When it was built 15 years ago the gym at Clemente High School was the pride of Humboldt Park. Today it’s the pits. “Call it a hellhole, because that’s what it is,” says Richard Tomoleoni, a gym teacher and the varsity baseball coach at Clemente. “It’s a disgrace.”
“We wrote letters to just about everyone we could think of, asking for help,” says Jim Dagostino, a gym teacher and varsity basketball coach. “We might as well throw the letters away. Maybe it’s because our students are poor Puerto Ricans and blacks, but no one seems to care.”
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The Roberto Clemente Community Academy High School (named for the famous Puerto Rican baseball player) was built in 1974 after community activists protested that Tuley High School (now used as an elementary school)–which had served the Humboldt Park community since World War I–was too old and in disrepair.
Each side says the break-ins occur while the other side’s on duty. Each side accuses the other of loafing on the job. One thing’s for certain, the gym is poorly managed and in lousy shape. In the middle of a school-day morning, the shower room reeks of marijuana. Gang graffiti scars the wall. A cockroach crawls across a dented locker. “The bugs and insects let us share the place,” says Vargas. “It’s nice of them.”
So far the turmoil inside the gym has stirred little–if any–reaction in the community. School principal Sosa would not comment, but Clemente’s gym teachers claim that he’s turned his back on their problems.
“My center fielder has to run over concrete slabs to get an out; he’s lucky he doesn’t break his neck,” says Tomoleoni. “The play lot is great for the elementary school, but lousy for us. We got no input on the deal. Our principal said he didn’t even know it was coming.”
The gym teachers say they would like to see the school system take charge of maintaining the gym, but that doesn’t seem likely. At the moment, most hope for improvement lies in park manager Rodriguez and Kevin Urdow, the Clemente Park supervisor. Both are new on the job; both vow to make changes.
