Taft principal Mark Grishaber to retire after 10 years at the helm of one of the state’s largest high schools

by BRIAN NADIG

During Mark Grishaber’s 10 years as principal of Taft High School, it’s experienced gains in student achievement and been the recipient of a new freshman campus and a sports stadium.

And on a personal level he overcame leukemia, which he was diagnosed with in 2016.

The 63-year-old Grishaber, who will be retiring on Aug. 1, said that any of the school’s successes were accomplished with the goal of making Taft the school of choice for area families, which too often he has said had to worry about paying private school tuition if their child did not make a selective enrollment school.

“One of the best compliments I ever received was from a parent with a 6th grader and a 4th grader who thanked me because now they could finally get a good night’s sleep knowing that their neighborhood school was not only a safe school but also a great school,” Grishaber wrote in a letter this week to Taft families.

He added, “A current science teacher once told me he noticed now, how our students are now proud to wear Taft swag around the school and the neighborhood. As our reputation grew so did our enrollment. Our families believed in Taft and when CPS was losing 80,000 students over the past decade, Taft High School gained 1,300 students.

“We gained so many students we needed to open the freshman campus. Our Freshman on Track rate is now near 98 percent and 70 percent of our graduates who choose to go to college now attend some of the best four year universities in the country.”

Grishaber announced his retirement at the Feb. 13 Taft Local School Council meeting.

“I’ve been here ten years,” he told the council. “It’s been long enough. It’s time for me to go.”

Grishaber encouraged the LSC to take “seriously” its responsibility in selecting his replacement, explaining why he is endorsing assistant principal Ryan Glowacz as his successor.

“What’s important here is the transition,” he said. “It’s never been about me. It’s all about the systems we have in place. … It’s really important that we maintain this thing.”

Glowacz, who graduated from Taft in 2006, has the experience to keep the school moving forward, according to Grishaber. Glowacz has served as a history teacher and athletic director at Taft in addition to his current administrative role. He oversaw the opening of Taft’s freshman campus at 4071 N. Oak Park Ave.

“This is my dream job,” Glowacz told the LSC.

Glowacz recently said that while Taft has come a long way in the last 30 years, the school has not reached its fullest potential. He said that the administration and teachers are always looking for ways to improve and expand opportunities for students.

The council is expected to choose a new principal this spring.

As for Grishaber’s plans after Taft, he said that he hopes to spend more time writing, describing poetry as a lifelong passion. “I’m officially going to be a poet.”

Before Taft, Grishaber served as an assistant principal at Whitney Young and was a teacher and computer department chair at Saint Patrick High School.

At the end of the meeting, the council broke out in laughter when member Mary Kay Cobb recalled how 10 years ago Grishaber was not wearing matching shoes when he was offered the principal’s job. She said that to his defense it was after 10 p.m. when he got the council’s call and had to come back to the school.

Grishaber thanked the council for its support over the years, including when he was going through treatments for leukemia. “This lady drove me to the hospital,” he said of Cobb.

Taft, whose varsity campus is located at 6530 W. Bryn Mawr Ave. in Norwood Park, has a total enrollment of about 4,300.

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