{"id":197437,"date":"2026-02-28T02:24:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T02:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/197437\/"},"modified":"2026-02-28T02:24:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T02:24:15","slug":"los-angeles-unified-school-board-places-carvalho-on-administrative-leave-names-acting-superintendent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/197437\/","title":{"rendered":"Los Angeles Unified school board places Carvalho on administrative leave, names acting superintendent"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article was originally published in\u00a0EdSource.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Los Angeles Unified School District board has voted to place Superintendent Alberto Carvalho on paid administrative leave, two days after the FBI raided his San Pedro home and district headquarters and searched a residence in Florida.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While on leave, Carvalho will continue to receive his pay, an annual\u00a0salary<\/a>\u00a0of $440,000. And Andres Chait, who has served as LAUSD\u2019s chief of school operations, will step in as acting superintendent, effective immediately. The length of Carvalho\u2019s leave, which is pending the investigation, has not been disclosed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The board\u2019s nearly 8-hour-long\u00a0discussion<\/a>\u00a0began Thursday evening, and the closed session meeting was recessed until 12:30 Friday. The final vote, which came in at about 3:45 p.m., was unanimous.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a very challenging time,\u201d Board President Scott Schmerelson said at the board meeting following Friday\u2019s announcement. \u201cAnd I want you to know that the board believes in you, supports you, and knows that you will all continue to do your very best to support the students and families of the district.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Carvalho hasn\u2019t made any public comments since the FBI raids. The agency has also not released further information on the investigation, and the search warrant affidavits remain sealed.\u00a0Carvalho has not been accused of any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

So far,\u00a0media reports<\/a>\u00a0have connected the raids to the company AllHere Education, with which both LAUSD and Miami-Dade County Public Schools had entered into agreements.<\/p>\n

Three months after Los Angeles Unified rolled out Ed, an AI chatbot developed by AllHere, the company\u2019s founder and CEO, Joanna Smith-Griffin, left. She was later arrested and charged with securities fraud, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the property searched in Southwest Ranches, Florida, in Broward County, reportedly belongs to Debra Kerr, who records show is an AllHere contractor and maintained ties with Carvalho. According to\u00a0The 74<\/a>, her son, Richard Kerr, pitched the now-defunct AI company to LAUSD.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must strive for stability and continuity so that every school can stay focused on teaching and learning and on building on the meaningful gains the district has made in recent years,\u201d said Yoli Flores, the president and CEO of Families in Schools.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the same time, we acknowledge that public discourse around our schools is inevitably shaped by broader political dynamics. It is essential that investigations and public actions be grounded in evidence and fairness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chait has worked in the district since 1998, starting out as a teacher at Queen Anne Place Elementary School. He has since worked as an assistant principal and principal. He went on to serve as a field director, the administrator of operations for LAUSD\u2019s Local District Northeast from 2015 to 2019, encompassing roughly 120 schools, and eventually the local district superintendent and chief of school operations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cChait is a highly regarded leader and educator, and we are lucky to have him step in seamlessly to oversee our schools,\u201d Schmerelson said in a written statement. \u201cOver the past several years, our educators and students have made enormous strides, and we expect that progress to continue unimpeded.\u201d<\/p>\n

He holds a bachelor\u2019s degree\u00a0in sociology from UC Berkeley and a master\u2019s in education administration from Cal State Los Angeles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am humbled by the Board\u2019s confidence in appointing me to serve as Acting Superintendent during this critical time,\u201d Chait said in a statement. \u201cOur focus remains clear: to ensure stability, continuity, and strong leadership for our students, families, and employees.\u201d<\/p>\n

EdSource reporter Betty M\u00e1rquez Rosales contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This article was originally published in\u00a0EdSource. The Los Angeles Unified School District board has voted to place Superintendent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197438,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-197437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}