North Little Rock School Board member Natalie Wankum filed a harassment report Friday against former School Board President Tracy Steele, accusing the mayoral candidate of making threatening remarks after the board meeting, according to a police report.
The North Little Rock School Board voted 4-3 after an executive session Thursday night to immediately terminate the contract of Superintendent Bobby Acklin, who had served since October 2018 as the school district's superintendent.
Members went into a lengthy executive session before returning and voting publicly to terminate the contract.
Board members Sandi Campbell, Lizbeth Huggins, Cindy Temple and Wankum voted in favor of the termination. Steele, Rochelle Redus and Dorothy Williams voted against it.
Wankum told police that Steele called her a "vicious white b****" and a "racist" and said "this is not over yet" and "you will pay for this."
She said Acklin and all the board members were present when the incident occurred.
Wankum told police she wanted to a record of the incident in the event anything happens to her or her family.
Attempts by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette to contact Wankum by email, phone and text messaging were unsuccessful Tuesday night. The Arkansas Times reported that Wankum said in an email to the Times that Steele had "completely lost control" and had left her physically shaken and that Steele was "p*" because the board had fired his "puppet."
Acklin's termination has been a heated topic since the board voted to end his contract.
He told the Democrat-Gazette the actions taken against him Thursday night were paramount to a "lynching."
Wankum requested Thursday that the board go into executive session to discuss an email and audio clip that board members had received.
The email and audio file referred to a grievance hearing from 2019, which Acklin had described to North Little Rock High School's Principal Scott Jennings as a political move by Steele to garner votes in the mayoral election.
Steele announced in November that he planned to run for the office.
Steele denied in an interview Friday night that the decision to hear the grievance was politically motivated. He said the decision to proceed with the grievance hearing was unpopular among many in the district.
Steele told the Democrat-Gazette Tuesday night that he denied the allegations in the police report filed by Wankum, and said he also had filed a harassment complaint against her Tuesday.
"Mrs. Wankum has a history of fabrications and untruths," Steele said. "I have never used those words before in my life. I filed a harassment complaint against Wankum for making false allegations."
The former school board president said he learned about the police report filed against him Tuesday morning when someone mentioned it was on social media.
"I wasn't shocked. I wouldn't put anything past her," Steele said. "But North Little Rock is a great city, and North Little Rock knows me."
Acklin called the Democrat-Gazette on Tuesday night and denied the claims made by Wankum in the police report.
"It's a sad state of affairs right now, and it's getting worse," he said. "It was a heated session because we felt double crossed and it was down racial lines, but nobody said any of those types of words."
Correction: Tracy Steele is a former president of the North Little Rock School Board. An earlier version of this story incorrectly described his status.