Photo by Jon Anderson.
Bumpus Middle School Principal Donna Burke welcomes students to school on April 14.
After 37 years in education, Bumpus Middle School Principal Donna Burke is hanging up her principal’s hat at the end of this school year.
The 58-year-old educator said the demands of the job have become so great that it takes away time from family and friends — and from taking care of herself. She no longer has the energy to do the job the way she wants to do it, so it’s time to pass the torch, she said.
She plans to take on some part-time jobs, but nothing more than two days a week.
Burke began her career teaching physical education in 1988. She spent a year at Highlands School in Birmingham and a year at The Donoho School in Anniston before she was hired as a physical education teacher at Simmons Middle School during former Hoover Superintendent Robert Bumpus’ first year, she said.
She worked nine years at Simmons and 10 years at Hoover High School. She also served as a volleyball coach at Hoover High for 20 years, including 17 years with the varsity team. In 2010, she spent about six months as an assistant principal at Deer Valley Elementary School before coming to Bumpus as an assistant principal in 2011.
The Alabama Association of Secondary School Principals named Burke the Assistant Principal of the Year in 2018, and in 2021, she was promoted to principal, replacing Tamala Maddox.
Burke said she’s had the chance to experience a wide range of roles in education — elementary, middle and high school, public and private school — and she enjoyed them all. But she found her true passion in middle school, where students are at such a key age developmentally.
“They are unique. They are fun. They are complicated,” she said. “In middle school, you make more of an impact than ever.”
Students are trying new things and making decisions about their interests, and “our job is just to encourage them and give them those opportunities,” she said.
Burke said students learn more than just academics. They’re learning to listen, ask questions, take notes and say thank you.
One of the first pieces of advice she received as an administrator was to greet students every day and tell them good morning. The first semester, she usually gets only a few grunts in return, she said, but by the end of the year, the kids are saying it before she does.
She believes strongly in building relationships with both teachers and students — and that meaningful learning grows out of those relationships.
Her biggest joy, she said, is seeing students grow and develop into successful adults. The hardest part is seeing a former student in the news for committing a terrible crime and wondering what she and others could have done differently.
Many current Bumpus parents were her former students at Simmons, and she said she loves seeing how far they’ve come.
Burke said she and her colleagues have worked hard to build a strong climate and culture at Bumpus — one where people take a genuine interest in each other and work together toward shared goals.
“We’re not always perfect with all of that,” she said, “but I feel like this building is based on relationships, and I hope that continues.”
