WASHINGTON, July 1 - Carlos Garcia, superintendent of Nevada's Clark County School District in Las Vegas, has become chair of the Board of Directors of the Council of the Great City Schools, a coalition of the nation's largest urban public school districts.  

Garcia, who is superintendent of the nation's sixth-largest school district, will serve a one-year term as head of the national education policy and advocacy organization representing 60 big-city school systems.  The Council's board is composed of the superintendent along with a school board member from each Council district.

Garcia succeeds Anna Dodson, vice chair of Virginia's Norfolk school board. Stepping up to Garcia's former post as chair-elect is Judith Farmer, a board member with Minneapolis Public Schools, and Thomas Tocco, superintendent of Texas' Forth Worth Independent School District, has been elected secretary-treasurer, assuming Farmer's former post.

Founded in 1956 in Chicago, the Council is the only national organization exclusively representing the needs of urban public schools.  "Our primary goal is to educate all urban school students to the highest academic standards," says Council Executive Director Michael Casserly.