Opinion ID: 1826878
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: brunersappeal # 17983

Text: As of November 1990, Bruners had four children: Heather, age 15; Matt, age 14; Heidi, age 11 and Kate, age 9. The two older children were attending school at Howard and the two younger children were attending school at Oldham. Bruners began attending church in Howard in 1988 but previously attended church in Oldham. Bruners do business in Howard and Madison but have a personal bank account and some auto insurance in Oldham. Bruners also do some business at the Ramona elevator. The Bruner residence is 18 miles from Howard, 9 miles from Ramona and 8 miles from Oldham. Both the Howard bus and the Oldham-Ramona bus pick up the children and, therefore, travel is not a problem for Bruners. The board denied Bruners' petition on the following basis: [T]he Oldham-Ramona School District hereby denies the petition from E. John and Eileen Bruner for minor boundary change. Reasons being there is no educational hardship. There is no mileage hardship. It would result in a loss of county revenue, state aid, and incentive money. It is the responsibility of the Board of Education to uphold the decision of the majority of the voters. Bus service will be provided. It is the responsibility of the Board of Education to educate the students of the district and to maintain the assets of the district, assets being the land, students, and state aid. There were recent ties to the Oldham community. Here, as with Usts' petition, the board took economic factors as well as educational and mileage factors into consideration in rendering its decision. Mileage is clearly not a hardship as bus service is readily available and Bruners live closer to the Oldham-Ramona District than the Howard District. Bruners also continue to maintain some economic contacts within the Oldham-Ramona area. In seeking the boundary change, however, Bruners also raised the issue of the special needs of their son Matt. Matt, who currently attends school in Howard, once attended school in Oldham. During that time, Matt experienced severe learning difficulties and Matt's need for special education was repeatedly tested. Since transferring to Howard, however, it has been learned that Matt does not have a learning disability but that he had no peer groups in Oldham, that he was repeatedly picked on and that he had a great deal of difficulty with the problem. Matt has adapted quite well in Howard, his grades are all A's and B's and no further learning disabilities have been noted. Bruners testified before the State Superintendent that they presented Matt's problems to the board as part of the basis for seeking a boundary change. Indeed, one of the factors to be considered in ruling on a boundary change is whether the petitioner's child has special needs best met in the district petitioner's are attempting to join. Shumaker, supra . Yet, the board's decision on Bruners' petition fails to reflect any consideration whatsoever of this important factor. This calls into question its finding that there is no educational hardship in denial of the boundary change. The board's decision also fails to reflect any balancing of Matt's individual interests against the school district's economic interests. In short, Matt's individual interests were lost in the shuffle as the board addressed eight minor boundary change petitions simultaneously. Given the board's failure to address Matt's special needs, we hold that the board's disapproval of Bruners' petition was arbitrary and capricious and, therefore, constituted an abuse of discretion.