Belmont Senior High School is a public

high school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., ...

located at 1575 West 2nd Street in the Westlake community of

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. The school, which serves grades 9 through 12, is part of the

Los Angeles Unified School District Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is a State school, public school district in Los Angeles County, California, United States of America. It is the largest public school system in California in terms of number of students and the List ...

History

Belmont High School opened in 1923. 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 for the

Los Angeles City Oil Field The Los Angeles City Oil Field is a large oil field north of Downtown Los Angeles. Long and narrow, it extends from immediately south of Dodger Stadium west to Vermont Avenue, encompassing an area of about four miles (6 km) long by a quarter- ...

. 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 mosaic mural by Joseph Young is located on the wall of the main building. The 1923 Beaux-Arts campus was designed by Stanton & Stockwell, who designed several large civic buildings at the

Civic Center, Los Angeles The Civic Center district of Downtown Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, is the administrative core of the Los Angeles, California, City of Los Angeles, County of Los Angeles, and a complex of city, county, U.S. state, state, and Federal gover ...

. It was in the

Los Angeles City High School District Los Angeles City High School District (known in its last year as West County Union High School District) was a school district that served high school-aged residents of western Los Angeles County, California from 1890 to 1962. At times the dis ...

until 1961, when it merged into LAUSD. Belmont High School was once the largest school in California, due to the density of the Westlake district, which it served. It was also considered the largest school in the United States, with 6,342 students. What was formerly the attendance area for Belmont High School has now become the Belmont Zone of Choice, where students have the option of attending one of nineteen small learning communities or pilot schools located on four different campuses within the zone: Belmont High School,

Miguel Contreras Learning Complex Miguel Contreras Learning Complex (MCLC) is a high school in the Westlake neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States. The school, which serves grades 9 through 12, is a part of the Los Angeles Unified School District. The school is ...

, Edward Roybal Learning Center, and Ramon C. Cortinez School of Visual and Performing Arts. Of these, the Miguel Contreras Learning Complex was opened in 2006, sharing Belmont's attendance zone, after LAUSD had begun as early as 2000 to devise plans to relieve Belmont of many of its students. The

West Adams Preparatory High School West Adams Preparatory High School is a secondary school in Central Los Angeles, California. The school is a part of the Los Angeles Unified School District and is operated by a nonprofit organization working in conjunction with LAUSD. The orga ...

opened in 2007, further relieving Belmont; a section of the

Manual Arts High School Manual Arts High School is a secondary public school in Los Angeles, California, United States. History Manual Arts High School was founded in 1910 in the middle of bean fields, one-half mile from the nearest bus stop. It was the third high sc ...

attendance zone was transferred to Belmont. The

High School for the Visual and Performing Arts High may refer to: Science and technology * Height * High (atmospheric), a high-pressure area * High (computability), a quality of a Turing degree, in computability theory * High (tectonics), in geology an area where relative tectonic uplift to ...

(formerly known as Central Los Angeles Area High School 9) opened in 2008. Central Los Angeles High School 11 ( Edward R. Roybal (formerly Belmont) Learning Center), Central Los Angeles High School 12, and the

Felicitas and Gonzalo Mendez Learning Centers Felicitas and Gonzalo Mendez High School is a public high school in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States. It is also known as Felicitas and Gonzalo Mendez Learning Center. History The school is named after F ...

all opened in 2009. Belmont underwent a major modernization beginning around 2005. 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 (for example, the addition of wheelchair ramps). From the 2010 school year, it became a 6th through 12th grade school, with

Sal Castro Salvador B. Castro (October 25, 1933 – April 15, 2013) was a Mexican-American educator and activist. He was most well known for his role in the 1968 East Los Angeles high school walkouts, a series of protests against unequal conditions in ...

Middle School being located on the campus. The Belmont football stadium was named for Dentler Erdmann, its long-time faculty member. In 2011 the school was restructured, with most teachers having to reapply for their jobs. The new academic program involves learning English, Spanish, and Mandarin.Song, Jason.
Struggling Belmont High to be restructured
" ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

''. January 27, 2011. Retrieved on March 29, 2014.

Belmont High School Small Learning Communities

Belmont High School hosts three Small Learning Communities (SLC's; also called academies) which specialize in a career pathway: * LAAMPS (Los Angeles Academy of Medical and Public Service), with courses in first responders and medical terminology * SAGE (Science, Art and Green Engineering), with courses in automotive technology, drafting, and computer assisted design * Belmont Multimedia Academy, with courses in filmmaking, cartooning & animation, digital photography, digital imaging, and web page design

All Rankings

US News 2021 Rankings *100 in

High Schools *379 in

Los Angeles metropolitan area Greater Los Angeles is the most populous metropolitan area in the U.S. state of California, encompassing five counties in Southern California extending from Ventura County in the west to San Bernardino County and Riverside County in the east, ...

High Schools *1,122 in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

High Schools *9,907 in

National National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, c ...

Rankins US News 2020 Rankings *153 in

High Schools *353 in

High Schools *1048 in

High Schools *8,688 in

Rankins

Demographics

the school had about 1,000 students, 25% of whom were of Central American origin. Some of those students immigrated without their parents. As of December 2013 the school had fewer than 1,000 students. The school was built for a capacity of 2,500 students, and when it opened in 1923 it had about 500 students. Due to an enrollment decline in the 1950s the

considered closing Belmont. By the 1990s the school had its peak enrollment, 5,500 students, making it California's largest high school and one of the largest in the United States. During that period many students were reassigned to and sent on buses to schools in the

San Fernando Valley The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, Los Angeles County, California. Situated to the north of the Los Angeles Basin, it comprises a large portion of Los Angeles, the Municipal corpo ...

because there were too many students in Belmont. In the 1997–1998 school year the school had 5,160 students. At the time, the school's dropout rate was 65% and in terms of its four-year graduation rate it ranked lower than 96% of Los Angeles County high schools. 72% of the enrolled students took free lunches. The enrollment declined in the 2000s due to the opening of

charter schools A charter school is a school that receives government funding but operates independently of the established state school system in which it is located. It is independent in the sense that it operates according to the basic principle of autono ...

and LAUSD opening schools to relieve capacity. In 2001 the LAUSD began a building campaign to relieve the capacity of the school. Due to overcrowding, Belmont had a year-round schedule for 26 years, until the 2008 opening of the

Edward R. Roybal Learning Center Edward R. Roybal Learning Center (formerly known as Belmont Learning Center, Vista Hermosa Learning Center, and Central Los Angeles High School 11) is a secondary school located in the Westlake, Los Angeles, Westlake area of Los Angeles, Californi ...

. After the opening Belmont resumed having a traditional two-year school schedule.

Academic performance

In 2011 the school had an

Academic Performance Index The Academic Performance Index (API) was a measurement of academic performance and progress of individual schools in California, United States. The API was one of the main components of the Public Schools Accountability Act passed by the California ...

(API) of 639, an improvement of almost 100 points in a two-year period. Jason Song of the ''

'' wrote that the score was "still poor". In 2013 its API was 668, an increase of over 175 points from the 2002 figure. The State of California API goal is 800.

Notable faculty

(1933-2013), activist (faculty)

Notable alumni

Susan Ahn Cuddy Susan Ahn Cuddy (, Hanja: ; January 16, 1915 – June 24, 2015) was the first female gunnery officer in the United States Navy. She was the eldest daughter of Korean independence activist Ahn Chang-ho and Helen Ahn, the first married Korean coup ...

(1915–2015) U.S. Navy, First Asian-American Female Navy Officer, First Female gunnery officer, WWII * Veronica Porché Ali, (1955–present), actress, model * Patrick Arguello (1943–1970), US-Nicaraguan national killed in the attempted hijack of an

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flight Flight or flying is the motion (physics), motion of an Physical object, object through an atmosphere, or through the vacuum of Outer space, space, without contacting any planetary surface. This can be achieved by generating aerodynamic lift ass ...

, as carried out by the

PFLP The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP; ) is a secular Palestinian Marxist–Leninist organization founded in 1967 by George Habash. It has consistently been the second-largest of the groups forming the Palestine Liberation ...

. *

John Beradino John Beradino (born Giovanni Berardino, May 1, 1917 – May 19, 1996) was an American Major League Baseball infielder and actor. Known as Johnny Berardino during his baseball career, he was also credited during his acting career as John Berardino ...

(1917–1996) (born Giovanni Berardino), actor, major league baseball playerBelmont Alumni
/ref> *

Ron Botchan Ronald Leslie Botchan (February 15, 1935 – January 28, 2021) was an American football player, coach, and official. He played professionally as a linebacker in the American Football League (AFL) from 1960 to 1962. As an official, Botchan worked ...

, NFL official *

Irwin Corey Irwin Corey (July 29, 1914 – February 6, 2017) was an American stand-up comic, film actor and activist, often billed as "The World's Foremost Authority". He introduced his unscripted, improvisational style of stand-up comedy at the San Franci ...

(1914–2017), American comic, film & television actor, and activist *

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(1920–2000), Congressman, Los Angeles City Councilman *

Richard Crenna Richard Donald Crenna (November 30, 1926 – January 17, 2003) was an American actor and television director. Crenna starred in such motion pictures as '' Made in Paris'' (1966), '' Marooned'' (1969), '' Breakheart Pass'' (1975), '' The Evil'' ...

(1926–2003), actorRamos, Lydia. "." ''

''. May 2, 1991. Nuestro Tiempo, Metro Desk. Page 4. *

Brad Dexter Brad Dexter (born Boris Michel Soso; April 9, 1917 – December 12, 2002) was an American actor and film producer. He is known for tough-guy and western roles, including the 1960 film '' The Magnificent Seven'' (1960), and producing several fi ...

(1917-2002), actor and film producer * Thelma "Tiby" Eisen (1922-2014), baseball player *

Craig Ellwood Craig Ellwood (born Jon Nelson Burke; April 22, 1922 – May 30, 1992) was an American architect whose career spanned the early 1950s through the mid-1970s in Los Angeles. Although untrained as an architect, he fashioned an influential person ...

(1922–1992), architect *

Abel Fernandez Abel Gonzalez Fernandez (July 14, 1930 – May 3, 2016) was an American actor who played in movies from 1953 to 2002. He was best known for his role as Federal Agent William "Bill" Youngfellow on the 1959–1963 ABC Television series ''The Unto ...

(1930–2016), actor with

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on ''

The Untouchables Untouchable or Untouchables may refer to: People * Untouchability, the practice of socially ostracizing a minority group of very low social status * Untouchables, word for the Dalits or Scheduled Castes of India * Untouchables (law enforcement), ...

'' * Mike Frankovich (1909–1992), film producerThe Baseball Cube Belmont alumni
* Doknow (2014–2018), comedianDoKnowsWorld
* Robert Foley.

Medal of Honor The Medal of Honor (MOH) is the United States Armed Forces' highest Awards and decorations of the United States Armed Forces, military decoration and is awarded to recognize American United States Army, soldiers, United States Navy, sailors, Un ...

recipient, retired as U.S. Army

Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the battlefield, who was norma ...

* Murray Fromson,

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correspondent and

USC USC may refer to: Education United States * Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, Santurce, Puerto Rico * University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina ** University of South Carolina System, a state university system of South Carolina * ...

professor * Luis (Lou) Gomez, MLB player *Jacinto Guevara, artist, musician * Odetta Holmes (1930–2008), folk singer, activist *

David A. Karnofsky David Aryah Karnofsky (March 28, 1914 – August 31, 1969) was an American clinical oncologist. In 1940, while he was a resident at the Colis P. Huntington Memorial Laboratory for Cancer Research of Harvard University, David A. Karnofsky began cl ...

(1914–1969) physician, medical oncologist, known for the

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* Young-Oak Kim (1919–2005), highly decorated combat veteran; 1937 graduate *

Willa Kim Wullah Mei Ok Kim (Korean:; Hanja:; June 30, 1917 – December 23, 2016), known as Willa Kim, was an American costume designer for stage, dance, and film. Life and career Kim was born near Santa Ana, California in 1917 and graduated Belmont Hig ...

(1917–2016), 2007 Theatre Hall of Fame inductee, two time Tony and Emmy Award-winning costume designer and 1935 graduate of Belmont; the older sister of Young-Oak Kim. *

Ralph Lazo Ralph Lazo (November 3, 1924 – January 1, 1992) was the only known non-spouse, non-Japanese American who voluntarily relocated to a Japanese American internment camp during World War II. His experience was the subject of the 2004 narrative shor ...

(1924–1992), civil rights activist *Richard Lee-Sung - actor, Purple Heart recipient, Korean War * Glenard P. Lipscomb (1915–1970), Congressman * Robert Lyles, NFL player *

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(1927–2011), computer scientist, coined the term artificial intelligence, invented LISP family of programming languages, won the ACM Turing award in 1971 *

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, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge *

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(1920–2009), actor *

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(1915–2001), actor *

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, humorist *

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, (1931–1981), dancer and actress * William Sidell (1915–1994), labor leader * Jack Smith (1916–1996), columnist, journalist *

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, songwriter * Robert Mitsuhiro Takasugi, United States district judge * Coy Watson Jr. (1912–2009), child actor,

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, the Watson Family *

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(1926–2008), actor, photo-journalist,

, the Watson FamilyAndres, Holly J.
Famed news photographer Delmar Watson dies
." '' Daily News''. October 28, 2008. * Harry R. Watson (1921–2001), actor, photo-journalist,

, the Watson FamilyPool, 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
." ''

'', April 23, 1999. Metro Part B Metro Desk Page 1 *

Jack Webb John Randolph Webb (April 2, 1920 – December 23, 1982) was an American actor, television producer, Television director, director, and screenwriter, most famous for his role as Joe Friday in the Dragnet (franchise), ''Dragnet'' franchise ...

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References

External links

Belmont High School
{{authority control Los Angeles Unified School District schools Public high schools in Los Angeles Educational institutions established in 1923 Westlake, Los Angeles 1923 establishments in California Stanton & Stockwell buildings Beaux-Arts architecture in California