NOVEMBER 8, 2017
Vol. I No. 14
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Meet Mike Rogers, PAGE 3
State data shows incremental progress at D209 Illinois School Report Card: Still a wide gap between PMSA and East/West, but some progress at the two larger schools
Sebastian Hidalgo
ON THE ROPES: Coach Edward “Speed” Alexander, pictured in a Bellwood baseball field this summer, is fighting to keep the venerable Maywood BUCS football program alive.
The fight of their lives
By MICHAEL ROMAIN Editor
On Oct. 29, the Illinois State Board of Education released its annual Illinois School Report Card, the comprehensive picture of the academic and financial condition of public schools in the state. According to this year’s data, there’s still a large divide between Proviso Math and Science Academy and Provisos East and West, when it comes to a range of benchmarks, including test scores, truancy See SCHOOL REPORT CARD on page 10
After missing a season, Coach “Speed” Alexander’s BUCS football program is on the ropes By MICHAEL ROMAIN Editor
During a Sept. 5 regular meeting of the Maywood Board of Trustees, Coach Edward “Speed” Alexander stood at the podium reserved for public comment. He seemed spiritually and mentally exhausted, like a winded prize fighter concentrating on staying up while longing for the bell to
ring, signaling a brief moment of rest. This year, the Maywood BUCS youth football organization, of which Alexander is president, could not register enough players to field a team. He had been storing the organization’s equipment in the garage of a friend’s grandmother, but the house was about to be abandoned. Alexander was in front of the trustees
and the mayor to ask if he could store the equipment on the grounds of an underused, village-owned facility on the 1100 block of S. 11th Ave. in Maywood. The village eventually approved his request, contingent upon whether or not he could find a trailer to store the equipment in and could sign a waiver releasing the village See MAYWOOD BUCS on page 8