Los Angeles schools superintendent Alberto Carvalho will be on paid leave while he faces a federal investigation. The action Friday by the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education came two days after the FBI served search warrants on his home and district headquarters.
Authorities have not provided details on the nature of the investigation involving the nation’s second-largest school district, which serves more than 500,000 students.
Carvalho becomes principal in 2022. He previously led Miami public schools.
The district said Director of School Operations Andres Chait will take over the reins while Carvalho is on leave.
Carvalho has not yet responded to a request for comment. The FBI also searched a third location near Miami on Wednesday. The Miami Herald reports that the Florida property belongs to Debra Kerr, who previously worked at education technology company AllHere, which contracted with Los Angeles schools before it collapsed and its principals were accused of fraud. She could not be reached for comment Thursday.
In 2024, Carvalho touted a deal with AllHere for an artificial intelligence chatbot called “Ed” designed to help students. But about three months after unveiling the technology and paying the company $3 million, the district abandoned its partnership with AllHere, ultimately causing AllHere to go bankrupt. Months later, founder Joanna Smith-Griffin was charged with securities and wire fraud and identity theft.
The school district said in a statement Wednesday that it “is cooperating with the investigation and we have no further information at this time.”
According to the Los Angeles Times, Carvalho denied personal involvement in AllHere’s selection. After Smith-Griffin was indicted, Carvalho said he would appoint a task force to investigate what went wrong with the Los Angeles school district program, but has made no public statements since.
Kerr, an education technology salesperson who connects the company with schools, said she never received a $630,000 commission in closing AllHere’s deal with the Los Angeles district, according to The 74, a news organization covering AllHere’s 2024 bankruptcy hearing.
Kerr has a long-standing relationship with Carvalho from when he ran the Florida school district, and her son, who works at AllHere, pitched the technology to Los Angeles school leaders after taking over the helm there, 74 News reported. The Associated Press could not reach Cole for comment.
Over the past five years in Los Angeles, Carvalho has been praised for improving academic performance in the district. He received similar accolades while running Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Florida’s largest school district, with the National Association of Superintendents naming him the district’s Superintendent of the Year in 2014.
Spain knighted the Portuguese-born administrator in 2021 for his work expanding Spanish-language programs in Miami-Dade County schools.
Carvalho took the job in California months later and became a fierce critic of the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown, particularly in the wake of last year’s raids in Los Angeles.
Carvalho arrives in Los Angeles at a critical time, as the district finds itself with COVID-19 relief funding from state and federal sources but still grappling with the effects of the pandemic, including learning loss and declining enrollment. He previously sparred with Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis over his order requiring schools to not require masks during the pandemic.
The Miami-Dade school system said in a statement that it is aware of the investigation involving Carvalho but has no comment at this time.
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