Belmont Project and School Bonds

You state in your April 16 editorial that the Los Angeles school board should not break faith with the voters, and no funds should be committed to Belmont Learning Center until another review of the project is made by the bond oversight committee. The reality is that if this project is delayed any further for any reason such as “we need to study it for a few more weeks and then we will tell you what we think,” the board will risk exactly what they don’t want to happen--that is, Belmont could cost much more and it won’t be done in 1999.

A project has a specific scope, cost, schedule and quality. If you change one variable, such as deferring the schedule, you risk a cost increase. For example, Belmont will be built on a very difficult, sloping site that contains old oil wells. It is optimal to perform the underground work on this type of site in the nonrainy season, which is right now. It seems like the voters are telling us to build the schools as effectively and efficiently as possible. Delaying Belmont any further is not efficient.

DAVID BENTLEY

Rolling Hills Estates

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Knowing that a society with well-educated citizens is the society I want to live in, I have been supportive of the Los Angeles schools since I moved here in 1985. Although I have not had any children in school, I recognize the impact of substandard education each time I pay for something and the cashier doesn’t know how to make change. I voted in favor of Prop. BB, and urged my friends to do so as well. However, I will never again support the L.A. school board if Prop. BB money is used for the Belmont Learning Center.

This money was to be used to repair and upgrade schools that have been neglected for years. If there is money left over once the schools are repaired, use it to buy textbooks and paper, give the kids a pizza party. Or a novel idea: Do not go into debt for the full amount, only what is absolutely needed. Don’t use it for the glory of the board on a project that is “Rodeo Drive,” when the children in school now have to share books on “Lankershim Boulevard.”

GAY LANNON

Sherman Oaks