Margaret Yates is retiring after 11 years at Bel Pre Elementary School.

Yates, an Olney resident, is taking her retirement two years early to spend more time with her aging father and two young granddaughters.

"My husband retired last year," she said. "And we are building a house at the shore [Ocean Pines] and he said to me, 'I can't imagine being out on the boat by myself this fall and you being back in school.'

"So I decided to retire, too," she said.

Her retirement has Bel Pre parents missing her already.

"There is going to be a big hole," said Sara Pullen, the Bel Pre PTA president from 1991-93.

"My son started kindergarten when Margaret became principal, and one day he came home excited because Mrs. Yates knew his name," Pullen said. "That's Margaret for you ... she believes in her students, she knows her students and their needs."

After graduating from Frostburg Teacher's College, Yates started teaching fifth and sixth grades in 1966 in Prince George's County.

She received her master's in special early childhood education from the University of Maryland College Park while raising two sons -- Tim, an attorney, and Kevin, a teacher at Kingsview Middle School in Gaithersburg -- with her husband Jim, a retired owner of wine businesses.

Yates came to Montgomery County Public Schools as a special education coordinator before becoming a principal at Wingate Elementary School in Bethesda.

She arrived at Bel Pre in 1990, where she credits a creative staff for much of the school's success.

"The teachers are such a support for one another," she said. "I think I've been able to bring together a group of people that are highly skilled educators who have high expectations for their students."

Pullen and parent volunteer Bev McGehee agree.

"She has a belief in her staff that is so evident by the number of committees [established] and by the loyalty of the staff ... there is a very low turnover rate at Bel Pre," Pullen said.

"That is a hallmark of a good leader," she said. "To see the people you lead succeed and grow."

"She's basically created a family among the staff," McGehee said. "She created an incredible atmosphere that allows them to work together so well."

Carmen von Zutphen, principal intern at Fairland Elementary School in Silver Spring, will start in July as Bel Pre's new principal.