Richard Nixon was president the first time Louise Radloff was elected to the Gwinnett County Board of Education.
Ten terms and nearly 40 years later, Radloff, 77, is on the fence about running for re-election this year.
"I'm weighing it very, very carefully," Radloff said this week. "There comes a time when enough is enough."
Radloff represents the most racially diverse of the county's five school board districts and is keenly aware of complaints that the all-white school board isn't reflective of the majority-minority community it represents or the school system it oversees.
She's just not certain that's fair.
"I think I reflect my community very well," Radloff said. "I get along with every child out there, and it hasn't made an iota of difference where the child comes from or what color that child is."
She confirms, though, that she has entertained the thought of switching parties and running as a Democrat, thinking that might increase the comfort level of African-Americans and Hispanics who dominate census numbers in her Norcross-area district.
Steve Deak, chairman of Gwinnett's Democratic Party, said the party would consider Radloff "a valuable asset."
The all-white school board and all-white County Commission have remained in charge in Gwinnett, even as its population and racial diversity have grown.
Nonwhite candidates have run for the school board in the past and are expected to again this year, when the seats held by Radloff, Carole Boyce and Mary Kay Murphy are up for election.
In 2008, Ravindra Kumar, a Democrat and then faculty member/researcher at the Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, came within 5 percentage points of defeating Radloff, arguably one of the county's most easily recognizable residents.
Radloff, who joined the school board in 1973, has a school named for her in Gwinnett. She is the state's second-longest-serving school board member behind 42-year veteran Grace Miller in deep South Georgia.
In the recent redistricting, the Republican majority packed as many minority voters as possible into Radloff's District 5, Deak said. The goal was to ensure that GOP candidates were protected for a few more election cycles in the other school board districts, he said.
Minorities make up the majority of Gwinnett's residents but lag far behind in registered voters, Deak said.
"Until their voting power increases, they will continue to be represented by elected officials from the opposing party that generally do not support their issues," he said.
Bruce Levell, the GOP chairman in Gwinnett, said the work of the school board, not its racial makeup, should be what's important.
"I try to seek the best qualified and not look at what planet they are from or what color they are," said Levell, who is African-American.
He called complaints about the racial makeup of the board "another beat-the-drum issue."
Republicans have been in charge at the county and school board for years and can claim responsibility for much that is good in Gwinnett, including its schools, parks and recreation programs, and infrastructure, he said.
"It's one of those deals -- if it ain't broke, don't try to fix it," Levell said.
In 2010, whites made up 44 percent of Gwinnett's population but 59 percent of its active voters; African-Americans were 23 percent of the population and 22 percent of active voters; Hispanics were 20 percent of the population and 4 percent of active voters; and Asians were 11 percent of the population and 5 percent of the active voters.
The district was recognized nationally in 2010 with the prestigious Broad Prize for Urban Education for its push to narrow the achievement gap between minority and white students.
But early this year, it was thrust into the national spotlight when parents and the NAACP denounced a racially insensitive homework assignment given to third-graders at one school. The students were asked, as part of a lesson in math concepts, to compute the number of beatings a slave got in a week.
As for Radloff, she doesn't have much time to decide. Qualifying for this year's elections is at the end of May.
Staff writer D. Aileen Dodd contributed to this article.
Gwinnett demographics
Gwinnett’s new school board districts and their share of African American and Hispanic residents
District 1 -- 31.39% African-American; 12.37% Hispanic
District 2 -- 21.87% African-American; 15.88% Hispanic
District 3 -- 15.66% African-American; 13.30% Hispanic
District 4-- 28.41% African-American; 12.92% Hispanic
District 5 -- 28.44% African-American; 45.5% Hispanic
Source: Legislative and Congressional Reapportionment Office
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