The St. Helena Unified School District has filed suit against the Napa County Office of Education and other county officials over the allocation of tax revenue from the Howell Mountain and Pope Valley school districts.

In its Napa County Superior Court lawsuit, the St. Helena district claims that while residents of the K-8 Howell Mountain and Pope Valley school districts pay a high school tuition tax that’s meant to pay for high school education, the money goes to the Napa County Office of Education instead of St. Helena High School.

The suit also requests a change of venue to a neutral county such as Solano because the case involves multiple public agencies within Napa County — and because of the publicity the dispute has generated so far.

“This matter has been highly publicized and Napa County Office of Education Superintendent Barbara Nemko has submitted numerous letters to the local press seeking to litigate the issues in the community rather than in the courtroom,” the suit states. “These extraordinary tactics emphasize the need for transfer out of the county to ensure the issues are heard and considered not only by a neutral judge but also in a neutral environment free of local political pressures.”

Officials on both sides of the dispute have submitted letters to the St. Helena Star and the Napa Valley Register dealing with the controversy. The most recent was a commentary submitted to the Napa Valley Register by St. Helena Superintendent Allan Gordon, which was published on Wednesday.

On Tuesday Nemko said she couldn’t comment because she hadn’t been served with any papers and hadn’t read the suit.

A hearing on the motion for a change of venue is scheduled for May 27. A case management conference is tentatively set for Sept. 29.

Nemko has said state tax law requires the fund go to her agency, and that the county office of education runs several programs that benefit Upvalley students. She has also said that since St. Helena is one of the richest districts in the state, it’s hardly in a position to ask for more money.

Gordon offers a different interpretation of state law and responded to Nemko’s charge in his letter to the Register.

“Whatever Dr. Nemko may view as inequities, however, the office of education does not have the authority to unilaterally redirect taxpayer funds from their intended purpose,” he wrote. “Nor may the office of education compel the restructuring of school districts to avoid proper allocation of funds.”

The suit asks the court to force the county to reallocate the disputed money in future years and require the Napa County Office of Education to return money allegedly misallocated in past years, with interest.

The suit doesn’t spell out how much money the school district is seeking, but a previous legal memo from attorneys for the district put the figure at $4.8 million, going back to 1991.

In March, with tax season looming, the county urged the two sides to resolve the dispute through mediation. The St. Helena school district agreed, but Nemko said that since her office has no authority to change the way tax revenues are allocated, mediation would be pointless.

Nemko and members of the Napa County Board of Education have argued that the tax revenues are being distributed legally, and only the courts or the Legislature could change the way tax revenues are allocated.

About 60 to 70 students from Howell Mountain and Pope Valley attend St. Helena High School every year — this year there are 72, which is about 14 percent of the school’s enrollment.

The lawsuit claims that records show that, from at least 1958, the county collected taxes from Howell Mountain and Pope Valley for separate funds called “Howell Mtn High Tuition” and “Pope Valley High Tuition.” That money went to the Napa County Office of Education, which then passed it on to the St. Helena School District to fund the high school education of Howell Mountain and Pope Valley kids.

The suit claims that the tuition labels were dropped in 1983, and even though the tuition taxes were still being collected, the money was allocated to the Napa County Office of Education for its general purposes.

In 2008-2009 the Napa County Office of Education collected about $400,000 from Howell Mountain and Pope Valley that should have been labeled as high school tuition taxes, the suit alleges.

The suit names as defendants the Napa County Office of Education, Nemko, Auditor-Controller Tracy Schulze, Treasurer-Tax Collector Tamie Frasier and the Napa County Board of Supervisors.