OFFICIALS' CLASH DELAYS SCHOOL LANDSCAPING.

Byline: Terri Hardy Daily News Staff Writer

A plan to landscape hundreds of asphalt playgrounds at Los Angeles schools has stalled - developing into a test of wills between a citizens oversight committee and the Los Angeles Board of Education.

Frustrated that the school board has yet to approve replacing up to a third of each campus' blacktop with trees, bushes and grass, the committee is expected today to issue this ultimatum:

Either approve the so-called greening plan, or the committee will vote to halt all scheduled asphalt jobs, except for emergency patching.

Steve Soboroff, chairman of the Proposition BB Blue Ribbon Citizens Oversight Committee, said his group was forced into a get-tough stance because the school board president had said the project must be delayed for months because she was unsure whether there was enough money for maintenance.

``I felt like we were playing chicken,'' Soboroff said. ``What else can we do? It makes no sense to asphalt and then tear it up.''

This week, Board of Education President Julie Korenstein slightly softened her earlier position, saying she believes the board could consider approval of the plan at its next meeting in February.

Korenstein said she likes the greening proposal but it should not go forward unless she is assured that the LAUSD has $1 million in its 1997-98 budget to pay for the additional gardeners needed to maintain the greenery. And, she said she wants to be sure the district has a long-term maintenance plan.

``To just rush so quickly to accommodate something that sounds good politically, without a plan to preserve what is planted, would be a terrible atrocity,'' she said.

The $2.4 billion Proposition BB bond measure adopted by voters in April cannot be used to hire gardeners, but a Dec. 15 report to the board from the district's chief financial officer indicates the district could end its fiscal year with a large windfall - $137 million.

The trees, grass and other plants for landscaping will be donated by the nonprofit organization TreePeople. And Andy Lipkis, president of that group, said he is frustrated with the board's delays.

``This is a once in a hundred years opportunity, and for the sake of the kids it shouldn't be missed,'' Lipkis said.

At the same time that the committee and the board squabble, district officials say they have gone ahead with 26 of the planned 469 paving projects. Three have been completed and 23 are under way.

``These schools decided to forego landscaping and go ahead with asphalt,'' said Erik Nasarenko, district spokesman.

But the principal at one of those schools said she was under the impression that the school was going to get landscaping.

``I thought we were still part of the process,'' said Sheila Smith, principal at Lankershim Elementary School in North Hollywood. ``Our school backs onto an alley and we really wanted trees to block the urban decay.''

Other schools Nasarenko said had chosen to forego landscaping include Chatsworth, Canoga Park and Lanai elementary schools.