William Howard Taft was built in 1960 to relieve overcrowding at Collister and Lowell Schools. In 1964 a new northeast wing was added. Taft, like so many other schools, was short on space when special programs were added in the district in the late 1960's and early 1970's. Learning disabilities and tutoring classes were set up in the hall.

When kindergartens were introduced in 1973 as part of the educational program, relocatable classrooms were moved in to house the. The relocatables are still on the grounds, housing kindergarten and special education classes.

Taft and Jefferson were the first district elementary schools to have networked computers. The district piloted IBM at Jefferson and Apple at Taft in the early 90's, and eventually made the decision to go with IBM. Taft's Apple computers were replaced with IBM. Taft's staff actively uses the computers it has, providing excellent educational benefit to the students at the school.