HUMBOLDT — The Humboldt Community School District has named a long-term interim superintendent to lead the district through June 30, when a permanent superintendent will assume the position.

During a Friday morning special meeting, the school board named former Webster City Community School District Superintendent Mike Sherwood as the interim superintendent. Sherwood will begin on Feb. 15, while Prairie Lakes Area Education Agency Chief Administrator Jeff Herzberg will continue as the temporary interim superintendent through Feb. 14.

“The board has been working very diligently for the last week or week and a half now to find an exceptional individual to help transition between what has transpired in the past weeks,” board President Tate Satern said.

Satern said that Sherwood is “a man of incredible character” and “he comes very, very highly recommended from a number of people around the state.”

The school board voted unanimously to approve Sherwood as the interim superintendent from Feb. 15 through June 30, 2020.

Sherwood will be working in place of Humboldt Superintendent Greg Darling, who has been placed on paid administrative leave from Jan. 20 through June 30, 2020.

The second item on the board’s agenda on Friday morning was to discuss the search for a new permanent superintendent.

“We have had a number of proposals, there are a number of options going forward that we can look at regarding how do we obtain another exceptional superintendent,” Satern said.

The board president continued that while there is the option of the board conducting the search themselves, that would be “futile.”

“I think that is ridiculous,” he said. “There would not be enough hours in the day for us to conduct that search, nor do we have the skill set to do such.”

The board received three proposals from various search firms, Satern said.

Grundmeyer Leader Search, of Ankeny, submitted a proposal for $11,901.88. EDWise LLC, of Alta, submitted a proposal for $10,000. The third and final proposal came from Herzberg, for $8,000.

Satern said the district needs to move quickly to get the “best choice” for superintendent and the three search firm options are all more or less the same.

The school board voted unanimously to approve Herzberg’s proposal for $8,000.

Requests for Sherwood’s contract and salary information for his services as interim superintendent have been made by The Messenger.