Former Atlanta principal returns to school as handyman after retirement

David White spent 15 years running Burgess-Peterson Academy in Atlanta, then found himself missing the building, the people and the daily rhythm that had defined most of his adult life. After retiring in September 2025 at 58, following 33 years in education and a stint as Principal of the Year for Atlanta Public Schools, White returned to the school in a very different role: site manager, which at Burgess-Peterson mostly means handyman.

His tasks are the kind that keep a campus functioning but rarely make headlines. White power washes bathrooms, inspects fire extinguishers, cleans gutters and handles drywall and plumbing work. For a veteran principal who once shaped the school’s academic direction, the job is also a reminder of what public schools lose when experienced leaders leave and what they often still need after they do.

White said retirement left him feeling lonely and disconnected and made him miss the school community. Holly Brookins, the new principal at Burgess-Peterson Academy, encouraged him to apply when the site manager opening came up. The arrangement reflects something deeper than nostalgia. In schools, especially neighborhood schools, institutional memory is part of the infrastructure too, and White’s return shows how hard it can be for longtime educators to separate identity from service.

Burgess-Peterson Academy serves East Atlanta Village and Reynoldstown as a neighborhood school of choice, with a mission that emphasizes equity, inclusion and inquiry-based learning. White had already remained visible after retirement, including volunteering at a holiday meal event at the school in November 2025. That continued presence suggests the line between leaving and staying is often thinner in education than in many other professions.

White’s connection to the school also runs through its growth. A 2024 profile said he arrived when enrollment was about 240 students, including 60 in APS pre-K, and later helped guide the campus to roughly 600 students. That expansion was tied in part to the closure of Whitefoord Elementary and the reassignment of students from Reynoldstown. The same profile said White worked for years with REAP, or Reading is Essential to All People, to strengthen literacy, and reported that Burgess-Peterson ranked at the 79th percentile for reading at or above grade level and at the 80th percentile on CCRPI, the highest in the Jackson Cluster and above district and state elementary averages.

White’s second act at Burgess-Peterson is personal, but it also captures a national reality: schools do not just lose administrators when veteran educators retire. They lose problem-solvers, culture-bearers and the people who know where the cracks are, literal and institutional alike.