Fayette County may get its first charter school if a planning grant submitted Tuesday to the Georgia Department of Education is approved.

Eleanor Taylor, a teacher and pianist speaking on behalf of the J.W. Lyon Educational Non-Profit Foundation Inc., outlined the purpose of the school, which will focus on the performing arts for children in prekindergarten through eighth grade Monday night. She told the Fayette County Board of Education Monday night, "We're asking for your consideration. We cannot implement this without resources. We just want to get the very best teachers we can get."

The foundation has property for building a facility off Ga. Highway 138, according to Taylor. The school will be similar to the Solid Rock Academy, located in Riverdale, and operated by another facet of the Lyon Foundation, she said.

"We have close to 200 students," Taylor reported, among them Evander Holyfield's daughter. If the charter is granted, the school expects to open for the 1999 school year.

Taylor said students would be required to wear uniforms. "The school will be multi-cultural and interdisciplinary," she said. "We will use the QCC (quality core curriculum), the same as used in Fayette County," Taylor added. She emphasized that the foundation was not seeking a charter to be exempted from any laws governing schools, but to simply provide a fine arts program regulated "by the teachers and the people who control the school."

The board also heard from Mark Barber, president of the Starr's Mill High School Athletic Booster Club and booster club member Doug Sebastian.

A history of the club's progress developing the athletic fields at Starr's Mill and Rising Starr schools was outlined by Sebastian. He estimated $30,000 to $40,000 has been saved through the efforts of hundreds of volunteers pitching in to prepare and sod the fields. However, the sidelines are still unfinished. "There is no chance of any games being played home this year," Sebastian said.

"The next challenge is the stadium and club houses," he told the board.

"There is no money in the budget for a stadium," board member Darryl Chaney said. "All athletic facilities (in the county) have developed in the same way. I helped build the Blue Devil stadium," he said, referring to Sandy Creek High School. "Virtually every school can recite the same litany," Chaney added.

"We have kids who are going to be seniors next year with no home," Sebastian said.

"We need a solid plan from you folks. It's been too wishy washy, there have been no answers and people are speculating. I'm just trying to calm the beast," Sebastian told them.

School Superintendent Dave Brotherton replied, "We have a 10-year capital outlay plan. We plan to do this in the next fiscal year budget. The board has a commitment to expand Flat Rock (Middle School) and North Fayette (Elementary). There will be some kind of commitment for athletics, but this is not the time and place to talk about it."

He said preliminary numbers have been forwarded to Jim Stephens, director of finance for the system.

Board member Debbie Condon reminded the audience and board that if the recent SPLOST had passed, the stadium would have been funded.