School Board Considers Two Bids for Belmont

Two competing bidders pitched ideas to complete the Belmont Learning Complex to the Los Angeles school board Tuesday, in hopes of winning a multimillion-dollar contract with the district.

Supt. Roy Romer has recommended that the board support the Alliance for a Better Community, a Latino educational advocacy group, as the development team with the best plan to finish the high school and solve environmental problems at the 35-acre site.

But board members are still weighing their options. Next month, the board will decide whether it will support one of the two bidders, the alliance group or Komex H20. If the board decides against completing the school, the district may opt to sell the site.

Board member Julie Korenstein worried about how safe it is to continue building the campus, which sits on an old oil field. Member David Tokofsky questioned the bidders’ different approaches to building tarp-like membranes to block pollution. Member Marlene Canter wondered how likely it is that a membrane would become damaged. Others questioned plans to monitor the site for environmental problems.

Tokofsky said picking a group to contract with to build on the site is easy. His main concern is “the same thing that got us into trouble last time”: Who will negotiate price, timeline and other issues once the developer is chosen?

But Romer said the school can be built safely under the alliance group’s plan.

“It is cost-effective,” he said. “We really need it. We have such a struggle in this district to find adequate space.”

The alliance group’s proposal offers a lower fee structure than Komex H20, a more focused approach to environmental concerns and a schedule that would complete the school sooner, according to Romer.

Construction of the campus was halted in 1999 after methane gas and gasoline byproducts were discovered underneath the site.

The completion job is expected to last about three years and cost $67 million to $87 million. The project has already cost $154 million.

The school, which is more than 60% complete, would accommodate about 4,600 students.