Rebeca Salazar’s morning routine is familiar. For the last three years, she wakes up and travels the few blocks from her house to McNair School of Excellence in Austin, where students and staff know her affectionately as “Miss Becky.” The commute is the shortest in her 25 years as a Chicago Public Schools custodian.

Salazar, 65, knows her day will include cleaning floors and bathrooms in between classes long before she steps foot in the school at 11 a.m. The school’s second floor, which houses third, fourth, fifth graders and special education students, is hers to maintain. She’ll likely be tasked with cleaning up accidents, saving the day by doing the work others often don’t want to do. But for the children she has watched grow up and formed connections with, it’s work worth doing.

This

See Full Page