On the long trek from the parking lot to the school, students have one thing on their minds: warmth. They just want to get into the school and warm up their freezing bodies. But very few students take the time to realize who they have to thank for that warmth. One person that they should be thanking is Tim Williams, one of the maintenance men.

“I don’t know that [students] realize all that we do,” Tim said. “You want to think that they appreciate what you do and for the most part I think the staff do but as far as the kids I don’t know if they really know the extent of what we get into sometimes.”

Tim and his team work on many behind the scenes aspects of FHN. Tim gets to school in the morning around 5:30 to check the boilers in the winter and the air conditioning in the spring and summer. Whether its plumbing, or electricity, or even sometimes painting, Tim and his team work to service and maintain the school.

“It’s out of sight, out of mind and I don’t think people realize that when you turn that faucet on what we have to do to make stuff work,” Tim said.

The maintenance staff can be spotted among the crowds of students in the halls in their light blue work shirts and jeans. But that doesn’t mean that students take notice of them.

“They’ve opened up the gym a couple times over the years for guard and they’ve never complained about it, but I don’t really know much else about them,” senior Sidney Sheridan said.

However, English teacher Jani Wilkens can understand why students may not notice the maintenance staff since their jobs aren’t as upfront as teachers and custodians.

“I think it’s probably difficult to appreciate the maintenance people because I think they kind of walk around and work in the shadows,” Wilkens said. “When students are in classes they’re working on projects around the building. I think a lot of students probably rarely even see them. I feel like the maintenance men are kinda behind the scenes.”

Wilkens has become friends with Tim over the years because of the odd jobs Tim has done for her. Just last year, Tim had to help remove birds that had been nesting in Wilken’s ceiling.

“There was a storm one weekend and it blew the under part of the awning off so there was a hole created where birds could get up into the rooftop above my classroom and the one next door,” Wilkens said. “We could hear them up there and it was really disgusting because they freak me out and they were nesting and laying eggs and having babies and it was just really gross. Finally Tim and Adam, his assistant, just went out there and did it themselves because no one else would take care of it. Tim is just so generous with his time and he’s never upset about it if you’re putting him out because you need him right now. He’ll be there.”

Although Tim doesn’t just work at FHN, he takes pride in the school and how it looks.

“I think I would at least fix the roof leaks because I think when people walk in and they see a stain or the floor tile coming up it just brings the whole place down, the persona of what the whole school looks like,” Tim said. “I want it to be a place where people come in and they’re proud to go here.”