AUGUSTA (AP) — A longtime employee of the Winthrop schools whose contract was not renewed in June 2012 has filed a discrimination lawsuit.

The complaint by former bookkeeper Jennifer Ma Sims alleges that the district as well as the superintendent discriminated against her based on national origin and race, and retaliated against after she gave a school board member information about what she alleged was the use of the wrong fund to pay the food services director.

The 55-year-old Sims is originally from Taiwan and has lived in Maine for 30 years.

The Kennebec Journal (http://bit.ly/1hgtorP ) reported that Sims is seeking compensatory, punitive and civil penal damages; back pay and interest; plus the cost of the lawsuit, including her attorneys’ fees.

A lawyer for the school district called the lawsuit “meritless.”