WINTHROP (AP) — A 17-year employee of the Winthrop schools whose contract was not renewed in June 2012 says she was a victim of discrimination and retaliation in the workplace.

Human resources clerk Jennifer Ma Sims, originally from Taiwan, said she was a victim of discrimination because of her race, ancestry and national origin and of retaliation for giving a School Board member information about what she alleges was the use of the wrong fund to pay the food services director.

A Maine Human Rights Commission investigator has recommended the commission support Sims’ charges that she was a victim of discrimination and retaliation in violation of the Whistleblowers Protection Act.

A lawyer for the district told the Kennebec Journal (http://bit.ly/1keo9tY ) he disagrees with the commission’s report because it “omits some very significant facts.”