Introduction to the Controversy
The boys’ basketball coach at Walter H. Dyett High School for the Arts, Jamaal Gill, was laid off from his primary job at the school, just four months after he led the team to its first state title. Gill was the former boys’ basketball head coach, athletic director, and head of security at Dyett High School, located at 555 E. 51st St. in Washington Park.
The Layoff and Its Consequences
Gill was among more than 1,450 CPS staff laid off in the latest round of cuts made by the district. Officials denied the cuts are related to the district’s $734 million budget deficit, saying they were instead staffing adjustments made every year that were delayed from their usual June announcements due to "delays in the budgeting process." With the loss of the Dyett security gig — his main source of income — Gill will not return as coach and athletic director, he said. The layoff, combined with financial disputes and tensions with school administrators, effectively pushed him out of his other positions, he said.
Reaction to the Layoff
"I’m feeling lost," Gill said. "I put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into building [Dyett’s] program. … We just won the state championship. I turned it around, and now I’m gone." Dyett’s head of security position was eliminated, while the coaching and athletic director positions have been filled, Chicago Public Schools officials said July 30. Officials did not name Gill’s replacement or replacements as coach and athletic director.
Former boy’s basketball coach Jamaal Gill is interviewed during the Decision Day event for seniors at Walter H. Dyett High School for the Arts, 555 E. 51st St. in Washington Park, on March 20, 2025. Credit: Colin Boyle/Block Club Chicago
The Historic State Title Victory
Gill led Dyett’s basketball team to the Class 2A state title in March — a stunning achievement for a school that, a decade prior, graduated only 13 seniors before being shuttered by then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel. Parents and activists held a successful 34-day hunger strike to save Dyett in 2015, which reopened in 2016 as a neighborhood arts school.
Community Reaction
Parents, students, and community members who have been active at Dyett since its reopening said Gill’s exit came as a shock. "We won a state championship, and it brought so much attention [and] productive things to the school," said former Dyett guard Devon Shelton, one of six players who will be joining college teams next year. "He did his job at a high standard." As of Tuesday afternoon, 530 people signed a petition seeking to reinstate Gill, which was organized by local school council member Stacey Lowe.
Disputes and Allegations
Gill alleges Dyett principal Doreatha Butler sought to push him out over a matter of months after the state championship, seeing him as a threat to her contract’s renewal given his influence in the school through the council and athletic department, he said. Butler did not respond to requests for comment. While principals and district leaders work together to make staffing decisions, principals have the ultimate say, Chicago Public Schools officials said.
The state trophy in the gymnasium at Walter H. Dyett High School for the Arts, 555 W. 51st St., in Washington Park on March 20, 2025. The school’s boys basketball team
