Molina’s Offer of Belmont Funds Rejected

The Los Angeles Board of Education on Tuesday declined an offer of $1 million from Supervisor Gloria Molina to continue studies on the environmental hazards at the abandoned Belmont Learning Complex.

Molina offered the money to determine how much it would cost and how long it would take to make the nearly completed high school, built on a former oil field west of downtown, safe enough to open. The funds would have come from an office account that Molina, like all five county supervisors, can spend at her discretion.

The district discontinued the environmental studies after the board decided to abandon the project in January. Several board members have said they do not think the dangers of explosive methane and toxic hydrogen sulfide can be reduced to an acceptable level.

Molina has led a coalition of community activists and political leaders pressing the board to reconsider its decision. They say the campus is desperately needed to relieve crowding at the existing Belmont High School.

District officials have identified eight possible sites to make up for the abandoned project. But the largest of those, including the former Ambassador Hotel and a portion of the Dodger Stadium parking lot, face stiff opposition.

The board considered Molina’s offer behind closed doors and concluded that it had no interest in pursuing the studies, board member Victoria Castro said.

Castro said the district’s lawyers advised the board that there were legal and practical reasons not to accept the money related to the board’s malpractice suit against O’Melveny & Myers.