All of the Appellants reside in Quimby, Iowa. Until January 1998, the District had 4 attendance centers. The elementary buildings were in Washta and Cushing; middle school in Quimby; and high school in Correctionville. After receiving the Fire Marshal's report, the Quimby building was temporarily closed. The students from Quimby were moved to Washta and Washta students were moved to the Cushing building. After receiving a second Fire Marshal's report and learning the cost to repair the Quimby building, the District decided to permanently close it.

All of the Appellants' open enrollment requests were denied due to filing late. Appellants stated that since the District's decision to close the Quimby building was made after the open enrollment deadline of January 1, the deadline should have been extended. Superintendent Pilgrim testified that during his tenure, the Board has never approved any late-filed open enrollment applications.

The parents stated they all had "good cause" due to the changes in the District. The Department of Education rules specifically state that good cause does NOT include a change in attendance centers within a district. State law clearly allows a district to deny open enrollment if the applications are filed after the deadline and the district acts consistently to deny late-filed applications.

There are no grounds to justify reversing the Board's decision to deny Appellants' open enrollment applications.

That the decisions of the Board of Directors of the River Valley Community School District made on March 16 and April 20, 1998, denying Appellants' late-filed applications for open enrollment for their children for the 1998-99 school year were affirmed.