Bronzeville community continues fight for Dyett High School
It was obvious that the Bronzeville community�s vision for Dyett High School was different from that of the Chicago Public Schools � and that CPS and Alderman Will Burns were not interested in hearing from the majority of people from the community. A public hearing for Dyett High School was held at King College Prep High School, 4445 S. Drexel, on July 28, 2014. The meeting was organized to present a plan called "Dyett Global Leadership and Green Technology High School Plan," which has been developed as a result of unprecedented work by the community. Hundreds of people, most of them from the Bronzeville community, were in the large King HS auditorium.
Jitu Brown of the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization (KOCO) holds a copy of the community's plan ("Dyett Global Leadership and Green Technology High School Plan,") for Dyett High School during the July 28 meeting in the King HS auditorium. Substance photo courtesy of Jaribu Princella Lee, KOCO. The clashes between City of Chicago and CPS officials, on the one hand, and community leaders, on the other, were clear from the beginning.
The first community leader to speak was Duane Turner, a former teacher, community member and coach. Turner described the seven-year fight to keep Wadsworth Elementary from closing and how that fight had influenced the fight to keep Dyett from being closed. He told the audience that the goals are to:
1. Keep Dyett High School as an open, fully resourced, open-enrollment, publicly owned and managed high school.
2. Dyett would be a "Global Leadership and Green Technology High School." It would include youth Justice. The plan states that it is �a connection between agricultural sciences, clean technology such as solar and wind power, and their relationship to community development.�
"We are going to win because there has been so much disruption in our community," he said. It was also stated that research shows that community schools work.
The next speaker was a CPS "Officer of Communications" with a Power Point purportedly showing that Bronzeville high schools were keeping up with "District standards." The last thing people wanted was another CPS Power Point, and a rebellion quickly erupted as people realized that CPS officials had a plan to disperse the group and dominate the time for the meeting.
The large auditorium was almost completely filled, and the vast majority of the people who turned out did not want to view yet another official CPS Power Point. People started to stand and yell until the Officer of Communications, who finally stated that all this information was on line.
CPS also tried to get the group to listen to a lecture from Phillip Jackson of Black Star. While most people were being cut off after two minutes, just as CPS does at its monthly meetings, Jackson was able to go on and on. But as he spoke, a growing number of people began to call out that he should stop talking, and finally he was shouted down. His attempt to run out the clock on behalf of CPS had failed.
The community then was supposed to be sent to "break out" sessions. These were run by an Evanston community planning group, Teska Associates. No one from CPS explained why CPS had hired a suburban consulting firm to do what the community had already been doing, at great length and in great depth. The Teska Associates website describes them as follows: "Established in 1975, Teska Associates Inc. provides expert community planning, landscape architecture, and engagement services directed toward the development and revitalization of our nation's communities. Our highly experienced professionals are forward thinking, design savvy individuals - skilled at finding the best ways to compliment communities and develop strategies to fit our clients' needs." No one from CPS could say how much had been spent on their services.
The Bronzeville community meeting on July 28 wasn't told why CPS needed an outside consultant from the suburbs who says it helps communities work together to develop and work on their "vision" when the Dyett plan had already been created by the community.
Community participants became angry because they already had a plan and wanted it discussed and accepted in the large meeting. Most people saw no need to a "breakout session," let alone one hosted by an outside contractor when privatization was one of the issues the community was angry about.
Bob, a member the community and a former teacher stated, �This is arrogant of the mayor and Board of Education to put together a farce; we should not be discussing whether we should keep the school open, I resent the (CPS) guy ignoring us. We should be talking about implementing our plan..." If Dyett was a white school and this plan was proposed, money would be flowing in.�
A community member asked what would happen to the notes written down by the group�s facilitator who said it would be given to CPS.
Duane Turner, who worked on the plan, stated that it took leaders over three years working on this plan. "We are done with Power Points, flashy presentations and similar things," he said. "We have canvased the neighborhood, talked to the Mayor, Barbara Byrd Bennett, Andrea Zopp and David Vitale. We are not going to start all over. In our community, we have started after-school programs and done things on our own. It�s time for CPS to stop coming into the community and saying �we are going to do this to you.'"
As the meeting was ending, Mr. Turner told me that the people who invested their time on the plan did not get anything -- monetarily -- out of it. �It is not a conflict of interest, we care about children. It�s an abomination this is 50 summers since the civil right struggle where people gave their lives for equal rights and this is still going on.�
According to Mr. Turner, the community has been asking for this meeting for a long time. He said that Alderman Will Burns did not want this meeting. Last weekend Mayor Emanuel was in Bronzeville at Mollison Elementary School and they asked for this meeting and he couldn't refuse.
"We have done a lot of legwork to promote this meeting," he said.
The group assembled in the auditorium, and Jitu Brown of the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization (KOCO) asked Will Burns for a comment, but he refused. Alderman Pat Dowell was also in the audience, but did not speak.
The community voted unanimously to accept the Dyett Global Leadership and Green Technology Community High School Plan.
The community people who had nearly filled the auditorium wanted to continue meeting, but CPS officials began escalating tactics to shut down the community and the protests. First, it began to get warmer inside the auditorium. Then, when people were still meeting, someone shut out the lights, according to teachers who were there. The large group then went into the spacious King High School lobby and continued discussions. Then CPS officials turned out the lobby lights and slowly forced the group outside into the cool summer night. Dozens of people continued discussing the issues that had been raised on the sidewalk on Drexel Boulevard while the building named after the immortal civil rights leader went dark.
By: Theresa D. Daniels
Dyett School Fiasco
Really nice work, Jean, reporting this. Gave me such a feel for the frustration in that auditorium.