Downtown Arts School Faces Vote

Faced with a skyrocketing price tag, a divided Los Angeles Board of Education is expected to vote today on a construction contract for a showcase downtown performing and visual arts high school now estimated to cost $208 million -- double that of a typical high school.

If approved, the sleek, modern campus would cost more than twice what school district officials initially had expected.

The decision would culminate years of debate over the need for a flagship arts school, which supporters tout as part of the city’s much-heralded effort to revive downtown’s Grand Avenue, an effort backed by billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad. He pushed strongly for the district to scrap plans for a traditional campus in favor of the high- concept arts school.

Some board members are expressing concerns about the school’s soaring costs. The campus, however, would not be the most expensive in the Los Angeles Unified School District. That title goes to the Belmont Learning Complex, which, after years of delays and extensive environmental cleanup costs, is expected to cost about $350 million.

With one vacant seat on the seven-member education board, whether a majority supports the plan for the Grand Avenue school is in doubt.

Already, more than $35 million has been spent to clear and clean the site on North Grand Avenue, across from the Hollywood Freeway. The vote today is for a nearly $172-million construction contract to build the school.

Schools Supt. Roy Romer, who has long championed the project, said he would urge the board to give the final go-ahead.

“It’s going to cost more than we planned, and that’s a tough issue to deal with,” Romer said. “We’re in a position where we’ve got to just grit our teeth and go.”

Plans for the 1,700-student school, on the site of the former district headquarters, call for seven major buildings, including a 950-seat theater, music rehearsal rooms and art studios.

With a futuristic design that some board members have said they dislike, the school would be partially clad in a metallic-colored material and feature a soaring tower and conical library.

Board members have set aside $117 million to build the school, after the projected costs were raised from about $87 million. The $172-million bid from PCL Construction caught the board off guard.

More than a third of the increase, said facilities executive Guy Mehula, is due to the high cost of hiring workers who are able to build the school’s unusual concrete outer walls.

The rising costs of concrete and steel are also to blame, he said.

The effort to bring a premier arts high school on par with New York City’s famed LaGuardia High and similar schools has been a long, and at times contentious, process.

Broad came under fire in 2003 when some board members and other critics said he was too closely involved in the school’s lavish design, blurring the lines between the public and private sectors.

At that time, Broad committed $1.9 million to help run the school but said taxpayer money should be used to build it. He later pledged $3.1 million to help offset building costs.

The plans for the school also raised questions about unequal treatment. The district -- and the county -- have other performing and visual arts programs, but none has the level of support that the Grand Avenue project stands to receive.

To pay for the cost overrides, board members would have to spend $55 million of a $100-million reserve fund intended to help cover the rising costs of the district’s ongoing school construction and repair project, which aims to build about 160 campuses by 2012.

“It is taking an astronomical amount of money from every neighborhood in this district for one neighborhood that has too many seats already,” said board member David Tokofsky, who vowed to vote against the contract.

Tokofsky challenged the widely held notion that schools in the downtown area are crowded, and questioned the current plan to allow students only from the area to enroll. He said he would propose that the board allow students from throughout the sprawling district to attend the school when it opens.

Once enough schools are built to relieve crowding, district officials said they planned to allow other students to apply to the arts high school.

Board member Mike Lansing said he, too, was opposed to the construction contract.

“I need to see alternative plans,” said Lansing, who has called for scaled-back versions of the school to be drawn up. “I’m not going to just go along with this because they say it’s the only option we have.”

No alternatives will be presented to the board, Romer said. A return to the drawing board would not save the district any money, he said, as rising construction costs would offset the savings of a smaller school. A delay, he said, probably would stall the project’s 2008 scheduled opening for two or more years as the district reapplied to state agencies for approval of the new plans.

An aide to board member Jon Lauritzen said he was undecided, and board member Marguerite Poindexter LaMotte did not return calls.

Board President Marlene Canter and board member Julie Korenstein said they shared the concerns about the school’s cost but planned to vote for the contract.

They, along with Romer, called on philanthropic groups, the city and the film and music industry to raise funds to help pay for the school.

“We’re caught,” Korenstein said. “The only way to win on this is if we have people who are willing to step forward and help build this magnificent school. Otherwise, it is a tough situation.”

Last year, the board approved an agreement with Discovering the Arts, a nonprofit fundraising organization formed to help cover the additional costs of running a high-caliber arts high school.

But Araceli Ruano, the group’s chairwoman, said the board needed to approve the project before any discussion of fundraising could occur.

“If [the board] demonstrates tomorrow that the school is on track to be built in 2008,” Ruano said in an e-mail, “we will do what it takes to make this school a reality.”