Thank you, Bruce. You are truly a transformational leader. My family and I thank you for your dedication to the South Lakes community. We will miss you!

It was my privilege to serve as SLHS PTSA President in 2007-08 during the redistricting. The best part was working with and learning from Mr. Butler. Thanks for your service. Our kids and our community prospered under your leadership. Elizabeth Vandenburg

Mr. Butler, our community is a better place for your service and dedication to our high school. We will miss you. Thank you and all the best in your future endeavors. Andy Sigle

My kids have been so lucky to be at a school energized by Principal Butler and his incredible staff. His retirement will be a huge loss to FCPS, SLHS students, parents and Reston community. Best of luck with your retirement (but please reconsider !)

wow I can't believe it :( it was an honor being a student and years later I'm a wife and mother of two. I wish you the best in everything that you do.

Bruce has created a spirit, environment and philosophy where the students are encouraged to be a single community and each reach their own personal potential. It has been a fabulous center for both education and good citizenship - I hope the successor is able to maintain it. Thanks to Bruce for all of the hard work and countless hours he has put into SLHS and its associated community.

Bruce you will truly be missed. You have been an amazing principal and under your leadership SLHS has become the great school that it is. I feel so fortunate to have served as a PTSA President during your tenure and to have had both of my daughters attend SLHS with you as their principal. We wish you the best in this next phase of your life.

I'm with the good riddance crowd. Bruce was fine for saying the right thing, but if you ever had to actually deal with him, pArticurally where it required some character on his part.....well he was found to be inadequate. He was good at not sticking his neck out and coverinf his ass. We had two student suicides that I know of.in the last four years, I wonder how that compaiirs with other high schools

For an entire month or more he left the sidewalks connecting Southlakes utterly unusable last year. This after the "Shovelgate" contravesery in the RA election in which RA CEO Milton Mathewes actually in effect endorsed his preferred candidate. That was the only time Reston sidewalks got shoveled, when it served a corrupt purpose. The actual real need tomake the sidewalks usable by our children was just ignored by Mr. Butler.

I was a student at SLHS for four years (class of 08) and I remember Mr. Butler to be kind and upright. He would always treat us personally and respectfully, greeting us in the halls and such. I'm glad that he was the principal. I hope that he will be replaced by someone as good if not better.

Mr. Butler: the Katz family also wishes to thank you for your service and for all that you have done for the South Lakes community. I am extremely grateful that both of our kids went to SLHS during your tenure. Thanks you for your leadership and integrity during some challenging times for the school and the school district. Best of luck in your retirement though (personally), I too wish you wish you would reconsider.

I was a student when Mr. Butler was an Administrator at Herndon High School and now as a leader in the Reston community I get to see him from a different side and I admire him even more. He has a genuine heart and commitment to getting all students involved in the community. Thank you so much for your service.

I had two students at SLHS from 1996-2009. One was an IB student with an A(+) average and no problems in

any aspect of her high school life. My other was a student with learning disabilities and substance abuse

issues who struggled to get through every year of high school.

Bruce was wonderful to *both* of my children.

He always acknowledged my IB student, always asked how she was, showed interest in what she was up to, and

is happy to see her when she's in town.

Bruce was the person who gave us a call and met with us to discuss his observations on our son's problems

and give us a heads-up as to what was probably (yes, it was) going on. My son left South Lakes for a year

and went to an alternative school and then took classes while in rehab. Bruce supported our decisions and

worked with us to make sure that his classes and credits were done in such a way that he could come back to

SLHS for his senior year. He was unfailing supportive and has always asked about how our son is doing.

Part 2:
We feel blessed to have had Bruce as an assistant principal and as a principal. It's easy to be an

administrator when the kids are high-achieving and work hard. It's not so easy with the "problem kids" ..

yet Bruce showed the same attention and willingness to work with and help both of my children.

My husband is a teacher with Fairfax County and we're very much aware of the policies that principals have

to deal with and enforce. Administrators can't be blamed for having to enforce those policies. We're also

very much aware of what a wonderful administrator he is .. especially as compared to a great many that we

have seen in the past (not just SLHS, by the way).

South Lakes students and families will be fortunate if their next principal is nearly as good.

My husband teaches at South Lakes; we are both so very sorry to see him go! He will be missed by teachers, students, and parents alike... he has been wonderful.

Bruce,
Enjoy your richly deserved retirement.
Your excellence in leadership of Reston's high school enriched the prospects of thousands of our youth who are forever in your debt.
I think there should be a special chapter in the Reston history when it is finally written. It will be in the Education Section and entitled "The Butler Years" .

Maybe your rePlacement will be a South Lakes grad trained later by yourself!?
You will be missed.

Mr. Butler will be missed by the South Lakes HS community. He really cared about every student and made it a point to know all the students by name - even when the student population increased recently. I will miss his slideshows at the PTA meetings.

Let this be a warning to those who even THINK about insulting Butler for his work. If you do, I will destroy your fake arguments that will make you wish you didn't step in Seahawk territory. That means you Ms. Zammit and Mr. Koozmin. I am not a hero. I am a silent guardian, a watchful protector. A Seahawk knight.

people, let's keep it civil and on topic.

As in don't threaten anyone or call them a moron. We can agree or disagree about mr. Butler without that.

Stacey, you may be a "brave" attacker of a well respected principal, but you've just made yourself a target of those who truly love Mr. Butler, and he very well deserves the flood of affections as displayed above. Your comments are way off the line and I am suspecting if this is the way you teach your girls. You may hold a grudge against Mr. Butler, but that doesn't give you a pass to being obnoxious. Mr. Butler has been SLH's blessing and he is truly irreplaceable. Mr. Butler, PLEASE reconsider!

Chill,Stacey. No one is picking on your children and no one said they were going to "target" either you or them. Let's not blow this out of proportion. For those of us wishing to go ballistic, we have nearly seven months of presidential electioneering that we can use to vent our hostility on. ;)

He's sure to into politics locally now as he has all the qualities of successful Democratic candidates: very well paid with high personal income and says the right thing and looks superficislly good but dose the most self serving thing.

Thanks very much to Mr. Butler for his years of service, hard work and great results. I am hoping that the staff and the system that he put in place can continue the progress.

For those who are unhappy - if you have issues with Mr. Butler or with the schools in general then volunteer, get involved and work to be a positive influence. We need as many people involved as possible in our children's lives.

I am appalled at some of the comments on here. To even suggest that Bruce Butler was responsible for a suicide is disgraceful and disgusting. And "Sidewalkgate"? Just beyond ridiculous.

I have had two of my children attend South Lakes High School, and I cannot adequately express how much we have all loved that school. The progress it has made under Mr. Butler has been enormous. It went from having an undeserved bad reputation, to being one of the top high schools in the county, with a huge increase in the number of students opting in. It is a truly diverse school, with great opportunities for its students. I saw first hand how Mr. Butler worked to improve every aspect of that school. Are there still challenges? Of course. But I thank Mr. Butler for his hard work and dedication and the enormous accomplishments he made there as principal. He will be missed.

Bruce, it has been an absolute pleasure to work with you, if only for a short time. Thanks for all you've done for the SLHS community!

Mr. Butler only deserves to be showered with praise and admiration for all he has done for the South Lakes community. He has been the instrument of change and has not only helped to transform South Lakes’ reputation, but his leadership and role modeling has motivated the student population to really become one family, one Seahawk family.

Thank you Mr. Butler for your days and nights of service year after year, for your gentle and genuine heart and for your courage. You leave a legacy of which you should be very proud.

I am glad he is going. he was a tool of Stu Gibson who only worked to ensure his daughter's alma mater had the appearance of positive reviews. The IB program is poor compared to AP and more expensive. There is no logical reason for its existance in SLHS. Butler had no courage to speak the truth. If IB was so good, why is not at TJ? Why did Butler not place his daughter in an IB program? Why do most colleges still not accept it? One thing for sure, Bruce was smooth. Unless the next person is just as smooth, SLHS reputation will swirl down to its true (i.e., uninflated) level.

I'm amazed at the sheer hatred expressed by some people on this thread. This is hardly the time to be so vengeful in your comments.

For myself, I think he's been great. I've volunteered with dozens of SLHS students over the past 10 years. Only about 5 of them were IB candidates. I'm amazed at how much the tone and attitude in the school changed (for the better) under Mr. Butler. Students felt safer, and instruction improved dramatically. Is it a perfect environment? No - but neither is any other high school in the country. What has impressed me most about Mr. Butler is that wasn't just saying what people wanted to hear - I saw, year on year, that he meant what he said, and worked hard to improve the environment for ALL of his students. There is a lot of substance behind those positive reviews.

When someone like Ms. Zammit directly states that "only the IB moms" were happy, it's simply a lie. She may speak for herself, and tell us why she's unhappy. She may NOT speak for everyone else. The same goes for all the other detractors - you are entitled to your opinion. It is offensive, in the highest degree, when you state that your opinion must automatically be felt by others as well.

Back at ya Mikey - It is offensive, in the highest degree, when you state that your opinion must automatically be felt by others as well.

I've been in IT for years and one of the rules of online posting has always been "Don't Feed the Trolls." The more response provocative posters get, the more they post (and the more inflammatory the rhetoric gets). It's not worth anyone's time and energy to get excited about this and encourage discourteous argument. Ignore the comments and they'll get tired and go away.

Stacey. Please don't speak on behalf of Patch or our advertisers. Thanks.

Great article and tribute to Bruce. We all knew him as Mr. Butler when I went to Herndon High School 17 years ago. Bruce holds people accountable for there actions, while also being fair, which is why he was such a success as a principal. Mr Butler thanks for all the good advice and guidance and oh yeah thanks for letting me win when we would play one on one basketball. I wish the world had more Bruce Butlers. Good luck and enjoy retirement. John

It's hard to imagine South Lakes HS without Bruce Butler. He has worked so hard and achieved so much! Our whole community - parents, students and teachers - will miss him.

Thank you, Mr. Butler. I believe South Lakes had earned it's bad reputation. That reputation is now fading into memory now. You really transformed this school into one of the county's best. I am sorry to see you go.