The Alden Board of Directors formally voted in a public hearing to explore a whole grade sharing agreement with the Iowa Falls District commencing in the 2004-05 school year. Three public meetings were held on this issue in December 2003. On January 26, 2004, the Alden Board voted to sign the agreement whereby Alden students in grades 7-12 would attend Iowa Falls and Iowa Falls' sixth graders would attend Alden.

A board member stated that the affected students had a period of 45 days after the signing of the agreement to open enroll elsewhere. The Iowa Falls superintendent likewise told his board and public the same information. These were misstatements of the law. The Appellants filed their requests on January 26, 2004. On February 9, the Board denied their requests.

Appelllants stated they relied on the statemens believing that they had 45 days AFTER the agreement was signed to present their transfer requests. No one disputes that these erroneous statements were made. When the District was notified by the Department of the error, it did not pass along the correct information and chose to penalize parents for their reliance.

All of transfer requests were remanded back to the Alden Board to allow it to consider the merits of each of the transfer requests.

That the decision of the Board of Directors of the Alden Community School District was reversed and remanded to the Board for further proceedings consistent with this decision.