$3.5 million for new athletic field at Belmont High School

Today Los Angeles School Board President Monica Garcia and I announced the allocation of more than $3.5 million to build a new athletic field at Belmont High School. This is a big victory for students, teachers, and administrators who advocated for this project.

The funding will support a major renovation of the existing athletic field at the Belmont campus that was originally built in 1923 and primarily serves students from the Historic Filipinotown and Pico Union neighborhoods. The project will include installation of an artificial turf field and a decomposed granite track. The current athletic field is not maintained during certain seasons during which time students participating in physical education classes or extracurricular sports must play on dirt and in dust. The new facilities will be available to community organizations for use on weekends and evenings.

School Board President Garcia secured $2.5 million in LAUSD funding, including Joint Use funding from previous school construction bonds and $1.1 million from her discretionary fund, to help build the new facility. The City of Los Angeles is providing $1 million in funding from voter-approved Proposition K and Community Development Block Grant funds, which the city allocates under guidelines established by the state and federal governments respectively.