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Everton Blair was elected chair of the Gwinnett school board and made history as its first Black and gay leader. He is also the board’s youngest chair. (Photo courtesy Blair)
The Gwinnett County school board unanimously elected Everton Blair as chair on Thursday, making history by choosing its first Black and gay member to lead it during 2021.
As chair of the five-person Board of Education, Blair now leads a panel that oversees the largest school system in Georgia’s second-most populous county. He is one of about two-dozen LGBTQ school board members in the U.S. and apparently is the only gay school board president in the country, according to the Victory Institute.
These are the top stories from the past week. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Top Gwinnett County stories from Dec. 21-27
Gwinnett police arrest suspects in murder at apartment complex near Norcross
An Alpharetta teen and an Atlanta man have been arrested in connection with the murder of Andrew Thomas, who died after he was shot at a Norcross-area apartment complex last month.
Gwinnett police announced on Wednesday that their homicide unit arrested Alpharetta resident Dallas Shank, 17, and Atlanta resident Quindarius Clemon, 23. Shank, who was arrested on Dec. 18, and Clemon face aggravated assault and felony murder charges.
Police were called to an apartment complex located off Seasons Parkway in unincorporated Norcross shortly before 5:30 a.m. on Nov. 22. Officers arrived to find Thomas in front of one of the apartment buildings with at least one gunshot wound.
After winning a political office on her first try, Gwinnett Tax Commissioner-elect Tiffany Porter is about to take on a new role â but sheâs used to facing challenges with high stakes.
Porter will become Gwinnettâs first African-American tax commissioner when she officially takes office on Jan. 1. After she took her oath of office on Tuesday, however, she recounted her journey toward her new role.
That journey included facing breast cancer and surviving it.
âNo one could have told me in 2018, when I was diagnosed for a second time with breast cancer, that I would be standing at this podium today,â Porter said at her swearing-in ceremony. âNot knowing what was going to happen to me, or my fate, or what God had in store for me, I felt that I still wanted to serve and continue to live my life as a public servant.