Mr. Mark Dziwulski

Dressed in a blue Parker jacket and a checked shirt, Mr. Dziwulski radiates an easygoing, professional nature. He greets us with "hello" and "hi" and sits down. Mr. Dziwulski is the assistant director of facilities, meaning he supervises the maintenance and security staffs. His job involves everything from responding to teachers' requests to fix the heating and cooling to major projects like working on the new addition to the library and adding new furniture and paint to classrooms.

“What's your dream job?” Lucas asks him. “This,” Mr. Dziwulski replies quickly. “I have always wanted to do this.” Mr. Dziwulski started his career when he was just 19.

Lucas asks, “What do you do in your free time?”

Mr. Dziwulski smiles. "I like to work out, socialize with my family, fix and improve things around my house, and coach sports teams," he replies. He coaches his son's football team, his daughter's basketball team, and high school lacrosse. He does lots of cardio work and used to run a lot but had to stop due to a knee injury. He has three children: a son in ninth grade, another son in sixth grade, and a daughter in third grade. “If I had to pick a favorite activity that I do," he told us, "it would probably be working out, but I love to do a lot of things."

Mr. Dziwulski came to Parker because his father, whom he greatly admires, inspired him to work in facilities. When Mr. Dziwulski was a child, his father fixed and repaired things. Through his own work and his kids, Mr. Dziwulski carries on the family tradition of working in facilities. He shows his sons what he does and how he does it. Mr. Dziwulski’s dad always told him, “Try your hardest, do your best work, and ask questions."

In the past, Mr. Dziwulski has worked at two schools not including Parker. One of the schools was Lincoln Middle School in Mount Prospect, where he was also a facilities director. Before working in facilities in schools, he worked as an engineer. Mr. Dziwulski has never gotten hurt working at Parker. He has worked in schools' facilities for 23 years. When he interviewed at Parker, there was an opening for him and he became the new facilitator. His first day at Parker, the hardest thing for him was remembering the layout and where everything is in the school.

Kai asks, “How has Parker changed in your time here?” .

“It hasn't,“ Mr. Dziwulski replies. “I’ve only been here for two years. All the schools I’ve been in have been pretty similar.”

During the day, Mr. Dziwulski walks around the school looking for any flaws such as cracks in the wall or anything else to fix. When he came to Parker, he said that he couldn't do an office job. “I don’t want to rot in a little office,” he said. He interacts with teachers, students, and all of the maintenance staff. He fixes things in the classrooms like broken heaters and is in charge of replacing the chalkboards with whiteboards. Mr. Dziwulski is the head of the security guards and maintenance workers. When something needs to be fixed, his maintenance workers are already on the job. They make his job much easier and less stressful. At the moment he is working on remodeling the library. Whenever something needs to be changed he has a meeting. Sometimes the neighbors get involved with the meeting. “We were going to add lights outside the school, but the neighbors didn’t want them, because they claimed that the lights would reflect into their house," he told us. It was proposed that Mr. Dziwulski should put a new coat of paint in the boiler room. He decided instead to paint a classroom, since no one sees the boiler room.

Mr. Dziwulski has many challenges in his job, but the biggest one is the weather. Since the weather changes rapidly, he has to know in advance to change the cooling system to reflect the weather. Another challenge for Mr. Dziwulski is making sure everyone agrees about the new changes happening in the school. The heating in the building is very old. The heaters get too hot when they don’t need to be, and vice-versa. Something else that can make things hard for him is getting permits. He needs to check with the city on every big project he does to make sure it is all right. One example of when he needed a permit was the new library. For the library, the city wanted him to paint the bathrooms near the field the same color as the bricks.

Mr. Dziwulski smiles as he recalls his no doubt fond memories of Lincoln Middle School. He finishes with a little sigh and glances at the clock. “Thank you,” Mr. Drury says in the silence. Students begin to clap. Mr. Drury almost has to shout to be heard above the din. “Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to talk with us. It is very much appreciated.” Those words are well practiced, but they bear the unmistakable tone of sincerity. Mr. Dziwulski gives him a grateful nod. “Thank you for inviting me.” He turns to the interviewers. “Thank you so much, it's been a pleasure.” They nod, ruffling their papers into a messy pile. The other members of the interview team put the finishing touches on their notes and flip down the tops of their iPads. They roll back to the audience tables, their job done. Mr. Dziwulski leaves the room quietly, but with his departure he leaves a certain spirit, of a man who has lived his life with machines, has fixed problems for others, and is content in his job, a person who makes others happy, and finds happiness in doing so.