Appellants filed for open enrollment in March 1998 because of the closing of an elementary attendance center which is located within the District, following a fire. The District denied all the applications for being filed late without statutory good cause. The Woltmans' application for Christopher was denied on March 16, 1998; the Riggs' applications were filed on March 30, 1998, for their three children to attend Cherokee and the applications were denied on April 20, 1998.

The evidence showed that the Quimby attendance center was closed following a fire that had occurred over Christmas break. The fire marshall's report stated the wiring was unsafe and presented "an imminent hazard to the students of the school." After meeting with the Fire Marshall's office, and learning of the cost to repair the Quimby building,the District decided to permanently close the building. The Board also felt it was in the best interest of the District to close the building, because the District had four buildings and only 650 students and did not have the staff nor the funds to keep all four buildings operating.

The District has an open enrollment policy that requires parents to file open enrollment applications by January 1, which was adopted on December 17, 1996. The District publishes notice of the open enrollment deadlines in the school newsletter and local newspapers within the District. This case falls squarely within 281 IAC 17.4(3) that provides that closure of a public school, redesignation of attendance centers within the district, and reassignment of students to those attendance centers, is not good cause.

Appellants argue that the District's true motivation in denying their applications is financial. They believe their children's education and needs are being overlooked by the District. While there is obviously a financial benefit to the District if the Appellants' children stay, the evidence at the hearing showed that the District followed the procedures set out in its open enrollment policy, and those procedures conform to state law.

We saw no error in the decisions of the Board to deny Appellants' open enrollment applications. Therefore, there were no grounds to justify reversing the Board's decisions.

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