LAUSD’s Problems at Belmont Site

Re “The Stakes at Belmont,” by Robert A. Jones, Feb. 7: Instead of exclaiming, “I throw up my hands,” LAUSD board member Julie Korenstein ought to start a vigorous campaign to fire the incompetent bureaucrats who work for the school district and who are responsible for the costly mess at Belmont Learning Complex. No one ever gets fired for incompetence. There is no accountability for a person’s performance.

Let’s see if Korenstein and her school board colleagues have the guts to do what’s right.

HARVEY B. SCHECHTER

Sherman Oaks

*

* Living on the site of the multimillion-dollar Belmont high school in the Depression years (1929-40), now it’s interesting to me to learn of toxic hazards there. In those days our main consideration: where the next meal was coming from.

Several oil wells were located in this hilly area, but we took little notice of an occasional whiff of hydrogen sulfide gas (like rotten eggs), nor did we pay any attention to the day-and-night, gentle swishing sound of the pumps. Power to these wells was supplied by one power source and thick cables ran long distances to power each pump. It was great fun listening to and watching these old oil wells gently operating.

As a senior citizen, none of those “toxic hazards” affected my longevity or my health. Let’s spend the millions on cleanup for some other pie-in-the-sky idea.

BRYON DILLON

Bullhead City, Ariz.

*

* Here is a way to stop the LAUSD from continuing to build schools like the Belmont Learning Complex on known toxic waste sites. Finish the Belmont complex, move LAUSD headquarters into it and sell the present headquarters to cover some of the Belmont cost overruns or maybe to build a school on a nontoxic site.

RONALD SCHAFFER

Northridge