facilitysupervisor

Diane

Feagins spent her childhood on a farm in Texarkana, growing her own vegetables and raising chickens and hogs. She also has 16 brothers and sisters.

“I’m used to hard work,” she says.

Feagins, 52, has been watching over Withers Elementary for the past 12 years. As the facilities supervisor, she unlocks the school at 6 every morning, sometimes earlier during the winter months so she can heat the building before students arrive.

Withers office manager Sheri Whitford says Feagins is vital to the school’s operation.

“She is the backbone of this school. It’s all the things that nobody sees.”

Feagins makes her rounds each day cleaning bathrooms, making sure teachers have the equipment they need, regulating the temperature of the building.

“I’m just everywhere,” she says. “Wherever they need me. Remember the swine flu? That was a big deal. I have to make sure all the restrooms are disinfected. That’s one of my main jobs.”

Feagins moved to Dallas in 1987 and started as a custodian at Gooch Elementary. She spent five years there, then worked nights at Thomas Jefferson High School, which proved too difficult while trying to raise her two grandchildren, who came to live with her after her daughter committed suicide in 1998. Feagins is still trying to make sense of it.

“It was hard. We know it was a gunshot, but we don’t really know what happened. That’s the part that messes you up.”

She took a day job at Withers, which lowed her to spend the evenings with her grandchildren, who are now 17 and 18 years old.

“[Withers] told me I’d be a great asset, and I’ve been here ever since.”

During the storm last February, Feagins spent night at Withers for five days to make sure the boiler stayed on. She slept on two on the floor inside her office.

“I didn’t sleep too much.”

She’s also on call when anything happens at the school overnight — vandalism, breakins and false alarms. Feagins, a neighborhood resident, makes a short drive to campus to check in with security guards to make sure all is well.

“I slip something on and come out here at 2 a.m., 4 a.m. …”

But now, because of Dallas ISD budget cuts, Feagins’ job is on the chopping block. The district is exploring the idea of bringing in outside contractors to replace the facilities supervisors.

“I hope they don’t do that,” Feagins “I’d be devastated. It’s not fair. We do a things for teachers that we don’t have to