NORWOOD PARK — The gym at Taft High School has been off limits to students and athletes for nearly a month after a ball hit a light March 14, sending it crashing to the floor.
With work not scheduled to begin on a repair until next week, gym classes have been forced into hallways and the school’s athletic teams haven't been able to practice or host home games, teachers told DNAinfo Chicago.
"The shutdown of the Main Gym has caused a complete disruption of our normal daily procedures and our effectiveness to be instructors, as well as most of our athletic programs after-school," said Daniel Harte, the chairman of the school's physical education department.
No one was injured March 14 when an errant ball struck the ceiling-mounted light fixture and sent it crashing down, school officials said.
But concerns that students and teachers wouldn't be so lucky if another light falls prompted Chicago Public Schools officials to close the gym to classes, games and practices.
A CPS spokesman said Wednesday he was looking into the matter, but did not respond Thursday to a request for comment from DNAinfo Chicago.
Taft Principal Mark Grishaber said work would begin next week on a $21,000 project to replace all of the 30 lights in the gym with immovable fixtures. Originally, district officials proposed spending $6,000 to secure the existing lights, he said.
"But I said, 'Let's replace all of the lights,' and said the school would pay half of the cost," Grishaber said. "It is dark in there, and we wanted to do it right."
Grishaber acknowledged that a month is a long time for a school to be without the use of its main gym, especially during a stretch of colder-than-average spring temperatures.
"It has been frustrating," Grishaber said, adding that the gym is slated to be used next month to administer Advanced Placement exams to students.
The closure of the gym was made worse by the fact that Taft is overcrowded, Harte said. In fact, Taft is the most overcrowded high school in Chicago, with 3,212 students studying in a building meant for 2,184 pupils at 6530 W. Bryn Mawr Ave., according to CPS data.
The school's volleyball teams were hit especially hard by the closure of the gym, because it means they are unable to host home games or practice on a regulation net, said Alison Taylor, the coach of the sophomore girls and boys teams an an assistant coach to the varsity teams.
"We haven't had a legitimate practice with a real net for practically our whole season," Taylor said.
Harte said the main gym can't reopen soon enough for students and teachers.
"Our teachers, athletic director, and coaches have done an incredible job in organizing our students while still getting as much accomplished as possible given the circumstances," Harte said. "We look forward to our facilities being properly equipped and our normal classes resuming again soon."
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