School Board OKs Hiring Manager to Seek Savings in Belmont Project

The Los Angeles Board of Education unanimously agreed Monday to hire an independent construction manager to review costs of the controversial Belmont Learning Center project with an eye toward potential savings.

Groundbreaking on the school just west of downtown is scheduled for Wednesday, even though necessary state funding remains far from guaranteed. The project’s minimum estimated construction cost is $87 million, but the price could rise to more than $100 million based on the board’s contract with developer Kajima International.

Board President Julie Korenstein said she suggested the additional oversight out of concern for taxpayers’ money. Board member David Tokofsky said that unlike previous reviews, this one would scour contracts for potential savings “from the nails themselves.”

Several members of the school’s neighborhood support group complained that added review would delay the project. But board member Victoria Castro, whose district includes the school site, said she had been assured that would not be the case.

Castro said she hoped that hiring a construction manager would calm criticism of the project, but she worried that “every time we add something to the price, it equates to less school.”

No estimates were provided of how much the additional review might cost.

In other action Monday, the board postponed a decision on whether to extend smaller class sizes to kindergarten pending approval of a state budget.

The board amended its earlier approval of including third grade in the statewide reform after district staff reported that not all schools would have room to reduce third-grade classes to 20 students. Instead, the policy for third grade now calls for schools to allow teachers to work in teams, with three teachers taking on 60 students spread over two rooms.

Even if adequate numbers of teachers and movable classrooms can be found, district staff said 53 schools might never be able to institute the change because of a court settlement that bars them from putting more portable classrooms on their small playgrounds.

The board postponed its review of a tentative agreement to allow a top district administrator to retire instead of firing him for entering district property with a gun.

Maintenance Director Jim Samples was fired in March after Los Angeles police detectives determined that he had fabricated a story about a masked assailant attacking him in an underground parking garage at district headquarters. Samples appealed that decision, and a settlement was reached under which he would be allowed to retire after cashing out the rest of his accrued sick pay, an estimated $60,800.