LOS ANGELES — Superintendent Alberto Carvalho was placed on paid administrative leave by the Los Angeles Unified School District, following the FBI’s search of the district’s headquarters and Carvalho’s home on Wednesday, it was announced on Friday.
LAUSD Chief of School Operations Andres Chait was named the interim superintendent.
News of Carvalho’s leave comes after the LAUSD’s governing board met in a closed session Thursday that continued until Friday.
Federal authorities have not provided details of the probe involving the nation’s second-largest school district and Carvalho’s home. The district said in a statement that it is cooperating with the investigation. The FBI also searched a third location near Miami, where Carvalho previously led the public schools.
Over the past five years in Los Angeles, Carvalho has been lauded for the district’s improvements to academic performance. He won similar praise while overseeing Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Florida’s largest school district, where the National Superintendents Association named him Superintendent of the Year in 2014.
Spain knighted the Portugal-born administrator in 2021 for his work in expanding Spanish-language programs for Miami-Dade County schools.
Months later, Carvalho took the job in California and became a harsh critic of the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown, especially following raids in Los Angeles last year.
Carvalho arrived in Los Angeles at a critical moment, as the district found itself flush with funding from state and federal COVID-19 relief money but still struggling with the impacts of the pandemic, including learning losses and declining enrollment. He previously sparred with Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis over his order that schools not require masks during the pandemic.Temperatures peak Friday, with inland temperatures running 20 to 25 degrees above average. Coastal communities will run 10-15 degrees above average.
This is a developing story and will be updated.