The Votes Are In!
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View Winners → Education Dec 09, 2021
| Photo courtesy of John S. and James L. Knight Foundation/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
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Alberto Carvalho, a celebrated educator who has led the Miami-Dade County Public Schools system since 2008, was unanimously chosen Thursday the next superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District.
His hiring is contingent on finalizing an employment contract. The selection was announced following a closed-door Thursday morning meeting of the LAUSD Board of Education, which voted unanimously in favor of Carvalho.
“Alberto Carvalho will bring deep experience as an educator and leader of a large urban district to the role of superintendent of L.A. Unified,” board President Kelly Gonez said in announcing the choice.
“His leadership will help our district navigate the short-term challenges of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and will help us reach the long- term goals for recovery laid out by the board in June.
“The entire board eagerly looks forward to working with him on behalf of the students and families of L.A. Unified,” she said.
The terms of Carvalho’s employment are expected to be discussed at the board’s next meeting.
In a statement released by LAUSD, Carvalho said, “It has been the privilege of my life to serve as Superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools. For the last three decades, I have selflessly dedicated my professional career to the children of Miami’s diverse community, and I am hoping to bring that same passion, compassion and commitment to the students and families in L.A. Unified.”
Carvalho subsequently held a news conference in Miami, saying he plans to do extensive outreach once he arrives in Los Angeles before determining his first steps as superintendent.
“There are many, many, many great examples of education practices in Los Angeles, much like in Miami-Dade,” he said. “Certainly I will bring my personal philosophy, but at the same time, I will listen carefully to the culture, to the tradition, to the practices of Los Angeles.
“Do not expect me to go to Los Angeles and impose pronouncements without first understanding clearly by having boots on the ground and traveling the community and walking the classrooms and speaking with teachers and parents and every single board member and the stakeholders of the community,” Carvalho said.
“Do not expect me to make pronouncements or take actions without that first-hand experience. So yes, I will go armed with my philosophy, with my skill set, but being fully cognizant of the fact that I don’t know what I don’t know.”
Miami-Dade County Public Schools is the fourth-largest system in the nation. Carvalho is a well-regarded leader in the education field who briefly considered a move to lead the nation’s largest school system — New York City — three years ago but backed out of the post to remain in Miami.
According to his official biography, Carvalho, 57, is a “nationally recognized expert on education transformation, finance, and leadership development” who has led the Miami-Dade system to become “one of the nation’s highest-performing urban school systems.”
“As a staunch believer in school choice, he has expanded choice options in Miami-Dade to over 1,000 offerings that include bilingual programs, fine and performing arts, biotechnology, engineering, robotics, aviation, forensic sciences, and many others,” according to his biography. He was named the 2014 National Superintendent of the Year by the American Association of School Administrators. The district also won the Broad Prize for Urban Education in 2012.
The Miami-Dade school system has roughly 350,000 students. The LAUSD has more than 500,000.
Born in Portugal, Carvalho previously taught physics, chemistry and calculus in Miami and was later an assistant principal at Miami Jackson Senior High School.
Former LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner stepped down in June. Megan K. Reilly has been serving as interim superintendent of the nation’s second- largest school district ever since. Reilly is believed to have been among those considered for the full-time job, and Gonez heaped praise on her while announcing the selection of Carvalho.
“On behalf of the board, we want to thank Interim Superintendent Megan K. Reilly for her leadership of our district during an extraordinarily challenging time,” Gonez said. “Superintendent Reilly has successfully overseen a return to full in-person learning, maintained the strongest COVID safety protocols in the nation, implemented an employee vaccination requirement and overcome unprecedented challenges as we continued to respond to the pandemic and its effects on our students and communities.”
Earlier this year, in the midst of the superintendent search, the LAUSD released the results of a sweeping survey of district parents and other stakeholders, with 90% of them saying the next superintendent should have experience working in public schools as a teacher or administrator. When Beutner was hired, he had no formal experience in public education, although he ultimately earned positive reviews for his leadership of the district during the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to the survey, nearly 89% of respondents felt the next superintendent should have experience managing a large “organization in transition,” and 66% felt it was important for the person to come “from a historically underrepresented community” or closely reflect the district’s student population.
Reacting to the selection of Carvalho, California Charter School Association President/CEO Myrna Castrejon said the new superintendent will face an array of challenges stemming from the pandemic, most notably learning loss and “negative impacts to the social-emotional well-being of students.”
“Mr. Carvalho comes to LAUSD at a time when we need someone who personally understands the immigrant community and the challenges of being an English learner, as well as the frontline challenges of teaching and leading urban schools,” Castrejon said in a statement.
“His track record as an effective kids-first, all-kids leader shows in his determination to reimagine education as superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools. He understands that the path forward demands innovation and equity-centered programs in diverse delivery systems and is credited with dramatically improving student achievement across the district by developing school models such as iPrep Academy, a nationally recognized magnet school, and offering parents an array of public education choices.”
Cecily Myart-Cruz, president of United Teachers Los Angeles, said the union is “ready to work” with Carvalho.
“The prolonged pandemic has underscored the critical importance of public schools for our communities,” Myart-Cruz said in a statement. “We are ready to work with incoming LAUSD Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho to uplift public education in L.A. and build racially just, fully resourced schools that serve as community anchors, where educators are valued, families are supported and students have the resources they need to thrive.”
