History of BHS

Butler High School graduated its first class in 1907, making the senior class of 2006 the 100^th class to graduate from the school.  Until 1903, graduates of the Butler Grammar School attended Paterson High School.  In 1903, the district’s supervising principal, Mr. Clarence J. Howell, oversaw the establishment of Butler High School.  In the early years, Butler High School was a “regional” high school in the extreme sense of the word.  Originally the school encompassed a territory of more than 200 square miles, providing secondary education to students from Bloomingdale, Jefferson, Kinnelon, Pequannock, Ringwood, Riverdale, Wanaque and West Milford.  Over the years the sending districts, with the exception of Bloomingdale, withdrew from Butler High School as municipalities built their own high schools or regional school districts were created.  Ringwood, Wanaque and Pequannock withdrew in 1958, following by West Milford in 1962, and Kinnelon, Riverdale and Jefferson in 1964.