L.A. School Facilities

The proposal to convert the LAUSD headquarters to a high school (Oct. 22) is not as farfetched as it might seem. I seem to recall the site on North Grand Avenue was once Central Junior High, which closed in June 1946, probably due to low enrollment, with most of the students relocating to Thomas Starr King Junior High, which I was attending at that time. What goes around comes around.

JOE COHEN

Los Angeles

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One issue is being overlooked in the Belmont Learning Complex site matter: Who polluted the area in the first place and why don’t they pay to clean it up and monitor the site? This case is a textbook study in how polluters distribute their costs of production onto society at large, which doesn’t have adequate mechanisms in place to ensure that businesses treat waste cleanup just as importantly as profit distributions to shareholders and owners.

BRIAN SHEPPARD

Encino

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Re Carole Walsh’s Oct. 23 letter on Belmont High School’s bathrooms and roofing repairs: To set the record straight, here are some Belmont facts regarding those two areas. The bathrooms at our school are serviced three times daily. At each servicing, paper products are replenished and trash is picked up. Each bathroom is deep cleaned once a week. As part of a future modernization project, my top priority has been the remodeling of all bathrooms.

Even though the overwhelming majority of our students are law-abiding and mindful of the school rules, there is a small but active minority who over the years have vandalized bathrooms by tearing doors from the stalls, clogging commodes with paper towels and strewing toilet paper on the floor. In spite of that, however, we continuously try to maintain all bathrooms in working order. Doors are once again being installed on all stalls. It should be no secret to anyone that our school is terribly overcrowded. We currently have over 5,000 pupils on a campus that was originally designed for 2,000.

In reference to the “ill-timed” roofing repairs, because Belmont is on a year-round schedule, students are in attendance the entire year. As soon as a concern was raised over the odor from the tar, I immediately called the roofing supervisor and, in conjunction with the UTLA representative, began to make adjustments so as to lessen the impact of the project. The tar kettle, for instance, was placed at a location where it would have the least impact on the students and staff. A fan has been placed next to the kettle to divert the odor away from the building. In addition, at my insistence, a new tar product will be used that may prove to be less offensive.

IGNACIO GARCIA, Principal

Belmont High School, L.A.