HYDE PARK — Dyett High School will reopen as an open-enrollment high school in 2016-17, Chicago Public Schools announced Friday.
CPS said it will accept proposals for a school at 555 E. 51st St. after the current school closes at the end of this school year.
Open-enrollment schools accept students from outside neighborhood attendance boundaries, but give first preference to neighborhood kids.
“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,” said CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett in a prepared 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.”
Rumors had swirled that a charter run by Little Black Pearl was going to move into the site, but officials denied that, and CPS said in a statement Friday that charter proposals will not be accepted for the Dyett site.
The statement said a request for proposals was going out in December "in order to identify a school model that meets the needs of the local community. ... Any interested parties will be able to submit proposals for the new open-enrollment neighborhood high school."
A group of community members and parents have pushed CPS to accept its proposal to keep the school open as an open-enrollment high school run by CPS with a focus on green technology.
Jitu Brown, an education organizer for the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization pushing the green tech proposal, said the announcement was a step forward, but he was concerned the process opened the door for a contract high school like Academy for Urban School Leadership or the Little Black Pearl Art and Design Academy to take over the space.
He said he was unaware of other groups with a specific proposal for the school.
"I don't know if there is competition out there, but I know there are contract schools out there looking to make money," Brown said.
The school is currently home to 13 seniors, who are in the last class to graduate from the school before it shuts down.
Community members have fought the decision to phase out the school since it was announced in 2012. They recently got some services restored at the school after chaining themselves to a statue in front of the mayor’s office on Sept. 23.
CPS is under investigation by the Department of Education to determine whether closing the school violated students' civil rights.
The new school model chosen is subject to approval by the Board of Education next fall, Friday's statement said.
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