For an update, I'm not sure I actually fixed this problem, but when I put the entire model together I did achieve the desired result which is to calculate values on selected rows, take the data from all rows and put it into a python script as a text file, output another text file from the script, make a dbf and then join the values back to this copied shapefile and kick out a new shapefile with all the data together.
I think something is still going wrong though because this only works in the desktop enviornment, once I publish it as a geoprocessing service everything says it works however when I look at the final shapefile nothing was ever calculated. Even when I remove the part where the model just selects one row and let it calculate on every row ntothing shows up as calculated in the final shapefile.