NORWOOD PARK — Sixteen Far Northwest Side elementary schools will get stipends of $1,000 to $1,500 from Taft High School to make up for cuts made by Chicago Public Schools officials to sports programs.
Taft High School Principal Mark Grishaber said the $17,000 in contributions, approved Wednesday by the Taft Local School Council, was an example of Taft looking out for the entire Far Northwest Side community as well as the elementary schools that feed into the Norwood Park school.
"Taft is the big brother on the block," Grishaber said. "When your little brother needs money, you give it to him."
Chicago Public Schools officials announced earlier this month it would eliminate funding for elementary school sports teams and stipends for 5,300 grade school coaches to save $3.2 million.
Critics of the budget cut said it would cripple Chicago's high school sports teams by shrinking the pool of potential athletes.
CPS faces a projected $1.1 billion budget deficit with a balanced budget due at the end of August, officials said.
The contribution to the elementary schools is based on the number of students expected to enroll at Taft, Grishaber said.
"This is what's best for the kids," Grishaber said. "That's enough reason to do it right there. If you have the money, you should share the money."
But Grishaber — who has made no secret of his desire to see Taft's football team become the first from a Chicago public school to win a state championship — said the move will benefit Taft by ensuring better athletes for Taft's future teams and give the school's seventh- and eighth-grade students teams to compete against.
"This will pay a huge dividend for Taft," Grishaber said.
But the contributions from the school's discretionary fund are also meant to create "goodwill" for Taft across the Far Northwest Side and encourage more parents to consider sending their children to Taft at 6530 W. Bryn Mawr Ave.
"This is an olive branch to the neighborhood," Grishaber said. "We are not the same Taft."
Grishaber was hired a year ago and vowed to turn Taft into the best neighborhood high school in Chicago by improving attendance, test scores and college acceptance.
Taft is helping its feeder elementary schools despite seeing $150,000 slashed from its budget by the district, which is steeped in red ink.
The cuts will be absorbed by not filling several positions left vacant by retiring teachers including spots in the music and English departments, Grishaber said.
While district projections expect the school — the most crowded in the city — to grow by 67 students, Grishaber said he expects the number of Taft students to drop by about 100, which would have triggered a reduction in the number of teachers on staff regardless of the budget cuts.
"This money is not that big of a deal," Grishaber said of the cuts to Taft's budget. "It is less than 1 percent."
The elementary schools who will get sports program stipends from Taft are:
• Beaubien: $1,500
• Smyser: $1,500
• Palmer: $1,500
• Garvy: $1,500
• Hitch: $1,000
• Dirksen: $1,000
• Prussing: $1,000
• Onahan: $1,000
• Farnsworth: $1,000
• Sauganash: $1,000
• Edgebrook: $1,000
• Oriole Park: $1,000
• Norwood Park: $1,000
• Ebinger: $1,000
• Edison Park: $1,000
• Wildwood: $1,000
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