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Activists Want Dyett To Become Green Technology School

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Activists have said they are not giving up the fight to save a Washington Park neighborhood high school, but Chicago Public Schools officials have suggested the battle is pretty much over.

WBBM Newsradio Political Editor Craig Dellimore reports members of the Kenwood-Oakland Community Organization (KOCO) want to turn Dyett High School into a school for leadership in green technology, but CPS spokesman Bill McCaffrey said Dyett will close at the end of the upcoming school year.

"Dyett is in the process of being phased out, and this is the last year that the school will be open," he said.

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The school has not admitted any new students for three years, and only a handful of seniors are left.

"There were 21 students that were still scheduled to be at Dyett this year, and the latest numbers we have from this week were that 12 of those already had transfers pending to other high schools,"

Even so, KOCO education organizer Jitu Brown said he wants Mayor Rahm Emanuel to reverse course.

"We are encouraging Mayor Rahm Emanuel to use this opportunity to actually support the communities that he's helped to dismantle," he said. "We are not going away. We are prepared for a protracted fight for this school, and this school is a gateway to community input and community control."

Officials doubt that will happen.

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