Board Wants to Know Cost of Shutting Belmont

The Los Angeles Board of Education on Tuesday asked school district staff to determine by next week how much it would cost to suspend work on the Belmont Learning Complex while a study is done on the feasibility of completing the environmentally troubled project.

Board president Genethia Hayes announced that the board will hold a hearing in two weeks to give the public a status report on the $200-million downtown high school project.

The board has made no decision regarding the long-term fate of Belmont, which is being built on top of an oil field that emits potentially explosive methane, Hayes said.

She read the prepared statement after the board emerged from a closed session, its first meeting since three new members took office last week. She declined to answer questions.

The seven-hour session included a briefing on potential litigation concerning Belmont as well as discussion of another real estate deal and labor negotiations.

During a brief public meeting, the board quickly dispatched a single order of business, approving a set of principles and guidelines for the district that it hopes will be embodied in a raft of state legislation concerning school environmental problems.

Among the proposals were that any rules apply to all districts in the state, not just the Los Angeles Unified School District, and that funding formulas include consideration for the higher costs of building schools in urban areas.