FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: DYETT HIGH SCHOOL SET TO CLOSE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact: Jitu Brown, 773.317.6343
E-mail: brothajitu@gmail.com
MONDAY, JUNE 9, 2014
MONDAY, JUNE 9, 2014
Walter Dyett High School Set to Close, Making Way for an Underperforming Contract School
Parents and Students Charge City Officials with Lacking Courage, and Mayor Emanuel with Lacking Compassion
CHICAGO – Walter Dyett High School has been under-resourced since it was designated for phase-out by Chicago Public Schools (CPS) in February 2012. Since then, CPS has systematically disinvested in the children who have looked to Dyett as their neighborhood school of choice. Even more troubling, a plan has been hatched to turn Dyett over to an underperforming contract school that currently only has 7 percent of its students meeting or exceeding state standards, zero percent of its students being prepared for college coursework, and less than 50 percent of its students graduating, according to the Illinois State Board of Education.
Parents, students, educators and community residents are demanding that Mayor Emanuel keep Dyett High School open; provide adequate resources for the 2014-15 senior class; and fund the community’s school transformation plan for Dyett Global Leadership and Green Technology High School that is evidence-based, intellectually challenging, and designed through a collaborative process. Postcards expressing these demands will be delivered to Mayor Emanuel’s office, along with a letter expressing the urgent need to meet regarding the future of Dyett.
“Dyett is the last open enrollment traditional neighborhood high school in Bronzeville,” said Dr. Pauline Lipman, professor of education policy studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago. “While Dyett is being closed, starved for resources and abandoned to be replaced by a poorly-performing school, Mayor Emanuel has announced a new selective enrollment high school bearing President Obama’s name that will cost taxpayers $60M. Look at the tragic irony here. A Southside school that is blocks from the President’s house has been left to die on the vine, and its resources diverted to make way for a school on the Northside. Where is the parity?”
WHO: Parents, Students, Local School Council and Parent Advisory Council members from Bronzeville schools, Concerned Citizens and representatives of the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization
WHEN: Monday, June 9, 2014
10:00 am
WHERE: City Hall, 2nd Floor
121 N. LaSalle St.
For more information, please contact Jitu Brown brothajitu@gmail.com or at 773.317.6343
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Jumoke Balogun | Communications
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