Experienced educator Tara Shelton to be South Loop School principal 

By Patrick Butler 

After sifting through 43 resumes, interviewing nine candidates, and slugging it out for more than an hour-and-a-half behind closed doors, the South Loop School Local School Council (LSC) offered Tara Shelton a four-year contract to be the school’s principal at a reported $100,000 per year.

            “The pay depends on the enrollment,” explained Shelton, an assistant principal at South Loop for the past several years. She took over July 1 as head of the 479-student, kindergarten-through-eighth-grade educational institution at 1212 S. Plymouth Ct.

Shelton beat out Mary Cavey, who taught for five years at St. Benedict High School on the North Side and at various times headed John Spry Community School in Pilsen, the New Field School in Rogers Park, and Lake View’s now-closed LeMoyne School.

Shelton pointed to her 14 years’ experience as a teacher and administrator and her commitment to more “rigor” in the classroom in making the case for her hiring, along with a promise of more outreach for increased parental and community involvement in a fast changing neighborhood.

“I think this is the best school in the city, and I want my name to be part of South Loop School,” she said in her closing comments to the LSC just before members secluded themselves to vote.

Shelton said she did not think already being a top administrator at South Loop gave her an advantage over Cavey.

Just what her priorities for the school will be now that she is principal will not be decided until she has had a chance to meet with her teachers and the LSC, Shelton said.

While South Loop’s enrollment was virtually all African-American when the school opened in 1988, the proliferation of pricey townhouses and condos around Dearborn Park has changed the school’s racial and socio-economic makeup, both candidates agreed.

Today, South Loop’s enrollment is about 60% African-American, 20% Caucasian, 10% Asian, and 10% Hispanic. Some of the old Chicago Housing Authority buildings have been razed, reducing the area’s African-American population, and a more diverse group has moved into the newly gentrified area.

Shelton’s selection came as no surprise to many of the more than 50 parents attending the June 12 forum. At least half were wearing “Elect Shelton” t-shirts or carrying Shelton signs.

Before going into the conclave, one LSC member appealed to everyone in the audience to “move beyond contention, remain a school community, and work together regardless of who the next principal is.”

South Loop School has endured controversies in the past, the latest being over plans to put a fence around Mary Jones Park behind the school where the younger students have recess.

South Loop has struggled with test scores as well, but over the last five years the percentage of pupils meeting or exceeding state standards has soared from 31% to 80%, a point of pride for outgoing Principal Patrick Baccelleri, whom Shelton described as her mentor. Baccelleri now is the Chicago Public Schools' Chief Deputy Officer of Instruction and Assessment.

The school also weathered a typically Chicagoesque moment when five parents charged that a dozen people had been paid $5 apiece for voting for two candidates in the April 2006 LSC election. Nobody ever found enough proof to make the allegations stick, however. Not only did both candidates win LSC seats, but tallies showed that, even if the accusations had been true, those dozen votes would not have changed the outcome of the election.