Meet Mary Ruth Teague, Jim Brown and Karen Pack McCoy

JUNE 10, 2014 - Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools is celebrating the 50^th anniversary of the consolidation of the city and county school systems. As part of that, we’re recognizing people who are a product of the school system who now work for the school system.

Mary Ruth Teague

Mary Ruth Teague, who graduated from Parkland High School in 1979, is based in Central Office as an instructional coach in language arts for kindergarten through fifth grade. Her mother, Rosanne Marion, taught in the school system from 1955 through 1994, and, when Teague was in elementary school, she mostly attended the schools where her mother taught. Teague went to Konnoak and South Park elementary schools, Philo Junior High School, Anderson High School and Parkland Senior High.

When Teague graduated from college at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, a hiring freeze was in place here. She served as a long-term substitute here for a while, went elsewhere to get more experience and returned here full-time in 1987. When she was in elementary school, her first-grade teacher, Cora Mae Baldwin, had students put on puppet shows. “She was a wonderful woman,” Teague said. “When I became a first-grade teacher, I carried on the tradition.”

There was a time when Teague's classroom was a converted Winnebago that she drove to parochial schools to offer services, and the supervisors who came to observe her had to sit in the driver’s seat and twist around.

She appreciates her teachers growing up and those she worked with as a new teacher.

“I just remember, as a young child and as a young teacher, seeing all these people I respected so much, and I remember thinking, ‘I want to be like them.’ I hope I have done my part.” 

Jim Brown

Jim Brown is a media assistant at Walkertown High School, John F. Kennedy High School and Kernersville Middle School. He graduated from Reynolds in 1975. Brown started first grade at Speas Elementary in 1963, the first school year after the city and county school systems consolidated. He also attended Jefferson and Mount Tabor.

From 1984 to 1999, he substituted in various middle and high schools. He became full-time in July 1999 at West Forsyth. “I started out in ISS, formally CDC - Coghill's Day Care as they called it at West after the teacher Mr. Jim Coghill.  I moved to the EC department in 2001 and was there until this year when I went to media. I have worked full-time at West , Mount Tabor, North & Lowrance Middle  prior to this year.”

Karen Pack McCoy

Karen Pack McCoy, who works at Walkertown High School as the Registrar, graduated from Reynolds High School in 1979. She also attended Wiley Middle and Paisley. 

“I have been working in the school system for six years – five years at North Forsyth High School as the Guidance Secretary under the wing of Rita Martin, one year at Walkertown High School as the Guidance Secretary and, as of late, as the Registrar under the wing of Maria Watkins.

“I have been involved in the WS/FCS for many years - PTSA, Volunteer of the Year back when my children were in school, proctor, grade mother, a substitute for many years in the WS/FCS. Those are just a few to mention. 

“I have two grown children who have also been in the WS/FCS system from Old Town Elementary, Northwest Middle School, North Forsyth High School and Reagan High School.

My daughter is a substitute teacher in the Horry County School in Myrtle Beach. She substitutes when she can.