Taft High School principal resigns due to health reasons

Taft High School principal Mary Kay Cappitelli told the school’s faculty on Thursday afternoon that she is resigning form her post effective Nov. 15 due to health reasons.

Cappitelli, who is in the second year of her contract, said that she fully intended to fulfill her obligation to the school and to help keep Taft moving forward but that doctors urged her to retire and to focus on improving her health. She said that she will miss working on a daily basis with the school’s faculty and the students.

“We truly have great kids,” Cappitelli said. The school, whose enrollment is about 3,200 students, is undergoing a transition to a wall-to-wall international baccalaureate curriculum.

Cappitelli, who started her career as an English teacher, has been an educator since 1974, working at several private schools in the city and suburbs and almost 20 years in the Chicago Public Schools. She was an assistant principal at Taft before the Local School Council selected her  in 2012 to replace retiring principal Dr. Arthur Tarvardian.

The school system is expected to appoint an interim principal later this fall. The LSC is planning to hold a special meeting to discuss Cappitelli’s retirement and the principal selection process.