Guess he paid attention to the band programs

South Lakes High School Principal Bruce Butler was named the Reston Times' Citizen of the Year, following a fun couple of months where his school has been accused of everything from trying to poach "good" children to playing with Bratz dolls. How's that worked out for you, Bruce?

“I'm just so thankful to work here, I think I'm the luckiest principal in the county.”

SLHS' backers have given Butler the lion's share of the credit for turning around a school that had a checkered reputation for many years. More significantly, he did something that decades worth of students who passed through South Lakes' doors never thought possible -- he got windows added to the dystopian building.

Butler has become the unintentional champion of the high school during the western county boundary study. South Lakes will have a capacity of 2,100 when renovations are finished in the fall, and redistricting would address the current population imbalance.

Butler remains dedicated to putting all his time and energy into South Lakes rather than answering criticisms about a school he doesn't believe needs defending. The best ambassadors for the school have been the students, he said.

“The fact that he can trust students to represent South Lakes says a lot,” Girardi said.

To keep his own focus, Butler spends as much time as he can out of his own office and in the hallways, classrooms and cafeterias of South Lakes. That means not answering every one of the 100 e-mails he gets on a daily basis.

“The real magic is happening in the classroom,” he said. “The real joy of this job is working with young people, who are exciting.”

You mean it isn't watching their parents in action?