Dyett High School on the South Side, slated to be closed at the end of the school year despite strong community opposition, could see new life.
Chicago Public Schools said Friday that it will solicit proposals for a new, open-enrollment high school at the Dyett site, 555 E. 51st St., that would open in the 2016-17 school year. The district said it will not take proposals for the site from charter school operators.
The unusual move comes after CPS, citing years of poor performance and declining enrollment, targeted Dyett for a three-year “phaseout” process beginning in 2012. Only 13 seniors were enrolled at the Washington Park school this school year, according to the district.
Community groups and the Chicago Teachers Union have fought to keep Dyett open with demonstrations at City Hall. Discrimination complaints have been filed with the U.S. Department of Education over the closing. One proposal from the community has been to remake the school as a “global leadership and green technology”-focused institution for the South Side.
The district cited the community’s desires in a statement about the proposals to open a new high school.
“Members of the community have expressed a strong interest in a new school at the Dyett site, and we look forward to working with the community to develop a new high-quality option for students living in the neighborhood,” CPS chief Barbara Byrd-Bennett said in a statement.
“We are committed to ensuring the new neighborhood school at Dyett meets the community’s needs and will evaluate proposals from all interested parties.”
Jitu Brown, a community organizer who has led efforts to save Dyett, voiced cautious optimism over the planned request for proposals.
“We believe that it’s a step forward, but it is a direct result of the consistent advocacy of people from the community,” he said. “Parents, students and teachers have really kept up a two-year campaign to demonstrate public will for a high-quality, neighborhood high school.
“We should not have had to go to the lengths that we’ve gone to to make this happen,” he said. “Why did we have to do sit-ins? Why did we have to write a proposal? When all we wanted was a quality, neighborhood high school.”
The district said it will issue a request for proposals on the Dyett site in December, and the process will be open until April. Proposals will be evaluated against as-yet-unspecified criteria. A district spokesman said proposals could be for a district-operated or “contract” school, which would be run by a private entity under contract to CPS.
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