With the Hartselle City School system waiting, Dr. Mike Reed bid his last public farewell to the members of the Butler County Board of Education Thursday night during a reception given in his honor.

Reed, who accepted the Hartselle job in February, has served as Superintendent of Education in Butler County since June 1999. The board is currently searching for his replacement.

Several members of the community and the school district gave their comments on Reed's departure during the reception.

"He's always applied the law and has always had the door open for the parents," said Jackie Thornton, who has children in the district and also teaches at Greenville Elementary.

McKenzie principal Randy Williams said Reed, who hired him to his current position, had been a good sounding board.

"I've learned a lot from (Reed)," he said. "He's always been there if I had concerns and I wish him the best."

Reed said he had enjoyed working for the children and parents of the school district.

"It's the people here that made this a hard decision for me," he said. "But it was time."

After the reception the board voted by majority to hire current special assistant to the superintendent Wayne Boswell to serve as interim superintendent of education until the board hires a replacement for Reed. The lone dissenting vote came from Joanne Peak. Other applicants for the interim position were Gerry Adair, who is currently serves as Administrative Assistant of Federal Programs for the district; former superintendent of Montgomery Public Schools Clinton Carter, and John Vaughn, former superintendent of Troy City Schools.

Peak said she preferred to look outside the district to fill the position because she was concerned about the workload for Boswell and Adair, who both currently hold positions in the district.

"They both already have full-time jobs and that means they will have to do two full-times jobs," said Peak of what would happen if either Boswell or Adair were appointed. "They both do an excellent job for the school district, I just felt it might be too much for them to handle."

Peak said of Carter and Vaughn, she would have chosen Vaughn because he attended a recent board work session. Carter couldn't attend due to being out of town on vacation at the time.

"I think we made a good choice," said board member Billy Jones. "I think we had two equally qualified candidates (Boswell and Adair). We just couldn't elect both of them."

After the meeting, Boswell thanked the board.

"I'm just humbled and let me pledge to you we will work together," he said. "We have competent educators in the district and when I take the interim position will continue as usual and all of us working together will get that done. I will do what we need to do to complete the year and make sure everything is in place when the new (superintendent) gets here."