Taft HS plans to hire admissions director; 4,250 students attend the NW Side high school
by BRIAN NADIG
Taft High School is hiring an admissions director in an effort to help free up its assistant principals for other duties.
“I’ve been wanting an A.D. for a couple of years,” principal Mark Grishaber said at the March 14 meeting of the Taft Local School Council. “Schools half our size have that.”
Taft is considered one of the five largest high schools in Illinois in terms of enrollment. It currently has about 4,250 students.
“It’s an important role,” Grishaber said after the meeting. “The scale of whatever we do is so large. We need more help.”
The admissions director’s responsibilities will include planning open houses for prospective students and promoting Taft’s wide variety of academic programs, Grishaber said.
The director will be expected to have a good working relationship with Taft’s 20 feeder elementary schools, “the most in the city” for any neighborhood high school, Grishaber said.
The director also will help register students who are admitted to Taft in the middle of the school year. “We had two kids … from Ukraine this week,” Grishaber said. “It’s a three-hour process. I can’t put that on my APs.”
Also at the LSC meeting, council members discussed recent reports of a security threat which Grishaber described as non-credible and “not even close” to a threat. “There was never a threat,” he said.
The school sent e-mails to parents explaining that the report was being investigated and eventually that no threat of violence to the school had been made, Grishaber said. However, he said, “unfortunately this thing … seemed to be getting legs … on Northwest Side blogs” and then the media starting covering it, including some inaccurate reports.
“The school followed the procedure” by notifying the police and Chicago Public Schools’ security, LSC chairman Paul Connolly said. “I trust the correct decision was arrived at.”
Concerns over safety at the school led to a student walkout of classes on March 9. Most of the 300 students who walked out at the varsity campus returned to classes after a short time, while others appeared to use it as an excuse to out for lunch, Grishaber said.
LSC student representative Natalya Miner said that the Student Voice Committee did not participate by walking out of the school, adding that there was concern about whether the protest would have a “clear message” and lead to effective change.
It also was reported at the meeting that the students who continue to have more than two tardies per day after an initial warning is sent to a parent are receiving a “lunch intervention,” which includes skills building.
In addition, students caught leaving the campus for lunch are subject to an after-school intervention, which includes the writing of a reflection paper. Taft is a closed campus, meaning that students cannot leave for lunch, but on March 1 about 100 students reportedly re-entered the school building during lunch periods.
LSC Safety and Security and Safety Committee chairperson Alix Davila said that the school also has been teaming up students who may be having a behavioral or other issue with a staff member who “they can trust and talk to.”
Also, a student told the council that more needs to be done to address vaping at the school. “When I go to the bathroom, I really need to hold my breath,” the student said.
The next general LSC meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 11, at the varsity campus, 6530 W. Bryn Mawr Ave.
