Miami-Dade Public Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho reacts after a video tribute during his final meeting at the Miami-Dade County School Board administration building in Miami, Florida on Wednesday, Feb 9, 2022. He left to become the superintendent of the Los Angeles school district. On Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026, the FBI raided his L.A. home and district headquarters.
David Santiago
dsantiago@miamiherald.com
The Los Angeles Board of Education is having a closed-door emergency meeting Thursday to discuss the employment of school superintendent Alberto Carvalho, after the FBI raided his L.A. home and the district’s headquarters in connection to a defunct AI education company at the center of a criminal investigation that had a big contract with the L.A. school district.
Hours after the FBI raids in L.A. and at a home in Southwest Ranches in Broward County on Wednesday, the board’s public calendar was updated with a new item: “Special Board Meeting, including Closed Session Items,” according to the Los Angeles Unified School District’s website.
The meeting, scheduled for 4 to 6 p.m. Pacific time, listed one topic of discussion on its agenda, the “public employment” of the “general superintendent of schools.” The agenda also noted the session will be opened after the discussion if the board takes any actions.
“We have been informed of law enforcement activity at Los Angeles Unified School District headquarters and at the home of the Superintendent. The District is cooperating with the investigation and we do not have further information at this time,’’ the district said in a statement Wednesday.
READ MORE: Broward home searched by FBI as part of case linked to L.A. schools chief Carvalho
In September, the Los Angeles Board of Education unanimously voted to retain Carvalho for another four years, at an annual salary of $440,000, the Los Angeles Times reported. He was hired by the L.A. school district in 2022, after serving 14 years as the superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools.
READ MORE: Carvalho was a popular Miami-Dade superintendent, but he had his controversies
The FBI has not disclosed why its agents conducted the searches in L.A. and Southwest Ranches, but an FBI official in Miami told the Herald the two operations were linked.
The Broward home is owned by Debra Kerr, a one-time sales representative for AllHere Education — an AI company that collapsed and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation in 2024. Its founder and CEO, Joanna Smith-Griffin, was charged with securities, wire fraud and identify theft in November 2024.
Carvalho and the Los Angeles district inked a $6 million contract with AllHere shortly before it collapsed. Carvalho heavily promoted the artificial-intelligence chatbot named Ed, which was to help develop individualized learning plans for students, the L.A. Times reported.
The Miami-Dade Public School System also selected AllHere for a $1.8 million three-year deal months after Carvalho left for L.A. in February 2022. A Miami-Dade school district spokesperson said nothing came from the contract.
When AllHere Education filed for bankruptcy in 2024, the company’s biggest asset was its contract with the Los Angeles Unified School District, valued at $2.88 million at the time, court records show.
Kerr, the owner of the Southwest Ranches home, is listed as one of AllHere’s creditors, bankruptcy court records show. She said she was never paid a $600,000-plus commission for landing the L.A. contract.
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Miami Herald
Miami Herald Cops and Breaking News Reporter Devoun Cetoute covers a plethora of Florida topics, from breaking news to crime patterns. He was on the breaking news team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2022. He’s a graduate of the University of Florida, born and raised in Miami-Dade. Theme parks, movies and cars are on his mind in and out of the office.