Proviso East High School is a public secondary school in Maywood, Illinois which serves the educational needs of Maywood and three other villages within Proviso Township, Cook County, Illinois: Broadview, Forest Park and Melrose Park.
The school is located at the intersection of Madison Street and First Avenue (which is Illinois Route 171 in that part of Maywood).
Proviso East's history in many ways reflects that of some suburban and urban schools in the United States.
Despite the tensions that occurred in the second half of the twentieth century, the school is known for its extensive list of notable alumni.
While perhaps best known for its connection to notable NBA players (Jim Brewer, Michael Finley and Glenn "Doc" Rivers among the more prominent) and other athletes such as Ray Nitschke, the school has seen other alumni achieve well in other areas, such as Civil Rights Activist and Chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party Fred Hampton, businesswoman Sheila Johnson, actor Dennis Franz, musician John Prine, and astronaut Eugene Cernan, the last man to walk on the Moon.
The cornerstone of the school was laid on January 21, 1911 in a ceremony presided over by a local lodge of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons (part of the newspaper story reported the group to be the Knights Templar).
In November 1936, voters in the district approved a bond issue, in conjunction with funding from the Public Works Administration, for the construction of a fieldhouse.
[19] Despite being a suburban school, coursework was offered to students who were interested in filling needed jobs in the agriculture sector.
[20] The National Youth Administration (NYA) built a workshop on the property to advance vocational education.
[21] During the summer months, Proviso became a center for training industrial workers necessary for the war effort, offering classes in three shifts, 24 hours a day.
[25] In June 1955, the board accepted a recommendation to purchase a 60 acre site in the town of Hillside, and planned a bond issue for the autumn.
[26] Even with the plans for a new school moving forward, the district also approved an expansion of Proviso: a new gymnasium for young women, new music rooms, and new facilities for woodworking classes.
East added a total of nine new classrooms by (literally) carving them from a hallway, and the passageway which connected the new and old additions of the school.
[31] Proviso East was caught up in a great deal of the racial turmoil that was prevalent in the country in the late 1960s.
Principal Hubert Pitt announced that he would appoint a racially balanced group of students to select a new slate of candidates.
[32] Three days later, the situation had not improved, and officials were forced to ask parents to come in and patrol the halls in an attempt to quell the violence.
[34][35] The boycott was lifted on October 1, after officials of the school district and the local NAACP reached a compromise.
[38] Two days later, classes resumed with 55 off duty police officers inside the school, and expulsion notices were sent out to students seen as "persistent trouble makers".
[43] The 300 students involved in the most recent fighting were permitted to return, provided they signed a nonviolence pledge, a move that was challenged by the NAACP.
[49] In 1982, the Illinois Supreme Court invalidated the State Boards orders, claiming they had overstepped their authority in demanding desegregation.
That year, Joseph Scoliere, the superintendent of the Forest Park School District 91, stated that of the 91 students graduating from the 8th grade in June 1996, 25 enrolled at Proviso East.
[52] The school sponsors interscholastic athletic teams for young men and women in: basketball, bowling, cross country, golf, soccer, tennis, track & field, and volleyball.