On the second day of a state hearing into alleged misuse of as much as $1 million in poverty funds at Clemente High School, five educators said the school curriculum once included a Puerto Rican independence agenda and political activists were brought to the school, all at a time when the school lacked basic educational resources.
Several of them also singled out Jose Lopez, director of the Puerto Rican Cultural Center and a supporter of Puerto Rican independence. They claimed Lopez wielded influence over the local school council and two former principals at the school.
Patricia Boland, an English teacher at Clemente since 1980 and a local school council member from 1991 to 1993, claimed that Lopez gave signals and directions to school council members during meetings.
“He was running the show,” Boland said Thursday.
Lopez, who was not called to testify by the state House panel, denied that he had any influence over policy and spending at Clemente.
“I rarely even went to the meetings,” said Lopez, who was once a member of the school’s personnel committee.
On Wednesday, a key witness, Rafael Marrero, claimed Lopez was the leader of an independence group that exerted undue influence at Clemente and the spending of state Chapter 1 funds, earmarked primarily for educational purposes.
“What we had here, in my opinion, is a total witch hunt,” said Lopez, who was denied his request to read a statement before the panel.
The first to testify Thursday was Barbara Radner, director for the Center for Urban Education at DePaul University, who started working with Clemente school officials in late 1995. Radner said there was no schoolwide curriculum, no system for teacher observation and many classes lacked basic instructional materials.
Radner said she tried to decipher the school budget, noticing that even though funds had been allocated for books, teachers complained they lacked books. She said a student trip to Puerto Rico also was a misuse of Chapter 1 funds. She said the parents employed at the school just sat around in the hallways.
“In 25 years of working in and with Chicago Public Schools, I have never encountered a situation in which the needs of the students and teachers have been so neglected,” said Radner. “(Chapter 1) funds were allocated for activities that were not directly related to learning.”
State Rep. Patricia Lindner (R-Aurora) said that after reading a report on the trip, it appeared to have educational value.
An English teacher at Clemente, Lottie Kowalski, said she was told by administrators to include Puerto Rican independence writers in her curriculum and exclude writers like William Faulkner.
“There definitely was a political bent,” said Kowalski, adding she felt the curriculum was more political than multicultural.
Ellen Kennedy, a former teacher at the school who ran the computer lab, said she believed she was not allowed to teach in the bilingual program because she did not support Puerto Rican independence.
Boland also complained that local school council meetings were conducted in Spanish and that local school council members refused to pay for an American flag for a ROTC program.
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By the end of the latest round of hearings, several members of the state panel said they were still unclear if any laws had been broken, adding they hoped to hear from more witnesses in future hearings that have yet to be scheduled.
After the hearing, some of the committee members took a tour of Clemente, 1147 N. Western Ave., while outside the school, about 20 demonstrators called for a halt to the criticisms of Clemente.