Gwinnett schools celebrate award

Gwinnett County educators partied Tuesday evening like it was 2010.

Georgia’s largest school district held a formal celebration for being the co-recipient of the 2014 Broad Prize for Urban Education. Gwinnett won the prestigious award in 2010 and joins Houston, Texas as the only school districts in the nation to win the award twice.

The award, given by the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, is given to a school district for its efforts to close the achievement gap among low-income and minority students. Gwinnett shared the prize with Orange County, Fla. The foundation will award $500,000 in college scholarships to Gwinnett students graduating in 2015. Gwinnett high school seniors interested in applying can do so online by going to www.broadprize.org/scholarship_program/overview.html.

At the end of Tuesday’s celebration, Gwinnett school board members announced they are renaming the district’s headquarters in Suwanee after Superintendent J. Alvin Wilbanks.

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