The fact that this appeal was an issue of first impression could be attributed to a couple of factors. First, the Open Enrollment statute makes it clear that parents must take responsibility for transporting their open-enrolled children to the receiving district. Only when the boards of both the sending and receiving district agree can the receiving district send its buses into the district of residence. Such an agreement was never reached between Mt. Vernon and Springville.

The State Board does not often review a situation involving a "property swap" between school districts because the law under which this type of transaction has been done was not designed to achieve the purposes desired by the Haugs. The statutory language allowing the "property swap" provided little guidance to a district board in the exercise of its discretion in deciding whether to grant or deny a proposed transfer.

Iowa Code section 274.37 merely allows the boundaries of contiguous school districts to be change "by the concurrent action the respective boards of directors. What is clearly implied is that there would be a consensual alternation of the school district boundaries. Unless the boards of the contiguous districts agree to the boundary change, no change will be made.

The school board's determination that this transfer was not in the best interest of the District does not appear to be an unreasonable one. Nor, does this appear to be an unreasonable exercise of the Board's discretion under the provisions of Iowa Code section 274.37.

The decision of the Springville Community School District Board of Directors made on September 18, 1996, which denied the entry of Mt. Vernon's bus to transport Arthur Haug, was affirmed.