NORWOOD PARK — The gym at Taft High School has been off limits to students and athletes for nearly two months — and work to repair dangerous lights won't begin for another two weeks, Principal Mark Grishaber said Wednesday.
"I'm really disappointed," Grishaber said. "I sometimes wonder if this would happen at a suburban school."
A ball hit a light on the cavernous gym's ceiling March 14, sending it crashing to the floor. No one was injured, but Chicago Public Schools' officials blocked access to the gym, concerned that other lights might fall.
Gym classes have been forced into hallways and the school’s athletic teams haven't been able to practice or host home games, Grishaber said.
The Norwood Park school's volleyball teams won't have played a single home game all season, Grishaber said.
"That's really tough on my seniors," Grishaber said.
After the school agreed to pay half of the $21,000 cost to replace all of the 30 lights in the gym with immovable fixtures, work had been scheduled to begin the week of April 18, Grishaber said. But unforeseen delays mean the new lights won't be delivered until May 26, Grishaber said.
A spokesman for Chicago Public Schools said the vendor selected to complete the repair is waiting for parts to be delivered from the manufacturer.
The gym will be reopened as soon as possible, the spokesman said.
The closure has been exacerbated the stretch of colder-than-average spring temperatures in April and May, preventing classes from heading outside, teachers said.
Although the gym has been declared off limits for gym classes and teams, it was used this month to administer Advanced Placement tests to hundreds of students, Grishaber said.
"It is confusing," Grishaber said. "Is the gym closed or not? Is it dangerous or not?"
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.
With gym classes being held in hallways, the shutdown of the main gym completely disrupted the school's physical education classes as well as most of the after-school athletic programs, Daniel Harte, the chairman of the school's physical education department, said in April.
The closure of the gym also meant students were not able to participate in the fourth annual roller skating unit in gym classes, which is among the highlights of the year, Grishaber said.
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