Registration is now available for the TUSD inaugural African American Parent Conference. Guest speakers include Dr. Art McCoy, former Superintendent of Ferguson, MO, as well as Dr. Patricia Phipps, Executive Vice President and Chief Program Officer of the California Association for the Education of Young Children.
In 2010, Dr. McCoy became the first African-American school superintendent of the Ferguson-Florissant School District, according to Democracy Now’s article entitled Institutional Racism in Ferguson? First Black School Chief Speaks Out After Forced Resignation.
At the time, Fox News Now reported that after almost three years, McCoy was suspended as a result of questions about 2012 attendance data submitted to the state. The NAACP threatened to file a Title Six complaint against the district because Dr. McCoy was put on leave by a nearly all-Caucasian board, according to KSDK.com.
The TUSD press release did not say what topics would be covered by Dr. McCoy.
In the Salon article White power won’t give in — and that’s why there will be more Fergusons, Paul Rosenberg implies that it was McCoy’s firing that increased tensions in Ferguson before the riots this past year:
Ferguson had, instead, recently seen two highly visible African-American public officials lose their jobs. Two weeks before Brown was shot, Charles Dooley, an African-American who has served as St. Louis County Executive for a decade, lost a bitter primary election to Steve Stenger, a white county councilman, in a race that, whatever the merits of the candidates, was seen as racially divisive. Stenger lobbed allegations of financial mismanagement and incompetence, and worse. Bob McCulloch, the county prosecutor appeared in an ad for Stenger, associating Dooley with corruption; McCulloch would also be responsible for determining whether to charge Darren Wilson. In December, the largely white Ferguson-Florissant school board fired Art McCoy, the superintendent, who is African-American. As reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, McCoy’s firing was as shrouded in secrecy as Michael Brown’s killing.
Although many tried to frame the issues surrounding McCoy’s departure as racially motivated, the school board voted unanimously to replace McCoy with Dr. Joseph Davis.
Dr. McCoy is a Harvard graduate and currently serves as Chief Academic Officer and Superintendent-In-Residence at The MIND Research Institute, according to his LinkedIn profile.
The conference will take place on Saturday, August 8, at the Double Tree by Hilton – Reid Park beginning at 8:00 a.m. There is no fee to attend but you must pre-register.
Tucson Community Partners and TUSD’s superintendent and his “leadership team” will also be present at this event, according to the press release.
Participants will also receive parent/guardian “tool kits” to take home.