After 16 1/2 years, Alan Butters said it was time for him to step away from the Blue Hills Regional Technical School Committee.
"If I make a decision to do something, I like to complete it. And I just didn't feel that I wanted to leave the district or the school in a tough position of filling the position mid-year or mid-term or whatever," said Butters, 63, explaining why he did not run for another four-year term as Westwood's representative on the regional school's board.
Butters and another retiring member of the School Committee, William Buckley of Holbrook, were honored Tuesday night with a dinner at Blue Hills before the start of the committee's new term. At 30 years, Buckley's tenure was even longer the Butters'.
"They both have long and distinguished records of service, and it's just our way to say thank you for everything you did," said Blue Hills spokeswoman Judy Bass.
"They've always worked very diligently for the school and for their communities," said committee Chairman Festus Joyce of Milton. "They certainly will be missed."
Joyce said Butters led a large renovation of the school library a decade ago - a renovation that included setting up a student computer lab.
Butters worked in the Boston public schools for 41 years as a teacher and administrator, retiring in 2003. He spent the past five years working for the Boston schools as a consultant. He stopped that work this summer, and says he hopes to travel some with his wife, who is retiring soon.
Butters, who was the School Committee's chief negotiator in recent talks with a number of different unions, said he was "very pleased" that those negotiations were completed in September, before the end of his tenure. As part of their three-year contracts, the unions agreed to join the Group Insurance Commission for health insurance.
The move means the Blue Hills school district will "save about a quarter-million dollars on our health insurance premiums just in the first year," Butters said.
Butters' successor is former Westwood High School Principal Charles Flahive, who was elected as a write-in candidate in the Blue Hills election this month. Flahive was a teacher, assistant principal, and principal at Westwood High between 1957 and 2002, when he retired after seven years in the top spot. From 2003 to 2006, he was principal of a high school in New Hampshire.
