School Board Kills Troubled Belmont Project

The Los Angeles Board of Education killed the scandal-plagued Belmont Learning Complex on Tuesday night, snubbing a last-minute plea by interim Supt. Ramon C. Cortines to postpone the action he had requested last week.

The board also rejected a proposal to turn the half-completed project into a new district headquarters and gave Cortines 60 days to come up with other alternatives for a new school in the very crowded Belmont attendance area.

With the board poised to vote on his recommendation to abandon the high school project, Cortines threw the panel into confusion by asking for a delay.

In a stunning admission, Cortines said he was persuaded Tuesday by board member Victoria Castro that he had not had enough information to make an informed recommendation about whether to abandon the project.

“We need 60 days for the staff to take this up,” Cortines said. He said that if staff members cannot come up with more detailed recommendations, they should be fired.

Calling a recess, board President Genethia Hayes withdrew with Cortines into a photocopying room near the board meeting hall as supporters of the project chanted, “Come out! Come out, wherever you are!”

When Hayes reconvened the board 15 minutes later, she indicated that she still intended to go forward with the historic vote.

After a series of amendments, the board then voted 5 to 2 to abandon the partially completed, 5,000-student school. Board members Victoria Castro, long Belmont’s strongest supporter, and Mike Lansing dissented.

What will become of the site has yet to be determined.

Lansing said he thought more information was needed to make a rational decision.

“If we vote no today, where is the replacement plan?” Lansing asked. “I cannot blow up an option when there is no other bridge to go over.”

Board member Valerie Fields said she simply considered the site unsafe.

The vote ends the climactic chapter in the years-long battle over Belmont, the most expensive high school project in the nation’s history, built on a former oil field west of downtown. The project was brought to a halt last year after disclosures of environmental hazards that were not adequately assessed before construction began in 1997.

A new reform-minded board appointed a commission in July to weigh the fate of the $200-million project. But, despite the commission’s 4-3 vote last October that the school could be made safe and should be completed, a majority of board members continued to oppose the project, which also played a key role in their decision to oust former Supt. Ruben Zacarias.

Last week, chief operating officer Howard Miller wrote the recommendation urging termination of Belmont, and Cortines, who initially said he believed the school should be finished, signed onto it.

Two members of the commission, former state Sen. Charles Calderon and former state medical official Ira Monosson, joined residents of the Belmont community and several elected officials Tuesday in demanding that the board complete the school.

Also urging completion were Los Angeles City Councilman Mike Hernandez and Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina.

Assemblyman Scott Wildman (D-Burbank) advocated the demise of the project, which he has long criticized as wasteful and dangerous.

Molina, who had remained behind the scenes on Belmont, harshly criticized Cortines for presenting a recommendation to end the project that was lean on detail, such as where other schools would be built and how much they would cost.

“Sir, we are entitled to the facts,” Molina said, setting off a tense exchange with Cortines.

“I want you to know I don’t have the facts and what you want me to do is keep the students and the community waiting,” Cortines replied. “There are no facts.”

“How can you make a decision without facts, sir?” Molina replied.

It was a later exchange with Castro that caused Cortines to ask that a vote on his recommendation be postponed.

Castro cited a July board vote calling for district staff to report on the cost of completing Belmont and the cost of alternatives such as selling the property.

Cortines, who did not take office until Jan. 16, said he had never heard about that vote.

“That has never been shared with me,” Cortines said, visibly distressed. “I believe that for the administration and the staff to have not reported to the board in a timely manner regardless of their recommendation is in error.”