This paper traces the history of a magnet school which opened in 1975 amid claims that it would serve as a model of high quality integrated education but which, three years later, was widely perceived as an overcrowded, predominantly black institution. The local Board of Education decided to open a magnet school in which new teaching techniques were to be instituted along with facilities geared to attract students from both black and white areas. By opening a new school with an equal number of black and white students, the problem of one group entering the traditional area of another group was avoided. The first and second years of the school were relatively successful, but the institution of a feeder system in the school's second year, in place of the open enrollment plan, diminished the school's effectiveness in drawing students from diverse areas. The most serious effect on the school's academic programs came from the crowding which resulted from the feeder plan. The feeder plan also functioned to make the incoming classes predominantly black, thereby reducing the school's ability to function as a model of integration. (Author/RLV)