community who did not share his political point of view. An applicant who had not been so involved would not have that problem. For that reason we feel that the extent to which an applicant for the Fenton High School principalship participated in the politics of that community was a legitimate non-racial reason upon which the defendants could base their decision. We must now determine whether the evidence presented permits us to conclude that the defendants’ decision was based on the reasons claimed. The evidence showed that at least two applicants for the Fenton principalship, Alton Bass and Johnnie Adams, were actively involved in the politics which had divided the town. No evidence was introduced showing that Alcock was similarly involved although there was some indication that his selection as the school’s principal was opposed by one of Fenton’s factions. However, given the fact that other applicants for the job were so involved in the political intrigue of Fenton, it is not surprising that Alcock’s selection was opposed and we thus need not be prevented thereby from finding that he was chosen for the reasons claimed. For that determination the more telling fact is that Alcock was chosen instead of Alton Bass. Bass had been the assistant principal at Fenton High School for nine years, yet when the time came to choose a principal he was passed over in favor of Alcock, an assistant principal from another High School. When viewed in light of the defendants’ practice of naming as principal of a school a person with experience at that school, that fact raises the inference that the defendants’ decision was influenced by Fenton’s political turmoil and Bass’ role in it. That inference permits us to conclude that Adams, who had no experience in Fen-ton, was denied the job for the same reasons and not because of his race. We therefore find that the defendants rebutted plaintiffs’ prima facie case with evidence permitting us rationally to conclude that their decision to appoint Gene Alcock as the principal of Fenton High School was based on legitimate non-racial reasons and was not motivated by discriminatory animus. The plaintiffs offered no evidence suggesting that the reasons offered by the defendants were a mere pretext for discrimination. We therefore find that the plaintiff, Johnnie Adams, failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that he was denied the job of principal of Fenton High School because of his race. 5. Central Elementary During the summer prior to the 1977-78 school year, the defendants chose a principal for the Central Elementary School. Although the defendants had solicited and received several applications for the position, the person they ultimately chose, Wilbert Guilbeau, had not applied for the job. The method by which the defendants chose Guilbeau is confusing at best. In selecting the principal for Central Elementary, the defendants initially employed a procedure which had been developed in response to complaints made by the plaintiffs about the defendants’ promotion practices. This procedure involved a scoring system whereby a panel of four supervisors would give an applicant a specified number of points for academic achievements, work experience, civic leadership activities, etc. The panel also interviewed each applicant and then each member of the panel would score the applicant’s performance during that interview on a scale of 1-100. After the interview, the scores given to each applicant by the panel members were to be tallied and compared against one another with the job going to the applicant with the highest score. Had the defendants followed that procedure, Mr. Gene Alcock would have received the job, but he did not. The reason for that would seem to be that the white members of the panel had given Adams very low scores on his interview. Out of apparent fear that those scores would provide the basis for another claim by Adams that he had been denied a job because of his race, the defendants rejected the results of the procedure, announced that they were abandoning the procedure altogether because certain components of it were too vague and then, in an effort to dispel the looming inference that Adams had been denied the job because of his race, they offered the job to Guilbeau who was not then authorized to be employed as a principal, but who was black. Because the defendants did ultimately choose a black teacher to be the principal of Central Elementary School, the plaintiffs do not vigorously contend that Adams was denied the job because of his race. To the extent that they do make that contention we feel it is without merit. Although the method by which Guilbeau was made principal does raise some question about what motivated the defendants to give Adams such low scores on his interview, the fact that Guilbeau is black negates to a large extent an inference that Adams received those scores because of his race. We feel the evidence suggests that the more likely reason for those scores was that those who interviewed Adams had grown weary of his confrontational approach to securing a principalship. Plaintiffs apparently reached a similar though distinct conclusion after hearing the defendants’ testimony because for the first time during this litigation they somewhat, vigorously assert in their post-trial brief that Adams received the low scores on his interview in retaliation for his having filed complaints with the EEOC and this court. Such retaliation if proven would be violative of 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-3(a). Although there is some question about whether a claim of retaliation may be asserted at trial without having first been presented to