Two days after the FBI searched the headquarters of the Los Angeles unified school district and the home of its superintendent, the district board of education placed Alberto Carvalho on administrative leave.
The board met in closed session meetings for several hours on Thursday and Friday to discuss Carvalho’s employment with the nation’s second largest school district. The trustees unanimously voted Friday to place Carvalho on paid leave, and appointed another high ranking district official, Andres Chait, to serve as interim superintendent.
“Today’s action is aimed at fulfilling our promise to students and families to provide an excellent public education without distraction,” Scott M Schmerelson, the school board president, said in a statement. “Andres Chait is a highly regarded leader and educator, and we are lucky to have him step in seamlessly to oversee our schools. Over the past several years, our educators and students have made enormous strides, and we expect that progress to continue unimpeded.”
The board’s statement noted they cannot discuss why Carvalho’s home and office were raided.
On Wednesday, FBI agents raided the district office, Carvalho’s home in the Los Angeles area and another location near Miami where the superintendent previously oversaw schools for more than a decade.
A spokesperson for the US attorney’s office in Los Angeles confirmed that a search took place “pursuant to an under seal, court-authorized warrant”, but did not provide further comment.
Media outlets have indicated the investigation is connected to the now-defunct education technology company AllHere, which created a chatbot for the district as part of a multimillion-dollar contract in 2024. Carvalho was a proponent of the chatbot, attending events with the company’s founder, and said it was “unprecedented in American public education”. The district paid the company some $3m.
Just months later, the parties cut ties and AllHere collapsed, the Los Angeles Times reported. The company went into bankruptcy and its founder, Joanna Smith-Griffin, faced fraud charges. Amid the fallout from the collapse, Carvalho said he was not personally involved in hiring the company, and that he would establish a taskforce to investigate the matter, according to the Times.
The Florida home searched as part of the investigation reportedly belonged to Debra Kerr, who had worked with AllHere, the Miami Herald reported. Kerr was said to have had ties to Carvalho, and the 74 reported that her son was an AllHere employee who pitched LAUSD on the technology.
The raids on Wednesday sent shock waves through the district, where the board had recently voted to keep Carvalho on as superintendent for four more years. The development also fueled concerns that Carvalho may have been targeted for his stance on immigration operations. The superintendent has criticized enforcement activity near schools, and the district pledged to protect students and families attending graduations from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The Associated Press contributed
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