Before dawn, Angel Gonzalez prepares for another work day as the head custodian at Central Elementary in Imperial Beach.
He opens the school with a ring of keys and sweeps rainwater off the blacktop near a faded playground before staff and students trickle in. His house is two blocks away from the campus, but Central is like his second home, Gonzalez said.
He remembers a different campus. A fuller campus. When he started the job over three decades ago, the student population was booming and the school needed portable classrooms. Working at Central gave Gonzalez — a high school graduate who became the sole provider for his family of six — financial stability and the means to pay off his home…