When Oak Park and River Forest High School’s switchboard operator goes on lunch break, Jack Lanenga sometimes fills in. The school’s phone system is automated, but incoming callers can still speak to a person, who monitors live calls from the school’s mail room where the switchboard is located. On occasion, callers will find themselves talking to OPRF’s assistant superintendent for operations.
But it’s also his baritone voice callers hear as the school’s official automated voice message, and some recognize his voice.
“I’ll say, ‘Oak Park and River Forest High School, may I help you?’ And they’ll say, ‘Oh, you’re the voice on the recorder.’ I actually [recorded] it several times because you don’t want to sound too enthusiastic, but you also don’t want to sound like you’re half asleep. Another reason I’m the voice of the recording is because we change it so often that I can’t get someone in here professionally to do it. So I’ll just do it until somebody complains.”
While some may think of Lanenga as the “voice” of the school, he wears many other hats-overseeing building operations from maintenence to construction projects. Master scheduler is another hat. Every December, Lanenga and the school’s curriculum administrative team coordinate the upcoming school year’s class schedule. It’s a tedious, time-consuming but necessary function for the school’s roughly 5,000 students, a process that doesn’t wrap up until early spring, in time for fall registration.
And after registration is complete, he sits down with his administrative team to decide which course sections to offer based on how many students registered for a particular class. He then has to make sure there are no conflicts with students’ schedules if, for example, two required classes are needed but meet at the same time.
In addition to all that, Lanenga, an Oak Park native, makes sure the stadium turf is playable for games and keeps the microphones at school board meetings working properly. Now, with a new principal and administrative structure in place, some of Lanenga’s responsibilities have been transitioned to others, which was expected, he said.
But if the 58-year-old had to describe himself, which he hesitates to do, Lanenga would say he’s a problem-solver. On any given day the problems can be big, small or both. On one recent morning while in his second-floor office at OPRF, an administrator came in to notify him that a classroom was short of chairs.
Technology is another hat for OPRF’s problem-solver. If the school’s computer server is down, or worse, the school’s computer system isn’t backing up files, Lanenga and his maintenance team spring into action.
“I love what I do, I really do,” he said. “Every day is a new adventure. Because of the nature of the job, I’m doing building and grounds stuff, I’m doing technology stuff, and it’s just fun. That kind of stuff is really rewarding because it’s assessing a job and trying to figure out what to do.”
At 6 feet 2, Lanenga looks like an offensive tackle, but he’s more of a gentle giant to those who know him-a jovial personalty with a booming laugh. He’s been at OPRF since 1999, among the first hires of former District 200 superintendent/principal Susan Bridge. Now teaching at Concordia University in River Forest, Bridge recalled her first walk with Lanenga through the building. They both had ideas to spruce up parts of the building, but both were surprised that not a single picture of a student adorned the walls.
“We both thought, ‘Where was the physical pride that the parents, students, and staff had for the building and how could we display that?” recalled Bridge, noting that the hallways around the building are now filled with photos of students, accented by OPRF’s orange and blue school colors, a theme throughout the campus, thanks largely to Lanenga.
“Jack has great expertise and is vital in keeping the facility looking great and working well,” Bridge said.
His enthusiasm for OPRF’s more than 100-year-old school building often infects others. Dist. 200 Board of Education member John Allen, inspector general for the Illinois Department of Health Care and Family Services, had always wanted to tour the building since joining the board in May of 2007. Allen finally got his tour this past spring. He and Lanenga spent a couple of days covering every nook and cranny of the building, from the basement to the roofs.
“He was showing me the old coal furnaces and windows in the building dating back years,” Allen said. “Jack and I got along because we’re both building and grounds persons. He has such a good grasp of the building, and we can share war stories.”
Prior to joining OPRF, Lanenga was assistant principal for operations at Timothy Christian School, a private K-12 school in Elmhurst. He was there for 22 years, and before that taught fifth grade at a public school in Aurora. He got interested in teaching in 1969. The girl he was dating at the time was studying to become a teacher. Lanenga read some of her books and was inspired to become a volunteer tutor at an inner-city school in Grand Rapids, Mich.
“I just got hooked, having that light dawn on kids and having them catch on,” he said.
But after 22 years at Timothy, Lanenga decided it was time to move on. He was earning his second master’s degree at the time when a friend he knew at OPRF suggested he apply for the job of assistant superintendent for operations.
“Sometimes the Lord just tells you it’s time to go and you’ve got to listen,” he said. “It was just time for a new challenge and I said, ‘What’s out there?'”
While working in education, Lanenga, along with his wife, Debbie, owned a mobile home park until 1998. And for a few years during his summers at Timothy School, he worked on a garbage truck for a company in Elmhurst to help pay for his kids’ tuition. His route occasionally included Oak Park, which he fondly remembers. He only worked when someone else took vacation, but enjoyed it.
Born Jacob John Lanenga at West Suburban Hospital in 1950, he’s the oldest of three children, his family living mostly in the western suburbs during his youth. Lanenga’s father, Jack Sr., worked in the waste disposal industry for many years after dabbling briefly in insurance. Lanenga’s brother currently works in waste disposal as well. Lanenga proudly calls waste hauling “the family business.”
He met his wife while both were attending the same college in Michigan. They married in 1970, their sophomore year. She currently teaches at Timothy Christian, where their three children-two boys and a girl-attended. Their children are adults now and married. Lanenga and his wife are grandparents to four girls.
Much of his spare time is spent with the grandkids, he says, but Lanenga, like his father, is also an avid reader. Active at his Elmhurst Church, Lanenga has been involved in several outreach service projects in Illinois and other states.
Faith, he says, has “always been a part of my life; from home, my wife, my in-laws, [and] I’m very pleased now to say my kids,” he said. “It drives so much of what you do. You try to be honest. You try to treat people with respect. There’s a ton of people who do that anyway. I just find it easier to do those kinds of things from a particular perspective.”
While Lanenga loves his work at OPRF, he misses the regular interaction with students. One of his joys is going on school trips with OPRF’s orchestra. “At least 60 kids in the building know who I am-nobody else does.”
“You go into teaching because you really love kids. Then you go into administration and you move away from the kids. I kind of crave those kid-fixes, if that’s the word for it, to see how they’re thinking and see what they’re doing.”