McFarland schools reported eight formal discrimination or harassment complaints last year, board told

Lauren, the district staff member who presented the annual pupil nondiscrimination summary, told the school board the district reported eight formal complaints last school year to the Department of Public Instruction, and that the district had made a revision to its nondiscrimination board policy that year.

"As you can see, there were 8 complaints last school year," Lauren said, and she explained the breakdown: six were related to race (five classified as harassment and one as discrimination), one was a harassment complaint related to disability, and one involved sexual orientation. Lauren emphasized that the counts reflect complaints students filed with the district; incidents staff may have corrected informally are not included in the DPI report.

Board members asked whether the district can compare its complaint totals to similarly sized districts and whether one student can file a complaint on another’s behalf. Lauren said the district packet provides an internal multi-year table for context but comparable-district data are not directly available in the same format, and that investigations typically require the person targeted to authorize formal complaint steps — though administrators often learn about incidents through third parties and will investigate as appropriate.

Trustees also discussed the district’s restorative responses and building-level handling of many reports. Lauren described three reporting outcome categories used in the chart she presented: formal (board action or formal disciplinary processing), informal (administrators or principals handled and the complaint was withdrawn or resolved), and other (referrals to police, DPI’s Office for Civil Rights, or external agencies).

The presentation concluded after board members asked follow-up procedural questions and were reassured that administration monitors trends; Lauren noted race has historically been the category with the highest counts and said the district has continued educational work aimed at prevention and reporting comfort.

The board did not take action on the report; it served as an informational submission required for DPI reporting.

Next steps: none specified in the meeting minutes; the report was accepted as informational.