Chicago education activists are in the eighth day of their hunger strike over the future of Dyett High School.
They plan to demonstrate Monday morning outside the Little Black Pearl Art & Design Academy, located at 1060 E. 47th St.
The hunger strikers are with the Coalition to Revitalize Dyett High School, which is one of three groups pushing competing proposals to the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) to re-open the Dyett campus, located at 555 E. 51st St.
The coalition wants to open a district-run "global leadership and green technology" high school at the Dyett site, while the other two proposals are for contract schools.
Little Black Pearl has proposed bringing an arts-focused school to Dyett. The other group, led by Dyett's former principal Charles Campbell, is seeking to re-open the school as an athletic career academy.
The hunger strikers plan to deliver a letter to Little Black Pearl, asking the organization to withdraw its Dyett proposal. The coalition will also call on Campbell's group to drop its bid to open an athletic academy at Dyett.
"Having engaged in a multi-year process by which the Dyett Global Leadership and Green Technology High School academic plan was developed, the Coalition responsible for submitting the proposal feels as though the broader community has already spoken," reads a news release from the Coalition to Revitalize Dyett High School.
University of Illinois at Chicago education professor Rico Gutstein is among those who helped craft the coalition's proposal for Dyett.
"Each day that passes is another day of uncertainty, and ultimately a waste of time," he said. "The board needs to vote now in favor of the proposal that has demonstrated extensive community support through town halls, petitions, post cards, and phone calls."
Click through for more on the Dyett hunger strike.