DETROIT, MI -- Despite their troubles with finances and test scores, Detroit schools do have some things to brag about.

The district dedicates entire schools to specialized instruction on specific career areas including medicine, alternative energy, foreign languages, performing arts and, most uniquely, aerospace.

Davis Aerospace Technical High School sits beside the city airport and works with Delta Airlines and the FAA to prepare students for careers in aviation.

But there's a major change coming in the next school year. The current building will close and the program will move to another school building five miles away.

It's one of many unpopular moves being made in Detroit and across the state as school districts battle budget troubles.

(Related: Closure of school that serves disabled students protested; District says it would cost too much to keep open - with video)

Detroit Public Schools Emergency Manager Roy Roberts announced the move along with four school closures and other changes in April.

He believes the closures will be the district's last. The changes are meant to address the shrinking district's 28,000 unfilled classroom seats.

Alumni and city officials aren't happy about the move.

"It's the only high school in the nation where you can graduate from high school and get a pilot's license... before your driver's license," said City Council member JoAnn Watson, who introduced a resolution Tuesday calling for an effort to keep the building open.

"And it is currently supported in a big way by the Tuskegee Airmen to provide hands-on mentoring and training with them. And it's too valuable as an asset."

The resolution was passed unanimously.

"With the uniqueness of that school, the corporate community and others, foundations, would certainly step up and stand in the gap," said Council President Charles Pugh. "Closing it should not be an option. There should be an all-out, full court press to make sure that the resources are found to keep that school open.”

District officials made clear Tuesday afternoon that the program will not be shut down, but will be moved away from the airport, with a shuttle service taking students to the program's hangar when necessary.

"DPS is firmly committed to Davis Aerospace HS and has no intentions of closing the program," said district spokesman Steven Wasko.

"... This particular school's academic programs, which are not dependent on the airport location, will be relocated to a better facility in a better location. It will remain a distinct school within the Golightly Center, with its own principal and brand."

He said the district has also looked into alternative airport to work with in case the Coleman A. Young airport is some day shut down or downsized.

City Council on Tuesday also considered protesting the closure of Northwestern High School.

Update:

"Northwestern HS is not simply 'closing,'" said Wasko. "The school building holds two high school programs currently-the Northwestern HS program and the newer Detroit Collegiate Prep HS. Northwestern's program must be phased out based on its multi-year placement on the state's low performing list of schools. In this case, DPS is able to expand the well-regarded DCP program into the whole school building, which in many ways is a win-win, and an opportunity for an exciting new academic program, to retain the famous NWHS facility open, and to matriculate all current NWHS students into the new program on the same site."

Follow Khalil AlHajal on Twitter @DetroitKhalil or on Facebook at Detroit Khalil. He can be reached at kalhajal@mlive.com or 313-643-0527.