By 6:30 a.m., lights are on, thermostats are set, bathrooms are checked, and classrooms are open for a day of learning across Latin's campus. When issues arise—from a jammed locker to a mysterious stench—they get resolved before most people even notice the problem.
This work may seem automatic to students, but behind it all, you'll find Latin's facilities team, already hours into their day.
"I always tell people that facilities are the unsung heroes of Latin School of Chicago," Director of Operations Chanel King said. "If they don't show up, no one can get in."
While the daily checklist is essential, the real excitement of the facilities job for many comes from the unpredictable.
"Every day is different," Ms. King said. "I don't think we have room for it to be boring."
To meet that daily challenge, Latin employs several engineers, custodians, and operations staff with backgrounds and interests just as diverse as their work orders. From forklift operating to TV installing, here are the people tackling it all:
Mr. Aldama has worked at Latin for longer than most students have been alive—and longer than some of the main campus buildings have even existed.
He started at Latin in 1992 as a custodian after a cleaner friend on the Evening Crew told him about the opening. Before Latin, he had worked in a bike factory, operating forklifts and other heavy machinery.
After about a year and a half, former Latin engineer Kevin Bohlig asked if Mr. Aldama wanted to learn more about the engineering side of the job. He enthusiastically answered "yes!"
"He showed me how the boilers work, the system around the pool in the sub-basement, how everything works on the computer," Mr. Aldama said.
To this day, the pool is a big focus of Mr. Aldama's morning routine. He arrives hours before school opens to put away the cleaning robots and make sure the water's pH is balanced. He also inspects the Upper School's boilers and walks through the building top to bottom, checking for leaks.
His favorite bonding activity with the facilities team is their summertime basketball games.
"I'm 60 years old already," Mr. Aldama said, "but I still play."
Mr. Rivera is Latin's Assistant Director of Operations, with a strong focus on facilities. Before Latin, he worked for over 20 years in similar roles at hospitals and Continuing Care Retirement Communities.
His resume, however, doesn't tell the full story. His earliest passion was in the arts.
"I wanted to be a writer, a journalist, or a photographer," Mr. Rivera said. "I had a lot of interviews at the Chicago Art Institute, and I was accepted there. I had to ask, 'Oh, do I want to go there or not?'"
He eventually chose to build a career in facilities instead, encouraged by his mother to pursue more financial stability.
"At that age, right, you don't really care so much about money. I just want to do what I love," he said. "But as you get older, [money] takes on a greater importance, or the world shapes your opinions on those things and changes your values to some degree."
Although he didn't end up as a full-time artist, Mr. Rivera maintains a creative side, doodling and drawing in his free time. In fact, he chose Latin because a school schedule is especially conducive to this work-life balance.
"My wife's a teacher, and I was in healthcare, so zero time off. I was jealous of the time off she would get, whether it be winter breaks or summer breaks," he said.
That same appreciation for balance carries into his favorite part of the job: working in a high school environment.
"I love the interactions I have with everybody, like seeing the students, the teachers. Things like Romans Run are pretty cool," he said. "It's like getting to see high school through again."
His least favorite part of the job: "Does the cold weather and [the alley] wind tunnel count?"
For as long as he can remember, Mr. Hardin has had an aptitude for fixing things.
"My mother put me in places with different people who could keep teaching me more," he said.
Those skills developed into 30 years of building maintenance including 13 independent and 15 more maintaining townhome communities and other buildings across Chicago. His first job was at a high-rise called Skybridge, where he started as a janitor and worked his way to more technical tasks as he learned from colleagues.
Choosing to spend the last two of those 30 years with Latin was deliberate.
"I grew up in the neighborhood, and one of my buildings is in this neighborhood, and a lot of [the tenants'] kids came here," he said. "I [also] get to use more of my brain here. It's challenging in the sense of the mechanics and computer aspect."
Likewise, his favorite work orders are nontrivial. For example, recently he was tasked with installing two new TVs by the Learning Commons for the Visual Arts Department.
"I wouldn't say it's [hard] critical thinking, but I [had] to figure out where the power needed to go," he said.
Outside of work, though, he likes to keep things simple.
"I'm just a real basic guy," Mr. Hardin said. "I come to work, do my job, go home, take care of my daughter."
In his free time, he has a particularly unique interest: watching B-movies, typically from the '80s.
"You get to see actors get their start," he said. "You say, like, 'Oh, this [acclaimed actor] was terrible in this movie, but that's where they came from."
Mr. Caban got into facilities work by chance.
"Over on Walton Street, I came across a fella named John Buck," Mr. Caban said. "We got into a conversation, and he let me know that he had a bunch of real estate. He introduced me to the life of taking care of buildings."
From that encounter, he built a career ranging from engineering to maintenance to customer service for commercial buildings and high-rises.
When he decided it was time for a change of pace two years ago, he found a job offering on Latin's Indeed page and applied.
"They had a big old sign that said, 'We'll feed you,'" he said. "That's how I found Latin."
Like Mr. Hardin, Mr. Caban's favorite tasks are ones that make him think, such as when a mysterious stench materialized on the first floor of the Middle School.
"It was driving everyone crazy," he said. "I had to literally bust a hole in the ceiling to find out the problem."
The problem ended up being an exhaust vent missing 18 inches of pipe.
"I was really pleased with myself that I solved it," Mr. Caban said.
While the work of the facilities team can go unnoticed, many students, faculty, and staff know exactly who to thank. Upper School librarian Gretchen Metzler is a prime example, frequently working closely with the team to coordinate setup for Learning Commons events.
"They're amazing. Every time I've needed anything, they jump right in, they figure out solutions—and they do it all with such a smile," Ms. Metzler said. "I think it could be hard to be in facilities at a busy school like this, and they never seem particularly put out or frustrated."
Students, too, echo gratitude for the team's kindness and patience.
"There's this one guy who always talks to me and asks how my day is," Senior Prefect Ralu Nzelibe said. "It's insane how much they put up with."
Student spaces, however, make up only a fraction of where the facilities team spends its time. When they're not fielding work orders, they're often behind the scenes in spaces like the basement and sub-basement.
The entrance to the Upper School mechanicals area is in the basement, next to the boys locker room.
The mechanicals in the basement include boilers, compressors, jockey pumps, heat exchangers, domestic water pumps, elevator mechanics, gas lines, chillers, and more.
Members of Latin's facilities team are trained to check this equipment regularly and diagnose issues.
Latin's sub-basement wraps around the pool. The staircase to get down to it is extremely steep.
The sub-basement is small and contains pool equipment that needs to be checked frequently by facilities staff like Mr. Aldama.
Once you pass under the pool through the sub-basement, there is a ladder up to another room. This room is a maze of additional large mechanicals.
Though their backgrounds and roles differ, everything the Facilities Department does drives at one overarching goal.
"We try to make sure the building is ready to receive students every single day," Ms. King said. "Our main goal is always to not interrupt an educational school day for the students."