Richard Taylor is the father of Louis Taylor ["Louis"], a nonminority student who will be a junior during the 2001-2002 school year. The Taylor family resides within the East High School attendance area of the Waterloo Community School District. Louis moved to his father's home in Waterloo at the beginning of August 2001. Louis had attended grades kindergarten through tenth in the Oelwein School District, where he lived with his mother. He moved in with his father in Waterloo because he was not getting along with his stepfather and sister in Oelwein.At the time of the appeal hearing, Louis was not attending school because he refused to go to East High School in Waterloo. Mr. Taylor filed the open enrollment application on August 14, 2001, for Louis to attend school in the Cedar Falls District because his cousin attends school there and he knows some other students there. Mr. Taylor testified that if Louis were to attend East High School in Waterloo, Louis would "have problems with minority groups because he's not used to them."

The District denied Mr. Taylor's request for open enrollment at its Board meeting on September 10, 2001. The District reasoned that Louis' departure from East High School would have an adverse effect on its desegregation plan. Louis is a nonminority student who would not be allowed to exit East High School under the building-specific part of the District's desegregation plan.

Ms. Miller testified that the District has Expo Alternative High School in Waterloo, which might have space for Louis. Admission to Expo Alternative High School is not subject to the District's desegregation policy. Mr. Taylor stated that he would be willing to explore that opportunity with Louis and with the Expo prinicipal as soon as possible in order to get Louis back in school. Board Policy 501.12 and Regulation 501.12-R2 are, for all relevant purposes, the same policy and regulation reviewed by the Department of Education in its decision In re Megan, Mindy, & Drew Engel, 11 D.o.E. App. Dec. 262(1994) and upheld by Judge Briner in the Iowa District Court for Black Hawk County in Waterloo Community School District v. Iowa Department of Education, Case No. LACV075042, decided on August 8, 1996.

That the decision of the Board of Directors of the Waterloo Community School District made on September 10, 2001, denying the open enrollment application for Louis Taylor,was affirmed.