The Selma City School System’s pursuit for the $1 million it should have received from a county half-cent sales tax will have to wait.

The Selma City School System has been receiving additional monthly revenue, between $65,000 to $70,000, from the county half-cent sales tax revenue. The tax was created through a resolution the Dallas County Commission created in December 2012 that originally excluded the city system from receiving any of the tax revenue, a distribution that was later found to be illegal.

Although the commission amended the resolution in June to include the Selma City School System, the school system expects to receive its $1 million share of the $2 million of revenue the tax generated the two years before the resolution was corrected.

The day before superintendents and board attorneys from both local school systems agreed to meet to discuss the issue, acting Selma Superintendent of Education Larry DiChiara received a phone call from Alabama State Superintendent of Education Dr. Tommy Bice’s office that stopped the meeting.

The state said Bice, who had learned about the meeting, requested the group not meet until his legal team had a chance to learn the legalities tied to the Dallas County School System paying the $1 million.

DiChiara said Bice did not give any details about any specific legal concerns he had.

“I trust the judgment of the state superintendent,” DiChiara said. “I’d rather us take our time and do our due diligence and get it right, than to rush into something and then found out that there is some legal issue.”

The meeting was scheduled after Selma City School Board Attorney Katy Campbell submitted a “nice, but firm” letter in July to the Dallas County School Board attorney, requesting a discussion about the county school system paying the city school system the $1 million.

“It’s important for all school systems to have adequate resources for their students, teachers and employees,” DiChiara said. “Any money that comes into our school district is going to be used in a wise way. If this money that’s due us is coming in, we will put it to good use.”

Dallas County Superintendent of Education Don Willingham said his board is more concerned about the financial issues they are facing than paying the city school board the $1 million.

Thursday, the county school board passed its 2015 fiscal year budget with an expected reserve of $643, 529.98, well under the state-required, one-month reserve of approximately $2.2 million.

“We have our own issues dealing with passing a budget with less revenue than we anticipated,” Willingham said.

DiChiara said his system is prepared to set up a payment plan that will not harm the county system.

“If it comes down to where they have to pay this money back, we would never do anything that is going to put their school district in a bind, or hurt their children,” DiChiara said. “If we had to make some kind of payment plan based off of the revenue that is going to be coming in in the future, we would be willing to do that.”

The Dallas County Commission created the half-cent sales tax in December 2012 to solely benefit the Dallas County School System, which was struggling financially.

Auditors later told the commission that both the county and city school systems were legally obligated to benefit from the tax, since the tax is applied across Dallas County.

The Times-Journal was unsuccessful in reaching Dr. Bice or members of the state’s legal team Tuesday.