NAACP and residents press PCSSD on College Station, Harris facilities and agenda transparency

Marie Hollowell, president of the Little Rock NAACP branch, and other community members accused the Pulaski County Special School District board April 8 of neglecting repairs at College Station and Harris elementary schools and of poor transparency in how the board added an unlisted award to a previous meeting agenda.

Hollowell said she toured College Station and saw storm damage and leaking rooms that left eight classrooms compressed into three spaces. She said the campus primarily serves students of color and asked the board to place College Station and Harris at the top of facilities work lists rather than treat those repairs as lower priority.

“Students should always come before amenities,” Hollowell told trustees, adding that she was told insurance payments were pending but questioned why the problems had gone unattended for years. She also referenced bond materials that showed other campuses receiving new athletic facilities and asked whether the bond literature misled voters about priorities.

Separately, community member Courtney Stone Jackson raised procedural concerns about a previous meeting in which an award and a legislator’s public comment were not on the posted agenda. Jackson warned that adding “late agenda items” without public notice undermines transparency and risks violating board policy; she asked whether the board would allow late items in future meetings.

Several speakers connected the procedural complaint to a broader concern: members of the public and advocacy groups have called on the board to respond to derogatory comments made on social media by a board member. Hollowell said the district had not yet addressed the comment publicly. The board took no formal action on discipline or a public apology at the April 8 meeting.

Provenance: Hollowell’s remarks begin at about 3919.71; procedural comments by Courtney Stone Jackson are at about 4556.745.