GIBBON — GFW (Gibbon Fairfax Winthrop) school board members Amy Acree and Jason Haas recently resigned, according to a school district statement.

The school board plans to hold a November election, according to the statement. Meanwhile, the board will consider a process to appoint interim board members who will be replaced by newly-elected candidates, continued the statement.

The board will consider a November election resolution at its Monday, July 24 meeting that begins at 6:30 p.m. in the elementary school early childhood room.

Haas shared his resignation letter with The Journal.

“I am resigning today, June 11, 2023, due to alleged sexual comments and harassment allegations that are not being handled correctly by our board chair (Dan Merkel). I have asked for several meetings with the chairman and got no results,” wrote Haas.

“The last meeting set up, the chairman failed to even show up. I also have made other attempts to talk with other board members and again got no results.”

“There is a protocol for school boards to follow. I do not want to be part of what is happening on this school board,” Haas added.

Acree contacted the Journal Friday and cited her resignation letter.

“We’ve had several sexual allegations and complaints about a board member. I documented six reported incidents. We tried to schedule a meeting repeatedly to discuss this,” said Acree.

“I care very much about the GFW school district. For decades, it struggled and finally came together to agree on building one centralized school,” she added. “We had a great outpouring of support for the school board and staff recently. Our school district has great depth of knowledge but there are some things that we have to clean up.”

Other board meeting action items include:

The Dashir Management Services, Inc. contract; fee and rate schedule and a long-term facilities maintenance plan.

GFW Facility Manager Brian Weir reported Dylan Rose was hired for the Winthrop school day custodial/maintenance position. Weir added that Gag Sheet Metal Inc. of New Ulm repaired an elementary school roof leak.

In addition, custodial staff worked with Mankato Refrigeration to install a new elementary school walk-in freezer.

Future projects include disassembling an elementary school boiler for state inspection, fire extinguisher, sprinkler system, fire panel and smoke detector annual inspections.

Former elementary teacher, instructional and literacy coach Eric Jacobson of Winthrop began her GFW Middle and High School principal duties July 1, 2023. She is the wife if GFW teacher and coach Ryan Jacobson.

Most recently, Eric Jacobson was lead instructional coach for the Southwest West Central Service Cooperative and New Teacher Center.

She also served as Redwood Area School District Director of Teaching and Learning and has more than 15 years of classroom experience including working at GFW Elementary School.

Jacobson had a bachelor’s degree in elementary education and masters degree in teaching and learning from Minnesota State University, Mankato; plus a educational leadership specialist degree and administrative license.

She has served eight and one-half years int he South Dakota and Minnesota National Guard, earning awards during her service.