Opinion ID: 2600225
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Disputed Issues on Remand

Text: Although we accept the hearing examiner's assumptions or conclusions for the purposes of appellate review, we do not mean to prevent the parties from relitigating unresolved contested fact disputes on remand. For example, in Part III.C we accept for purposes of discussion that Raad established a prima facie case of national origin discrimination with respect to twenty-eight positions, and a prima facie case of retaliation with respect to four positions. Our acceptance of those propositions should not be interpreted as a holding that Raad established a prima facie case with respect to those positions. And it should not be read as precluding the parties on remand from litigating any genuine factual disputes about whether she established prima facie cases of discrimination or retaliation. This would be so as to those hiring decisions for which the hearing examiner made no conclusive factual findings and merely assumed for the sake of argument that Raad had established a prima facie case of national origin discrimination or retaliation, requiring him to examine the reasons why Raad was not hired. On the other hand, the hearing examiner made several determinations that will bind the parties on remand. The hearing examiner concluded that Raad satisfied her burden of proving a prima facie case of national origin discrimination as to those principals who the hearing examiner found either knew Raad was from Lebanon or more likely than not knew that Raad was of some foreign nationality. Likewise, the hearing examiner concluded that Raad established her prima facie case of retaliation as to at least one principal found to have known of Raad's complaint against the district. The commission did not appeal these factual findings and is therefore not free to relitigate these determinations on remand. Whether the hearing examiner concluded, after making appropriate factual findings, or simply assumed for discussion's sake that Raad established prima facie cases, he treated the validity of the district's reasons for not hiring Raad as the determinative issue. Because the hearing examiner reached the district's reasons for not hiring Raad, he had to consider whether those reasons were pretextual. And as stated above, we remand because it is not clear from the record whether the hearing examiner adequately considered evidence of pretext.