Belmont High School (Los Angeles) videos and info

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Location
Belmont Senior High School

1575 West Second Street Los Angeles, California United States
Information
Type	Public
Established	September 11, 1923
School district	Los Angeles Unified School District
Principal	Gary Yoshinobu
Grades	9-12
Enrollment	5,336
Campus	Urban
Color(s)	green, black
Athletics conference	Northern League, Los Angeles City Section CIF
Nickname	Sentinels
Rival	John Marshall High School
Website	Official website

Belmont High School is the largest public school in the city of Los Angeles and the largest school in California, due to the density of the Westlake district, which it serves. It is also considered the largest school in the United States, with 5,336 students. The enrollment is going to be split by the Edward R. Roybal (formerly Belmont) Learning Center in Fall 2008. The school colors are green and black and the teams are called the Sentinels.

History

The Hotel Belmont was the first noteworthy building to stand atop Crown Hill, the present site of Belmont High School. Eventually, the hotel was abandoned, and later it was transformed into the private Belmont School for Girls. After the school was destroyed by fire, the grounds were left vacant, except for five oil wells and a pumping plant. On February 28, 1921, the Los Angeles Board of Education purchased the site for $100,000, for the purpose of constructing Belmont High School.

Belmont opened its doors on September 11, 1923, to about 500 students, all sophomores, and 28 faculty members. Most of the school's traditions were created by those pioneer students during the first months of the school's existence. The school newspaper conducted an election to select its name, with "Sentinel" easily winning over "Progress." To this day, Belmont's students are known as Sentinels. Those first students favored “Sentinels" because they were able to oversee the entire city from their "lookout" on Crown Hill. In another election, the school's colors, green and black, were selected over brown and white. A Joseph Young created masaics mural is located on the main building wall.

In a 1991 Los Angeles Times article a person named Jerry Majewski said that the surrounding community is "dangerous but you learn to be a survivor. You just got to find the right people to hang around with that'll carry you through while you're here."^[3]

By 2000 LAUSD devised plans to relieve Belmont of many of its students,^[4] and in 2006, the Miguel Contreras Learning Complex, which began sharing its attendance zone with Belmont, opened and relieved Belmont.^[5]

Beginning around 2005, Belmont began a major modernization. The school was renovated, and new paint, bathrooms, doors, walls, and ceiling tiles were added. Facilities were also updated throughout the school campus to accommodate those with special needs (e.g. wheelchair ramps).

Furthermore, Central Los Angeles Area High School 9 [4] [5] opened in 2008 to relieve Belmont. Central Los Angeles High School 11 (Edward R. Roybal (formerly Belmont) Learning Center) [6] and Central Los Angeles High School 12 will open in 2009 [7] and relieve Belmont. There are also plans to reconfigure the existing Belmont High School into a 6-12 school by 2010 [8].

School Information

Belmont High School is home to the Sentinels, which is the name applied to all sports teams. The school colors are green and black. The current newspaper, which is published regularly since 2004, is called The Crown Hill Crier. For more than 75 years, the newspaper was the Belmont Sentinel. The Campanile is the name of the Yearbook published every June. The Campanile was also the name of the bell tower that was part of the main building of the old campus.

Belmont houses several computer labs throughout the school campus which students may use for school research. In addition, every classroom has at least two computers with Internet access. The school library was named in honor of her alumnus Jack Smith, who was an author and long time columnist for the Los Angeles Times.

Mission Statement

The following mission statement can be found at various locations on the school campus:

"The mission of Belmont High School is to educate our diverse student body in a safe, nurturing environment and to promote life-long learning, responsible citizenship, and success in a rapidly changing world."

Belmont High School Small Learning Communities

Belmont High School hosts several Small Learning Communities (SLC's; also called academies) which specialize in a field of study. Students not enrolled in an SLC are placed in one of the track "Houses".

In 2007, it was announced that C Track and the Visual Arts and Humanities and Computer Science academies will be moving to the new Edward R. Roybal (formerly Belmont) Learning Center, located at West First Street and North Beaudry Avenue in Fall 2008.

Neighborhoods served by Belmont

Much of the school-age population of areas served by Belmont, such as sections of the Pico-Union and Westlake areas, must be bused to schools in the San Fernando Valley, owing to delays in the construction of the Edward R. Roybal (formerly Belmont) Learning Center (just west of the Harbor Freeway at 1st and Beaudry) and overcrowding at the area's other schools.

Belmont shares its attendance zone with Contreras, so all students zoned to Belmont are also zoned to Contreras.

Feeder patterns

Notable alumni

References

^ http://cityplanning.lacity.org/complan/central/pdf/genlumap.wlk.pdf
^ Belmont High Alumni
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Ramos, Lydia. "Melting Pot of Belmont High Brims With Hopes and Plans Series: OUR SCHOOLS: A Closeup View; One of an occasional series." Los Angeles Times. May 2, 1991. Nuestro Tiempo, Metro Desk. Page 4.
^ "Regular Meeting Order of Business." Los Angeles Unified School District. Tuesday June 27, 2000.
^ "Central LA Area New HS #10, 55.98039." Los Angeles Unified School District. Accessed October 29, 2008.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Belmont Alumni
^ Ron Botchan: "I'm Just Coachable", Referee, 2000]
^ California Modern, the Architecture of Craig Ellwood, by Neil Jackson
^ 1975 State Teachers of the Year [1]
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f The Baseball Cube Belmont alumni
^ Databasefootball.com
^ Los Angeles Times obituaries, January 10, 1996
^ [2]
^ Andres, Holly J. "Famed news photographer Delmar Watson dies." Daily News. October 28, 2008.
^ Pool, Bob. "Star Shines Brightly for Hollywood's First Family; Movies: The Watson clan of former child actors finally receives recognition for its pioneering contribution to films." The Los Angeles Times. April 23, 1999. Metro Part B Metro Desk Page 1.
^ Just the Facts, Ma'am; The Authorized Biography of Jack Webb, Creator of Dragnet, Adam-12, and Emergency by Daniel Moyer and Eugene Alvarez
^ http://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Delwyn_Young_Sr.
^ LACC Baseball Head Coach
^ XISPAS interview with Sal Castro, parts one and two

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