Belmont Backers Offer to Help Fund Safety Studies

A coalition that wants the Los Angeles school board to reconsider its decision to abandon the Belmont Learning Complex stepped up the pressure this week with two offers to pay for completion of suspended environmental studies of the half-finished high school.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina said she would put up $1 million of her office discretionary funds to determine whether Belmont can be made safe and, if so, how soon it could open and at what cost.

In a separate attempt to fund the studies, Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa (D-Los Angeles) said he is asking the Legislature to set aside $850,000 for the same purpose.

The Board of Education voted Jan. 25 to kill the $200-million project because of concern about methane and hydrogen sulfide on the site above an oil field west of downtown. District chief operating officer Howard Miller then halted tests being supervised by the state Department of Toxic Substances Control.

Miller declined comment on the actions by Villaraigosa and Molina.

Molina and Villaraigosa belong to a coalition of political and community leaders demanding that the board include Belmont among several alternatives being investigated as potential high schools to accommodate rapid enrollment growth.

Molina said she would expect the $1 million to be returned to her if the studies conclude that Belmont could be built. If not, she said, she would consider the money a worthwhile investment on behalf of constituents who “remain anxious and concerned about the lack of definitive information.”