EDITORIAL : BE REASONABLE, LAUSD THE BOARD IS SCHEDULED TO VOTE TODAY ON FUNDING BELMONT AS THE PUBLIC HOLDS ITS BREATH.On Monday, the Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. Board of Education will again take up the issue of funding the Belmont Learning Complex. The public will be watching with intense interest to see if the board has learned how to be politically correct politically correct Politically sensitive adjective Referring to language reflecting awareness and sensitivity to another person's physical, mental, cultural, or other disadvantages or deviations from a norm; a person is not mentally retarded, but and fiscally responsible. Since the district's citizen bond oversight committee voted unanimously against any use of Proposition BB money to fund Belmont, the district has few choices left to get the project under way. The board could vote to issue certificates of participation at a cost of $7 million a year. But that means the district will have to use money from its general fund to pay for the certificates - the same fund that pays the salaries of teachers and staff and buys the books and other classroom materials. To restore trust, the district must face the public and explain where the money is coming from, down to the penny. There would, of course, be only one place the board could cut that would do anything to begin to restore its shattered shat·ter v. shat·tered, shat·ter·ing, shat·ters v.tr. 1. To cause to break or burst suddenly into pieces, as with a violent blow. 2. a. credibility - trimming down the bloated bureaucracy. Parents, teachers and taxpayers have a right to know what programs are getting axed in order to pay for the costliest high school in California history - it now carries a price tag of $87 million for construction - and that doesn't count the incredibly high cost of the land, $61 million. No one questions the need for a new school in downtown Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles is the central business district of Los Angeles, California, located close to the geographic center of the metropolitan area. The sprawling, multi-centered megacity is such that its downtown core is often considered just another district like Hollywood or to ease overcrowding overcrowding overcrowding of animal accommodation. Many countries now publish codes of practice which define what the appropriate volumetric allowances should be for each species of animal when they are housed indoors. Breaches of these codes is overcrowding. and end long bus rides for those students. But everyone who supports the idea does question why this school is turning out to be the ``Taj taj n. A tall conical cap worn by Muslims as a headdress of distinction. [Arabic t Mahal'' of high schools. The district and the board have never been clear on that point. How many court injunctions will it take to force the board to be responsible and accountable to the public? Superior Court Judge Diane Wayne is to be commended for empowering the citizen committee to do what voters thought they would - be an oversight committee for Prop. BB money, not a hindsight committee or a blind trust committee. Trust is not a word many people associate with the district right now. Certainly, the oversight committee doesn't trust the district. This is no rush to judgment. The LAUSD LAUSD Los Angeles Unified School District (Los Angeles, CA) administration and board have proven beyond a reasonable doubt that they will jiggle every back door lock to escape scrutiny and flout flout v. flout·ed, flout·ing, flouts v.tr. To show contempt for; scorn: flout a law; behavior that flouted convention. See Usage Note at flaunt. v.intr. the committee. Let's hope it won't take another court order from Judge Wayne to force the board to do what voters thought they were elected to do - discuss their options fully, give detailed accounts of the money, and vote in the open. These games of hide-and-seek with taxpayer money are growing old. |
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