School Board Fires Environmental Official but Orders Safety Probe

Immediately after firing its director of environmental health and safety for poor performance, the Los Angeles Board of Education on Tuesday ordered an investigation into his allegations that officials ignore environmental hazards and safety concerns at schools.

Hamid Arabzadeh told the school board that students, teachers and others are at risk because campuses are being built on toxic sites. He also said repair work funded by a massive $2.4-billion bond measure is uncovering hazards such as lead contamination and creating safety problems.

He made his statements during a hearing on his proposed termination. When board members pressed him for details, Arabzadeh said he would not publicly discuss specific individuals or schools, but offered to provide the information behind closed doors.

Arabzadeh said he had been told to withhold information from outside investigators about contaminated land and other campus hazards. He alleged that contracts went to favored firms and that district investigators responded more quickly to calls from the Westside and the San Fernando Valley than those from South Los Angeles and the Eastside.

“We are endangering the public,” Arabzadeh told the school board shortly before he was fired. “We are endangering students.”

The school board voted in closed session to fire Arabzadeh, but did not explain the reasons. District documents show that Arabzadeh was fired from his $99,000-a-year job because he repeatedly failed to show up to work on time, or at all, and had trouble getting along with his employees--allegations Arabzadeh has denied.

Arabzadeh, who was hired in August 1997, contends that he was fired because he testified before the Joint Legislative Audit Committee in Sacramento about toxic contamination at a new middle school in South Los Angeles. Arabzadeh told the committee that he believed the environmental review of the site was inadequate and that he would have conducted it differently. He said he was handed a resignation slip by his superiors two days later and told to resign. He has been on paid administrative leave for the last two weeks.

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District officials said Arabzadeh’s firing on Tuesday had nothing to do with his testimony in Sacramento.

“Serious questions about his performance arose before his testimony before the committee,” Richard K. Mason, the district’s general counsel, said.

After firing Arabzadeh, the school board ordered Supt. Ruben Zacarias to conduct an investigation into Arabzadeh’s allegations and to involve Arabzadeh as a witness.

Arabzadeh said he would cooperate with the probe, but added: “I think they cannot clean up their act themselves.”