The Dallas County School Board of Education (DCBOE) held their first meeting of the year on Thursday night.

The meeting started with the recognition of student teams.

The Martin Middle School Robotics Team along with their advisor, Gaylen Denson, were recognized for their performances in recent robotic competitions.

The Tipton-Durant Middle School Girls’ Basketball Team was recognized for an undefeated season.

Brenda Turner the Chief Financial School Officer (CFSO) delivered reports for November and December 2018.

“In November, the Alabama Tax we collected was $156,121 and for December it was $144,412,” Turner said to the board of education. “You can see that in total we have passed to Selma City 217,252.40 for the year thus far for October, November, and December. Through Dallas County Commission we have collected the month of October for $2,594.72 which Selma City’s portion was $844.55 in motor vehicle tax. For our one-month reserve, we will attend a meeting in February.

“This meeting is for the systems that have not met their one-month reserve,” said Turner. “That is when they will tell us what our one-month reserve is for this year. This past year, it was $2,220,771. Right now, for the month of December, we ended $2,517,355 which is above the one-month reserve $269,584. We are still right there above our one-month reserve. January and February are usually pretty good months for tax, so hopefully, we can boost it up so that way we will have by the end of this year … hopefully, we will make it, but we don’t know that for sure because we have a lot we are fixing to have to do to get some buildings fixed.”

Turner said she felt the new goal would be slightly more.

Dallas County Board of Education member Mark Story commented about the December Alabama tax collected was low.

“That is Christmas season and that shows the indication of Amazon and online shopping,” he said.

Dallas County School System Superintendent Hattie Shelton gave a report about water treatment at Valley Grande.

“We are having some engineers to come look at our wastewater treatment plant at Valley Grande. It should have three motors running right now only one is running, and we are trying to see what it will cost us to get that fixed,” she said. “They have been coming in more often to keep a check on our numbers at that particular plant.”