Students returning to Rancho Bernardo High School next week after spring break will find several new individual stalls in changing areas, as Poway Unified School District addresses concerns sparked by a transgender student who uses the boys’ locker room.

The issue arose in February when parents complained that a student who was born female but identifies as male was changing in the boys’ area. After hearing public comment at a packed board meeting in February, the school proposed private changing stalls in an effort to accommodate transgender students and others who wish to dress separately.

“It’s an option for any student who feels uncomfortable changing in front of peers,” said Principal David LeMaster.

The upgrade could help resolve issues broader than gender and sexual identity, including the desire for personal modesty, and privacy concerns in the digital age, parents and administrators said. And it struck a compromise that appeared to satisfy both the parents who complained and those supporting transgender students’ rights.

Related How a girl born at 2 pounds became a happy boy

“Having private stalls helps with a lot of issues other than those we have with transgender students,” said Holly Franz, who told district officials this year that her son felt uncomfortable changing around the student, whom he had known for years as a girl.

“A lot of students feel uncomfortable changing publicly,” Franz said. “A lot of students have cellphones with cameras, so that adds to the privacy issues. This addresses those.”

On Monday, workers retrofitted two showers stalls in the girls’ locker room at Rancho Bernardo High, widening the openings to accommodate wheelchair access and adding doors for privacy. In the boys’ locker room, they will install dividers to separate a shared shower area into four stalls, and hang heavy curtains at the opening to each section.

LeMaster said he expects that the school may add more stalls but is waiting to see how many students use them.

Rancho Bernardo is the first school in the district to add the private changing areas, but all of Poway’s middle and high schools are slated to follow, LeMaster said. The renovations for all of those campuses will cost $347,767, according to district spokeswoman Christine Paik.

Rancho Bernardo High also added a gender-neutral and wheelchair accessible single-person bathroom, LeMaster said. Some other schools in the district already have such facilities, he said.

A 2-year-old California law states that K-12 public school students who are transgender or gender nonconforming are allowed to participate in classes and activities, and to use bathrooms and locker rooms, without regard to their birth sex. The new stalls conform to that law by providing an option for all students, without singling any out for separate facilities, officials said.

“It’s available to anyone,” LeMaster said. “It’s not required for use by anyone. It’s not even suggested or recommended.”

Kathie Moehlig, who heads the organization TransFamily Support Services and is acting as a spokeswoman for the transgender student’s family, said the private stalls are a fair solution.

“We are pleased that the school district and that Mr. LeMaster, the principal, are taking this seriously, and are providing private changing space that will be provided to all students equally,” said Moehlig, whose son Sam is also a transgender student in the district. “The whole point is that this isn’t about separating students. This is about providing a comfortable, private changing area for any student to utilize.”