Selma community members eager to share their thoughts in regards to the issues within the Selma City School System will have to wait for a later date to be heard.

State Superintendent of Education Dr. Tommy Bice has postponed his visit to Selma to hear community members unsatisfied with the Selma City School Board’s handling of the response to a state-led investigation and the implementation of a corrective action plan.

According to Bice’s office Tuesday, his schedule will not allow him to fulfill his original plans to visit Selma High School Thursday evening and he has not rescheduled the event but has plans to do so.

“He was asked initially to be there this week,” State Department of Education spokesperson Michael Sibley said. “He thought he was going to be able to, but other things have come up … all that’s going on here and he can’t make it.”

Dallas County Democratic Conference chairman James Perkins, who received an email from Bice about the matter Tuesday, said he was very disappointed to learn Bice would not make the meeting.

“All I know is right now is that people really had hope that they would be heard and that they could get some answers,” Perkins said.

Perkins stressed how important it is to the public Bice is willing to share his time and attention with a group of people who are quickly losing faith in local school leadership.

“People have lost hope, really,” Perkins said. “Just the idea that they were going to be heard and that the state superintendent had really had placed high value on their children really made a difference.”

The Times-Journal learned late Tuesday evening that the organizations and groups wanting to meet with Bice Thursday at Selma High School’s auditorium, still plan to go ahead with their plans to meet.