Try as he might, Santa could not squeeze the $3.1 million athletic facility designed for Fayette County School District's South Complex into his crowded funding sack this year.

Angry and disappointed parents and students from Starr's Mill High School, Rising Starr Middle School and Peeples Elementary School, the three schools in the complex, left Monday night's Fayette County Board of Education meeting in defeat after the board voted three to two against the project.

"You should be ashamed of yourselves," Steve Tofanelli of Peachtree City told the board. "If it wasn't for parents laying sod, we wouldn't have had a practice field," he said. "These kids are in the prime of their careers; it's just not fair."

Citing funding as the main reason for rejecting the athletic fields, bleachers, training and locker rooms for the schools, board members Debbie Condon, Dr. Bob Todd and Connie Hale voted against the proposal with board chairman Woody Shelnutt and Darryl Chaney voting affirmatively. Todd and Chaney are leaving the board after this month.

Hale explained that the $3 million facilities were better, not comparable to existing athletic facilities in the county's other schools. "We have schools scrounging for tables for computers that they are scraping the gum off the bottom of," she said. "You have everything out there," she said, referring to the three schools. "If SPLOST passed, you would have your stadium. I cannot see $3 million."

Condon asked to look at alternative ways of funding the project. "To be able to say I'm committed to $3 million, I'm not ready to do it."

Emotions ran high among parents and students who openly jeered the board's decision.

Carol Jensen Linton, an active parent and participant in Starr's Mill's athletic and band booster organizations said, "I urge you to complete the facilities as soon as possible; we've been patient and supportive of the delays of time to complete our facilities. We've been two years without adequate (athletic) facilities. Right now you have voted it down and jeopardized children's futures. I urge you to adopt a plan for the next school year."

Since the school opened last year, student athletes have shared facilities with other county schools and used the bus loop and nearby hills for running training drills, according to parents.

"These kids deserve to know what a home game is," said Cary Rogers, who has children at Rising Starr and Starr's Mill.

School Superintendent Dave Brotherton proposed a funding package that would finance the athletic facilities and the expansion of North Fayette Elementary School and Flat Rock Middle School. The state already has approved funding for the two schools' expansion, with a required local share of $1.9 million. Brotherton suggested adding the athletic facilities by lumping all three projects into one and paying for it with a $5 million locally generated Certificate of Participation.

The board declined the consolidated approach. Instead, the board approved the necessary funds for two school expansions which will be matched by state funds totaling $1.4 million. Completion is forecast for the opening of the 1999 school year. However, the board also requested Brotherton to look into other funding options with COPS to be considered an "instrument of last resort."

The board also gave Brotherton the go-ahead to look into refinancing of their current bonds, which ultimately could save $155,000 in debt service annually.

In other business, the board listened to a request from Steve Powell who drew their attention to the need for cart path access to the south complex with an eye to adding future spurs and bike parking areas. He also asked for a traffic turnout lane to Redwine Road at Panther Pass, a lane shift at the three-lane Panther Pass during peak arrival and departure times and county sheriff's deputies' assistance at high traffic times at Redwine Road and Panther Pass.

The request for a traffic light at Redwine Road and Ga. Highway 74 is already under review by the Department of Transportation, according to Shelnutt, and should be accomplished in the near future.

The board also heard from former county teacher Carol Westbrook, who asked for clarification of the transfer policy for teachers. Westbrook, a 22-year veteran teacher who was employed at Tyrone Elementary School, sought a transfer to Peeples Elementary.

"I feel the way I was treated was very disappointing and I would like some changes to be made," she told the board. Westbrook is now employed as a teacher in Clayton County. She said she will ask for time to address the board again in January regarding alleged ethics violations at Tyrone Elementary.