BOARD VOTES TO DUMP BELMONT.

Byline: Greg Gittrich Staff Writer

Rejecting a last-minute plea from interim Superintendent Ramon C. Cortines, the Los Angeles school board voted Tuesday to abandon the environmentally troubled Belmont Learning Center, bringing a stunning end to the scandal over the construction of the nation's costliest high school.

The board's 5-2 vote to kill Belmont came moments after Cortines suddenly asked for a 60-day delay on the fate of the $175 million complex to allow him to gather more facts.

The superintendent's eleventh-hour retreat touched off pandemonium in the board room, packed with inner-city students in favor of completing the campus.

But Cortines' words were not enough to sway a majority of the board.

Following a 15-minute recess, the board came back and defiantly approved a motion to scrap Belmont.

The action also called for Los Angeles Unified School District administrators to solicit bids for the tainted downtown property, and come back within 60 days with detailed plans for alternative sites for a downtown campus.

``It's not safe for anyone's children, it's not safe for faculty; it's not safe for anyone,'' said board member Valerie Fields. ``I wouldn't want my grandchildren to go there, I wouldn't want to be there.

``The community is entitled to know what the decision is, instead of being strung along for another four to five years,'' she said.

Along with Fields, board members Genethia Hayes, Caprice Young, Julie Korenstein and David Tokofsky voted to dump the partially completed school, which sits atop a dangerous oil field. Board members Victoria Castro and Mike Lansing dissented.

Castro immediately asked for an inquiry into whether members of the majority illegally consulted with each other during the brief pause in action to ensure they had the four necessary votes to pass the motion.

The board majority agreed that the health and safety concerns posed by explosive methane gas and deadly hydrogen sulfide at the 35-acre Belmont property made it too dangerous and expensive to complete the school.

Padlocked since November, Belmont sits on a vacant lot in a low-income Latino community. The neighborhood has been promised a new high school for 20 years.

In 1994, a band of former administrators and highly paid consultants designed the enormous complex to feature the state's largest high school, a shopping mall, public housing and acres of parkland.

No one conducted adequate environmental tests before construction began in 1997, despite repeated warnings.

Hours before Tuesday's vote, Cortines said he was struggling with his earlier recommendation to walk away from Belmont. He had publicly backed completing the school until last week.

``I'm so taken back that I wasn't able to fix Belmont,'' Cortines said Tuesday morning. ``But you cannot avoid these types of decisions.''

``It's a minimum of $60 million to complete it, but by the time it's all over, you know and I know, that it's going to really be $100 million, $125 million out of the general fund,'' Cortines said.

Unlike most school construction projects, the LAUSD has paid for the construction of Belmont out of its general operating fund, rather than through state and local bond money.

The general fund is the same pool of money that the district uses to buy classroom supplies and pay teachers' salaries.

Throughout the public comment portion of Tuesday's meeting, Cortines heard several pleas from students from the current Belmont High School.

He also was attacked by county Supervisor Gloria Molina for making a recommendation to the school board ``without all of the facts.''

In a last-ditch effort to save Belmont, members of an independent citizens commission, which narrowly advised the school board last October to finish the school, said district officials withheld key evidence about the true cost of making Belmont safe.

The commission members argued that new expert testimony demonstrates that the cost of eliminating environmental hazards at Belmont is four to five times less than the $60 million figure used by district representatives.

Cortines made his dramatic bid to put off the board's decision after Castro, who represents the Belmont attendance area, noted that the district administrators had failed to report back to the board on alternative sites for Belmont and conduct a cost analysis of the project, despite orders to do so in July.

Cortines, who officially took over as superintendent only 10 days ago, said he was unaware of the previous request.

``That has never been shared with me, and I believe that for this administration and staff to not have reported to the board in a timely manner . . . is an error and doesn't keep with the integrity that I heard about this evening,'' he said.

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Photo: Belmont High School senior class president Ana Fernandez, right, listens to speakers at LAUSD headquarters Tuesday. The board voted 5-2 to scrap the Belmont Learning Center.

David Sprague/Staff Photographer