Former school superintendent in San Jose awarded $2 million in gender discrimination verdict

SAN JOSE, Calif. - A U.S. District Court has awarded over $2 million to a former superintendent for San Jose’s Evergreen School District. The veteran educator filed a gender discrimination lawsuit back in 2020, claiming she was being paid less than her male colleague.  

Kathy Gomez says she spent her entire career with the Evergreen School District, but when she realized she was being paid thousands less than the man who came before her, she says she had to do something about it.  

"To realize that was not being compensated fairly, did not make me feel good at all," Gomez said.  

Gomez worked for the Evergreen School District for 32 years, eventually becoming the 1st woman Superintendent in the District’s history. In 2015, she discovered through a compensation study that she was being paid about $42,000 less than the man who had the job before her.  

"Especially with regard to my predecessor, the record is clear that our education experience, our professional experience, they’re all comparable. There’s no significant difference," Gomez said.   

Gomez says the school board agreed to renegotiate her contract but by 2017, nothing had happened. She left the district two years later and filed a discrimination lawsuit in 2020. 

According to the court’s post trial brief, Gomez was the least paid when compared to other districts, she was retaliated against in a job performance review and board member Jim Zito showed bias against women. 

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"He even said to the other board members, two women who were advocating for Ms. Gomez to have equal pay, he said ‘you only want her to get more pay because you have the same thing between your legs,’ which is a direct reference to sex and gender which is unlawful," said Sonya Mehta, Attorney for Gomez and Partner with the Siegel Yee Bonner Mehta law firm.       

The current Superintendent of Evergreen School District released this statement, saying:  

"The District is very disappointed by the judge’s ruling in this lawsuit, and we are considering our options in filing an appeal. The District firmly believes that it did not engage in discriminatory employment practices and that other factors were not given sufficient weight when justifying the District's rationale for the level of compensation Ms. Gomez agreed to accept under her contract." 

"Regardless of what the outcome had been, I still feel like this was a fight I needed to take on," Gomez said.   

Gomez' compensation is based on lost pension and back pay.