A suspicious fire gutted the 1925 auditorium of Garfield HIgh School in East L.A. (LAUSD)

Fire broke out in an East Los Angeles high school last week, destroying its 1925 auditorium.

No one was hurt in the May 20 fire at Garfield High, made famous by the 1988 film "Stand and Deliver."

The blaze, which the county fire department calls suspicious, gutted Garfield's ornate auditorium, destroying its roof, seats, and all but one of its eight chandeliers. It caused $30 million in damages to the structure and $10 million to the contents, according to Ed Lozano, county fire department inspector.

Insurance money will cover some of the damages, but the school may have to raise its own money, says Nadia Gonzales, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Unified School District, which owns Garfield. "As you can imagine, it's going to take a long time [to work out the details]," she says.

Yesterday the Los Angeles Unified School District announced a new partnership with a Hollywood talent agency that will generate money to repair eight school auditoriums (perhaps Garfield's). At a press conference yesterday, actor Martin Sheen, former Paramount Pictures chief Sherry Lansing, and the head of Sheen's agency, International Creative Management, said their effort will start with a $500,000 project at the city's Dorsey High School.

The school district has set aside $60 million to start public-private partnerships.

Garfield High math teacher Jaime Escalante taught his inner-city students advanced-placement calculus, winning national attention in 1982 for their high test scores and inspiring the 1998 movie starring Lou Diamond Phillips.

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