A groundbreaking agreement under which the Los Angeles airport agency would spend up to $500 million to ease the effects of LAX modernization on surrounding communities will go to the city's Board of Airport Commissioners for approval Monday.

The Community Benefits Agreement calls for the agency to provide money for noise mitigation, economic development, health studies and pollution reduction, and to limit the effects of construction on nearby neighborhoods. It has been negotiated since March by representatives from the airport and the LAX Coalition for Economic, Environmental and Education Justice.

Airport and coalition officials wanted to present a finalized agreement to the Los Angeles City Council before its scheduled vote Tuesday on a compromise version of Mayor James Hahn's $11 billion-plus LAX modernization plan.

Reports on the agreement show that almost half of the money -- $229.5 million -- would go to the Lennox and Inglewood school districts to build new, more sound-resistant classrooms and relocate Inglewood's Oak Street Elementary School, which is under the LAX arrival path. Other airport commitments would include electrifying LAX boarding gates so planes won't run their engines while they load and unload, giving hiring preferences to local residents for airport jobs and providing $15 million for job training.

Maria Verduzco Smith, chairwoman of the Lennox Coordinating Council, said the most important aspects of the agreement to her mostly Latino community due east of the airport are a 25 percent increase in soundproofing money and environmental programs, including a health study to measure respiratory and hearing problems resulting from increased LAX operations. The modernization plan would allow the airport to serve up to 79 million annual passengers, compared with 61 million this year.

"That means a lot because a lot of kids around here have asthma," said Verduzco Smith, a coalition member who has lived on Grevillea Avenue right under the LAX arrival path since 1977. "(Emission reduction projects) are not going to just impact this little neighborhood, it's going to help the whole area around here."

The benefits agreement is groundbreaking in several respects, according to people involved in the negotiations.

It is the first of its kind linked to a public works project. The community coalition includes two groups that rarely find themselves on the same side: labor and environmental. And the negotiations, though at times tough, were conducted in a spirit of cooperation.

"We're going to get way more than we could have gotten if we sued," said Madeline Janis-Aparicio, executive director of the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy and a founder of the LAX coalition.

The agreement will help show City Council members that the airport agency is serious about addressing community concerns, said Jim Ritchie, the deputy executive director who oversaw development of the LAX modernization plan and was its chief negotiator with the coalition.

Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski, who engineered the compromise plan, said she hopes it will demonstrate the same thing to other groups that have concerns, including the city of El Segundo and Los Angeles County.

"It says you have more chance of getting things done with your head inside the tent than standing outside throwing stones," said Miscikowski, whose district includes LAX.

El Segundo is negotiating its own agreement with the airport, but the county has indicated it will sue next week to block the LAX modernization plan.

The agreement must pass muster with the Federal Aviation Administration because it would be funded with airport revenues and ticket taxes. Earlier this week, coalition members flew to Washington, D.C., to brief top-ranking FAA officials, including Administrator Marian Blakey.

FAA officials reacted positively to the agreement and said it could serve as a national model for major airport projects, said Elizabeth Kaltmann, a spokeswoman for Mayor Hahn.

"What impressed the FAA was the coalition's attitude," Ritchie said. "They came across and we came across in a dialogue that reflected teamwork. It couldn't have gone better."

FAA spokesman Donn Walker said the agency is reviewing the agreement and has not yet taken a position on it.

The airline industry has expressed skepticism over the amount of aviation revenue that the agreement would transfer to off-airport projects.

The concept of Community Benefits Agreements was pioneered by the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy in 1998. Such agreements have been reached in recent years on several privately funded developments in Los Angeles and other U.S. cities.

The theory behind the pending agreement with LAX is that communities that are most affected by the airport's current and future operations should get benefits.

Hahn, who appoints airport commission members, was enthusiastic about the agreement when it was pitched to him by the coalition of clergy, residents, environmental, labor and community groups and school officials, Janis-Aparicio said. The mayor at times got directly involved in the weekly meetings, which participants said lasted from three to 10 hours.

"He's thrilled that this group worked together in a collaborative way with such trust and patience," said Kaltmann, Hahn's spokeswoman.