As everybody has heard, Principal Mark Grishaber has made the tough decision to move on from Taft and retire. Many people are incredibly sad to see him go, but they are just as excited about the new principal, Assistant Principal Ryan Glowacz.
“I’m sad to see Mr. G go, but at the same time I think Ryan is going to be a phenomenal Principal. I’m excited about working with Ryan and continuing to help Taft however I can,” said Taft Athletic Director Matthew Kestler.
“With Mr. Glowacz stepping into the role, we have the chance to continue building on the strong foundation laid by Mr. Grishaber and to embrace new ideas and approaches to education,” said Taft Language and Literature teacher, Barbara Newton.
Glowacz has spent his entire education career at Taft. He was a History teacher, an Athletic Director, as well as an Assistant Principal. He was even a student here at Taft and is a member of the graduating class of 2006.
“I think Mr. Glowacz is the perfect choice for this job. Like I told the LSC, you would want someone who went to Taft, (he did), someone that graduated from Taft, (he did in 2006), someone that has the IB diploma, (he does). In fact he was the only one in his class that year to get it,” said Grishaber.
After being a member of the Taft community for so long, people have become comfortable with Glowacz and have a really good connection and relationship with him. The students and staff all seem to agree that he is really good at communicating and working with the people in his community.
“I’m excited about the potential for positive change and look forward to working together with Mr. Glowacz and the rest of the administrative team to continue our mission of educating global citizens to create a better world,” said Newton.
With all the positivity surrounding this decision and all the support that Glowacz has, it is also important to hear what he has to say about his hopes and plans to continue the improvement of Taft.
“I think Taft could be the best school in CPS. I actually think there is going to be a moment where people don’t want to go to a school where everyone is hand picked. Taft is a great neighborhood school and I think it is actually much better to be in a school that actually looks like the world you’re going to enter,” said Glowacz.
Glowacz is very big on community and working together to create a positive environment. “We all contribute to our identity as a school. It’s not just me and it’s not just the staff so I really want to challenge students and our community to take ownership of this. We should be proud as a school,” said Glowacz.
As the incoming Principal, Glowacz did want to leave a message for everybody as a challenge to themselves and the entire Taft community. It is important to him that as a community, the people who are in the neighborhood work together to create positive changes.
Glowacz said, “There are so many good things that happen at Taft. We are a neighborhood school, we are going to have challenges once in a while. We shouldn’t let the most challenging incidents define us. Those are outliers. My challenge to everyone is, let’s positively contribute to our identity. We can push ourselves as far as we want to go.”
