* Sun-Times early yesterday…
Dyett High School will reopen as an open-enrollment arts-themed high school, a decision that, it is hoped, will end the three-week hunger strike by the Kenwood-Oakland Community Organization (known as “KOCO”), Janice Jackson, chief of education for Chicago Public Schools, announced Thursday.
Saying newly-installed leaders at CPS had to “look with fresh eyes,” Jackson said CPS would be “taking pieces” from all three options presented under a prior request for proposals. That includes one from the Coalition to Revitalize Dyett/KOCO and another from Monica Haslip, founder of Little Black Pearl.
“We will have an arts theme, but it will not be run by Little Black Pearl, and we are also bringing in the technology piece that KOCO has lobbied for.”
Students who live within Dyett community boundaries would be given enrollment preference. Remaining seats would be filled by a lottery.
Jackson said CPS settled on an arts program because that model attracts students from all over the city.
* All sorts of people were hopeful that this would break the impasse and end the hunger strike…
Claypool announced the plan for Dyett at the district’s Loop headquarters alongside Chief Education Officer Janice Jackson, senior adviser Denise Little and a group of African-American elected officials and community leaders that included U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill.; Ald. Will Burns, 4th; and state Rep. Christian Mitchell, D-Chicago. […]
“In my opinion,” Rush said Thursday, “the activists — the community activists, those who really care about the community, those who are really concerned about the educational future of the community — they have won.
“They wanted Dyett to remain open, it’s going to be open. They wanted Dyett to be an open-enrollment facility, it’s going to be an open-enrollment facility. They wanted Dyett to be a neighborhood school, well, they won. It’s a neighborhood school.”
* Mary Mitchell…
CPS was forced to deal with Dyett High School, and KOCO can take credit for that.
Now that CPS has come up with a proposal for Dyett High School that would help this community heal, it would be foolish for KOCO to fight it.
* It didn’t work…
“This does not reflect the vision of the community,” the group said in a statement after reviewing the proposal that CPS hoped would end the 2 1/2-week hunger strike by the Kenwood-Oakland Community Organization.
And as for ending the hunger strike, the group’s spokesman, J. Brian Malone, said: “We haven’t made that decision yet.”
* As Progress Illinois has been reporting for a while, the Dyett protests have been “spearheaded” by the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization, or KOCO for short…
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s budget town hall meeting got shut down Wednesday night after Dyett protesters took over the stage, which caused security to lead Emanuel away from the scene. […]
“Twelve people have been on a hunger strike for 17 days, three of them have been hospitalized in the process, and these people are coming closer and closer to death to get a school. That’s why I went on that stage,” Jawanza Malone, executive director of the Kenwood Oakland Community Organization, a key group behind the Coalition to Revitalize Dyett High School, told the newspaper after the meeting was disrupted.
Wednesday’s budget town hall meeting, held at the South Shore Cultural Center, was the second of three that Emanuel is holding this week. Emanuel also faced a raucous crowd at Monday’s budget meeting, during which people chanted and spoke out in support of the Dyett hunger strikers.
“All we’re asking is for a quality school in a neighborhood. It doesn’t take five years, 17 days or to the end of a meeting to make a decision,” Malone added. “The mayor is refusing to make a decision.”
Keep in mind that the hunger strikers have also demanded that the other two groups which were vying to run the school step aside. KOCO has protested the opening of a grocery store in the middle of a vast food desert because of “gentrification” concerns. These folks appear to be quite radical, and radicals don’t often want to settle for half a loaf.
* I apologize in advance if I’m out of line here, but somebody needs to start asking some questions that would’ve naturally come up if KOCO was part of the “regular” city apparatus.
Could there be another reason for KOCO’s obstinance? Since the group is “spearheading” both the protests and the push for that particular school, are they at all in it for the money, the jobs, the contracts and the influence that would come from creating a school of their own? And are they willing to allow hunger strikers to die to achieve those all too earthly goals?
I sure hope not. And I’m also sure they would flatly deny it if asked.
Click here to read the group’s proposal for the Dyett school. Scroll down to page 25…
That’ll probably be a smallish contract, but it is quite interesting that KOCO plays a formal role in the school’s envisioned operation.
- Anon - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 11:17 am:
Always good to ask these sorts of questions but KOCO is legit and Jitu Brown is a good man, they aren’t in it for contracts or anything like that. And I say this as someone that was on the other side of them a few times.
- Wordslinger - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 11:28 am:
As I said the other day, you lose me once you oppose a grocery store in a food desert.
Every time I go to my local Oak Park grocery stores, I see the difficulties that families and seniors from the West Side have schlepping here just for decent price and selection.
- Carhartt Representative - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 11:28 am:
The reason that KOCO plays a role in things is that KOCO has a long history with that particular school. Dyett was original a successful middle school, but when they decided to make King selective enrollment, they needed someplace for the students who couldn’t get into King. Dyett got the “rejects” from several students and while the selective enrollment schools got big money, Dyett got no additional funds. KOCO brought in outside programs and the scores began to go up as did the graduations and students going on to college. In 2011, they won an award from ESPN and were picked for an athletic facilities makeover. Now, this made them desirable to charters and other outfits who wanted the buidling. CPS began to phase them out.
Trying to maintain attendance, KOCO and others in the Dyett community partnered with UIC, The Dusable Museum, and The Chicago Botanical Gardens to put together this Global Leadership Green school proposal. A lot of work went into it and it was the dream of many people–it’s the sort of thing people will hunger strike for. Contracts rarely are.
- Anonymiss - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 11:35 am:
Jitu and other protestors are seeking a voice and say in the direction of the community where they live. This is about what the community wants, not what others want for them. To equate that with private school operators or contractors who make millions off of kids who live thousands of miles away is, well … good thing you apologized in advance, man.
- Anon-2 - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 11:37 am:
Not out of line. These questions need to be asked.
Look, I’ve been on the same side as KOCO in some fights. And let me tell you that they can absolutely be in it for contracts. I’m not even going to disparage them for that, but it’s important that that is made clear that, in all likelihood, that’s what’s going on here.
KOCO is no longer on hunger strike for an open-enrollment school in Bronzeville, or publicly funded public education. That ended yesterday. Now, they’re on strike for a “community” plan (as if they’re the end-all-be-all voice of the community) that was designed to funnel money to them for programs.
Part of doing effective and responsible organizing and activism is being able to accept a compromise, especially when it’s clearly a victory. And it’s right that this plan is 80% of the way, if not more. There’s an innovation hub in collaboration with IIT, a collaboration that was a part of the KOCO plan. Neighborhood students are given first priority.
And in light of all that, it is absolutely time to ask this question.
- Anon-2 - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 11:40 am:
Slight amendment: the KOCO plan may have been UIC, not IIT. Overall point still stands.
- Urban Girl - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 11:44 am:
Rich, I think you are off base on this.
I do not claim to be a fan of KOCO, but my guess is the competing proposal submitted by Little Black Pearl has provisions for arts training provided by that nonprofit. The third proposal probably also had plans for services provided by partner nonprofit(s).
My take, this is a win for KOCO because CPS and Burns were probably trying a week ago to figure out how not to reopen that school. Because KOCO distrusts the local politicians and CPS so much, they are not going to back down until they have a role in the new school, not for the money, but just to be guaranteed a seat at the table in the future.
The alderman and CPS tried to ignore them for years. The former CPS CEO agreed to an RFP, in which KOCO fairly participated. A new CEO (not a new Mayor, and only partially a new Board of Ed) basically postponed and then unilaterally cancelled the RFP process to announce a plan for a citywide arts program. KOCO was given a couple hours notice of this decision, but they were not consulted.
KOCO has earned a seat at the table on future discussions/decisions about Dyett, and that is probably the only thing that they will truly consider a win.
- Taxpayer - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 11:46 am:
Hey KOCO, Nothing can cause gentrification like a good neighborhood school. Ask the realtors sell homes in the CPS Bell School District.
- Suburbanon - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 11:52 am:
Rich, I credit you for asking a tough but important question about motives. In Chicago (and the suburbs too unfortunately) it is always about the money, about the contracts, about the jobs, about the control over who gets the money, etc. Even in the non-profit community.
- Rich Miller - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 11:59 am:
===This is about what the community wants===
Um, no.
Others in the community clearly want different things.
This is what KOCO wants.
- Carhartt Representative - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 12:04 pm:
=Slight amendment: the KOCO plan may have been UIC, not IIT. Overall point still stands.=
I believe they’re both partnered with in this case.
- Century Club - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 12:20 pm:
I looked up the press on the grocery store protest- they were calling on the CHA to keep its commitment to build the 1,000 units of replacement housing that were promised for that land. In several articles/videos, speakers say they are in support of a grocery store in the neighborhood. They wanted to make sure that selling the land to the store developer meant the CHA was not backing out of its housing commitment.
- From the 'Dale to HP - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 12:35 pm:
Yeah, KOCO is the first organization in Chicago to try and us CPS to earn a few bucks. Come on… CPS is filled with various alderman’s ‘people’, not to mention UNO and every single charter. It’s been a place to hide/hook up people for decades now. If you’re gonna open that Pandora’s box, there are a lot more interesting things to find than KOCO.
- nixit71 - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 12:47 pm:
KOCO received $60,000 from AFT National in 2013 plus $30,000 from CTU Foundation last year.
This is part of CTU’s long-game to buy political favor with the neighborhood groups.
- Ghost - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 12:57 pm:
CPS has been looking for ways to burn cash since it is so flush. The overhead and expense of another school amongst many is just good financial planning…..
- Anonymous - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 1:04 pm:
Greed is often hidden under the cover of doing things for the “children” or the “community”.
Their refusal to accept “yes” as an answer reveals the greed and motives of KOCO.
- Anonymous - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 1:08 pm:
Rushing the stage to ruin the event was also classless and rude to everyone else there.
- Carhartt Representative - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 1:35 pm:
==KOCO received $60,000 from AFT National in 2013 plus $30,000 from CTU Foundation last year.
This is part of CTU’s long-game to buy political favor with the neighborhood groups.==
Please, CTU trying to buy KOCO’s support for $90,000. They’ve been allies with CORE since before CORE won control of CTU.
=Rushing the stage to ruin the event was also classless and rude to everyone else there.=
The event was King Rahm listening to the little people about how to fix the budget. Meanwhile, his budget with the $500,000,000 property tax hike was already being leaked. All they did was substitute one political theatre for another.
- Carhartt Representative - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 1:36 pm:
==Greed is often hidden under the cover of doing things for the “children” or the “community”.
Their refusal to accept “yes” as an answer reveals the greed and motives of KOCO.==
Yes, nothing says greed like not being willing to take a pragmatic compromise. That’s why people accuse Rauner of being greedy so often on this forum.
- nixit71 - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 1:50 pm:
==Please, CTU trying to buy KOCO’s support for $90,000. They’ve been allies with CORE since before CORE won control of CTU.==
No red flags to a DC outfit pumping money into a local neighborhood group, huh? Or CTU contributing to Southwest Organizing Project, Brighton Park Neighborhood Association, Pilsen Alliance, etc? Many of these smaller groups have little funding outside these CTU grants. Take a look at the CTU Foundation’s 990s. Their game plan is pretty obvious.
It’s dues money anyway, so I don’t care. However, the IRS might.
- Rich Miller - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 2:11 pm:
===The event was King Rahm===
That comment reflects more negatively on you than you probably realize.
Take a breath.
- A guy - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 2:43 pm:
They opposed a high quality food store where it is desperately needed. No feasibility study (that I’ve heard about) that suggests people from all over would take advantage of this open enrollment opportunity. Storming the stage when their issue is being discussed.
These folks sound rational to anyone?
- Carhartt Representative - Friday, Sep 4, 15 @ 3:08 pm:
=That comment reflects more negatively on you than you probably realize.
Take a breath.=
Sorry if it came off as overly strident. It wasn’t an attempt to bash Rahm, honestly. It was an attempt to bash the political theater of the little folks telling the mayor how they would fix the budget even while he’s already made the decision of what he’s going to do. I’ve seen this type of performance from politicians of all stripes, including ones I support, and it always rubs me the wrong way.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Sep 9, 15 @ 5:18 am:
If anyone has heard anything that the parents and other community members and supporters have stated, the Dyett Global Leadership and Green Technology school that the hunger strikers are fighting for will be ran by CPS, not KOCO. KOCO has aaid on several occasions that they are not interested in the contracts to run that school. They are intersted in CPS adopted a proposal that parents community residents, and academics have worked on for 6 years. They have engaged over 3000 community residents. Where else has that type of committment goes unappreciated and unsupported, because a community organization has worked with the community to design it. Only in the Black community is their motive still questioned. I know its hard to believe but everyone is not looking for a payout