Taft HS budget includes challenges, but ‘student experience’ expected to remain unchanged

by BRIAN NADIG

The current 2025-26 school year budget presents challenges for Taft High School, but principal Dr. Ryan Glowacz said that the ultimate goal is for students not to notice any possible cutbacks and he feels the school can achieve that.

“My goal is if you’re a student at Taft High School, it feels the same (next school year), no differences,” Glowacz told the Taft Local School Council at its June 3 meeting.

Glowacz said that increasing the student instructional fee — currently at $495 at year — would place a burden on too many Taft families and that there are no plans to do so despite a reduction in the school’s discretionary budget. He added that the “student experience” in terms of the classroom day and after-school activities is excepted to remain unchanged under the current budget.

“I’ve always said that at Taft at 3 p.m. there’s a second school day,”

Glowacz said of Taft’s popular clubs and athletics. “We don’t want to compromise the student experience at all.”

However, Glowacz warned that the Chicago Public Schools reportedly is still looking to find up to an additional $529 million to help balance its systemwide budget and that if these funds are not taken from tax increment financing surpluses or other allocations, it is not clear if the current budget numbers given to schools would change.

At Taft, one of the school’s biggest challenges is its low “opportunity index” score, which is based on factors such as location and community life expectancy. The formula is designed to give more discretionary funds or other staffing resources to schools in vulnerable neighborhoods.

Taft’s discretionary budget is about $4.87 million, which is about $67,383 lower from last year’s total.

Glowacz said that while the total difference seems relatively small, the loss is more like $564,622 — in large part due to rising staff salaries and increases in operational costs. As a result, some non-teacher positions could be closed.

Another obstacle facing Taft is its sheer size, as its enrollment of 4,300 students make it one of the largest high schools in the state.

Some administrative and clerk positions are assigned “per school” regardless of enrollment differences, Glowacz said. “There are schools one third our size” with the same number of standard positions assigned, he said.

The good news is that Taft is being allocated 205 regular (non-special needs) teaching positions, which is two more than for the 2024-25 school year, Glowacz said.

Taft also is getting two additional diverse learner teachers but losing eight paraprofessionals and one case manager. The school plans to appeal some of the changes.

One of the key dates every year is the 20th day of classes — when that day’s enrollment figure is used to determine if budget adjustments, up or down, are made for schools.

In some years CPS has held those schools which fail to meet their enrollment projection “harmless” and not taken away any funds or positions, Glowacz said. Other times those schools were not as fortunate and lost funds, he said.
Last year Taft surpassed its projection and received extra resources after the 20th school day, he said.

Also, for the second year schools are being allocated a number of teaching positions instead of a salary budget.

Schools can now hire the best teaching candidates without worrying about the fact that a more experienced teacher makes more than a younger teacher, Glowacz said. In the past some schools might have been hesitant hiring an experienced teacher because of the higher salary, he said.

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