Natrona County School District's online enrollment process ended Thursday, but which incoming kindergarten students will have enrollment preference is still somewhat up in the air.

Chairman Shannon Jackett said Thursday that she hopes the board will have a decision about the issue by the Feb. 11 meeting.

Preference recommendations made by an Interest-Based Agreement Process group did not make the cut at Monday's school board meeting. Under those recommendations, children of staff members would not have enrollment preference.

But Trustee Elizabeth Horsch reminded the board of past decisions to allow certain schools to offer enrollment preference to staff members with children. Horsch referred specifically to a 1991 agreement made with Woods Learning Center.

Jackett said attorney Kathleen Dixon is still researching what actions the board should now take. Jackett also said meeting with her fellow trustees and openly discussing what should be done is an important piece to moving forward.

"There's lots of options," she said. "But we don't know what's viable."

Dixon explained that Wyoming law essentially requires school board actions to have a majority vote. Five of the nine trustees needed to vote in favor of the IBAP recommendations to pass the resolution. Only five members were present at Monday's meeting; three voted for the recommendations and two did not.

At this point, it's unclear how the school board will decide to handle the situation.

"The next steps will be up to the board," Dixon said.

Jackett said both the school board and the district want to do what's best for Natrona County students, but she didn't want to discount the work put into the recommendations.

"The kindergarten IBAP members worked very hard," she said. "We just have some pieces that need to be worked through some more."

Reach education reporter Jasa Santos at (307) 266-0593 or at Jasa.Santos@trib.com.