Board Sets Date for Developer to Suspend Belmont Construction

The Los Angeles Board of Education on Tuesday ordered the developer of the Belmont Learning Complex to suspend construction by Nov. 23, a move one district official called “prudent” considering a looming decision on whether to complete the project.

The unanimous vote, taken during a closed door meeting, directed Temple Beaudry Partners to complete previously ordered work to secure the half-built school west of downtown.

As hundreds of students and teachers rallied at district headquarters Tuesday in support of the environmentally plagued project, board member Caprice Young said the action should not be interpreted as an indicator of what the board intends to do.

“It should not be seen as the board is going to walk away from Belmont,” Young said. “It’s a battening down the hatches.”

The board needs to protect its assets from the weather and vagrants regardless of whether the project is scrapped, she said.

But some school officials said the move was recommended by the district’s legal department and could be a sign that the board is leaning toward voting against the project. A majority of board members recently indicated that they were prepared to abandon the school.

“It’s a prudent move,” a source close to the district said of Tuesday’s action.

The $200-million Belmont complex has been in limbo for months, and a board decision is expected in coming weeks on its fate.

Last month, a board-appointed advisory commission charged with recommending a course of action narrowly advised the board to complete the project.

But the split vote, combined with commission members’ worries about possible liability problems, failed to present the board with a clear course of action.

On Tuesday, students and teachers said they had confidence in the board’s ability to make the site safe, and some said they would even sign waivers assuring that they would not sue years from now.

“We are telling them to please, please build our school,” said Lucia Bernales, 14, a 10th-grader at Belmont.

She and hundreds of other students from the current Belmont High School marched Tuesday to the Los Angeles Board of Education headquarters, demanding that the new school be completed.

Backed by parents and community members, the students said that their current school’s overcrowded conditions hamper learning. Some classrooms contain too few desks, and hallways are so jammed “people start pushing each other,” Bernales said.

Similarly, South Gate community members urged the board on Tuesday to clean up a site for a proposed elementary and high school on 38 industrial lots just west of the Los Angeles River.

“We need a high school within the next five years,” said Maria Davila, a parent with four children in South Gate schools, where an estimated 500 students are bused as far as the San Fernando Valley. “My children need a place to go to school.”

However, a district-commissioned report released to the board Tuesday estimated a protracted cleanup time, necessitating a delay of up to four years and placing completion of the schools off at least six years.

Environmental assessments have found that the site is contaminated by hazardous chemicals, including heavy metals such as lead and mercury, petroleum products and solvents such as benzene.

In other board developments Tuesday:

* Members agreed to appoint a citizens committee and use executive recruiting firms to help in their search for a new superintendent. At its Nov. 23 meeting, the board will hear comments from the public and present a draft selection criteria and selection process.

* Camino Nuevo Charter Academy, a charter school in the MacArthur Park area, was unanimously approved. The kindergarten through fifth-grade school will open with 260 students in September. Eventually it will expand to include a middle and high school.