This appeal arises under the provisions of Iowa Code section 282.11(1999). Under the provisions of the statute governing whole grade sharing agreements, the Board of Wellsburg-Steamboat Rock entered into an agreement with the Ackley-Geneva Community School District effective with the beginning of the 1999-2000 school year and ending on June 30, 2002. After the Board approved the agreement on January 25, 1999, these Appellants timely-filed requests with the Board that their children be sent to another contiguous school district, rather than to Ackley-Geneva. The parents have this "right" to be "excluded" or to "opt-out" of the whole grade sharing agreement if they meet two statutory grounds: that the agreement will not meet their students' educational program needs and that adequate consideration was not given to geographical factors when the District Board entered into the agreement.

Each of the parents presented evidence on the statutory grounds at the appeal hearing. The District testified about the comparability of the courses offered by the contiguous districts sought by the parents and the courses offered by Ackley-Geneva. The hearing panel and the administrative law judge found that the core curriculum offered by the Ackley-Geneva, Grundy Center, and Eldora-New Providence school districts were basically the same. Therefore, the educational needs cited by the Appellants could be met by Ackley-Geneva. The geographical factors cited by the parents concerned the safety of the roads over which their students would be driving during the winter months. Evidence of Appellants' hardship on the basis of geographical factors was found to be unconvincing since the parents have chosen to allow their children to drive to school, rather than to take the school bus provided by the District.

Appellants did not successfully prove that they met the statutory grounds to "opt-out" of the whole grade sharing agreement entered into between Wellsburg-Steamboat Rock and Ackley-Geneva. However, all parents have successfully open enrolled their students to the districts of their choice beginning with the 1999-2000 school year.

That the decision of the Board of Directors of the Wellsburg-Steamboat Rock Community School District, made on January 25, 1999, that denied Appellants' requests that the Board send their children to other contiguous school districts at the expense of the District, be affirmed.