ROMER EXPLORES OPENING BELMONT.

Byline: Harrison Sheppard Staff Writer

Six months after the Los Angeles school board abandoned the Belmont Learning Center, new Superintendent Roy Romer declared Thursday he wants to explore ways to complete the nation's costliest high school.

Romer was spurred to reopen the Belmont debate by the Proposition BB oversight committee, which demanded that the school board revive an environmental study of the project and voted to spend bond money to pay for it. The citizen committee has refused in the past to approve bond money for any part of the $170 million cost of Belmont.

But several school board members, including the board president, said there is little possibility of resurrecting the project which was abandoned because of safety concerns due to the leaking of toxic and explosive gas from oil wells below the site.

``Belmont is a dead issue,'' board President Genethia Hayes said. ``The board voted in January not to move forward with the project and as such we're not required to do anything in terms of an environmental study until we decide what we want to do with that property in lieu of a school.''

Romer, who officially takes office Saturday, said he is new to the issue and wants to consider possibilities for the site. One suggestion he has quietly floated is turning the ground floor into an open-air parking garage to allow methane and hydrogen sulfide to escape rather than being trapped inside.

``This idea is not a crazy idea,'' the former Colorado governor said. ``There (would be) no problem with gases getting into the building because they're dispersed through the flow of air into the garage.''

Romer has asked district staff to look at the possibility of turning the site into a charter school to allow a private group to run the facility and therefore limit the district's legal exposure, Hayes said.

Emphasizing that these were just ideas, Romer said he does not yet have a position on whether to definitely move forward with the project.

``I'm trying to find a cooperative solution that gets us over the controversy,'' he said.

But school board members say there is little chance they will change their 5-2 vote to kill the project.

Hayes said none of her colleagues on the board have indicated to her that they want to revisit the issue or change their vote. But she added that she is glad to see Romer looking at creative ideas and said it has not caused a falling out between the board and the incoming superintendent.

Adding further momentum to attempts to resuscitate Belmont was the unanimous vote by the Proposition BB Oversight Committee demanding that the school board continue the environmental study.

The citizen committee, which was appointed to provide oversight on Proposition BB spending to win public support for the $2.4 billion bond issue for school renovation and construction, earlier had considered withholding funds for any alternate Belmont site until the study was complete. But they backed off from that threat at Romer's request.

Romer and BB committee Chairman Steve Soboroff clashed at the meeting during a tense exchange as Romer pleaded with the committee to postpone its vote and give him a few weeks to catch up on Belmont.

``I want to depoliticize this issue,'' Romer said, referring to Soboroff's mayoral campaign. He added that he was worried about the possibility of litigation if the project moves forward.

The meeting was Soboroff's last as committee chairman. He plans to devote his full attention to his mayoral bid.

Attending the meeting were several parents from the Belmont area who applauded the committee's action. A few even jeered Romer when he discussed postponing the vote.

Soboroff and other committee members said their request was not about politics, but about seeking complete information as they decide how billions of taxpayer dollars will be spent.

``As far as litigation goes, the district gets sued for everything, every time,'' Soboroff said. ``You guys worry about litigation. We're worrying about getting students an education.''

After the meeting, parent activist Gloria Soto said the vote returned some hope to Belmont supporters that the center would be built and help relieve overcrowding at the existing Belmont High School.

``I'm in total shock - in a good way,'' said Soto, a member of the group Parents for Belmont Learning Complex. ``We have been so shattered and disillusioned and we totally lost faith in the system. Today they have revived our hopes and dreams.''

But school board member Caprice Young said there was no need to continue the study because the district already has plenty of information about environmental dangers at the site.

``I've seen thousands and thousands of pages of environmental reviews of that site indicating problems,'' Young said. ``As far as I'm concerned, the board made a decision last January. What we need to be focused on is building schools for kids, not rehashing old political fights.''

Board member Victoria Castro, who supported the project from the outset, said the board has failed to do its job by not obtaining enough environmental information on the site. She added that she is glad Romer is open to new ideas.

``I give him credit for trying to put out creative solutions,'' Castro said. ``He's committed to working to a solution.''