Alberto Carvalho, who has led Miami-Dade County Public Schools since 2008, has been named the next superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, The Los Angeles Times reports.
The Los Angeles School Board voted unanimously Thursday to negotiate a contract with Carvalho, 57. He is leaving the fourth-largest K-12 public school system in the country for the second largest.
“Alberto Carvalho brings the deep experience we need as an educator and leader of a large urban district to manage L.A. Unified’s ongoing response to and recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Los Angeles School Board President Kelly Gonez. “As the longtime Miami-Dade Superintendent, he established a clear record of positive student outcomes and has relentlessly worked towards greater equity for historically underserved communities. I know he will continue that focus in Los Angeles, and he is ready for the challenges and opportunities ahead of us.”
Carvalho has been Miami's superintendent since 2008. He was close to leaving Miami in 2018 when he agreed to take the top job in New York City Schools, but changed his mind and decided to stay in Miami.
Among the honors Carvalho has received in his career: Florida’s 2014 Superintendent of the Year; the 2014 National Superintendent of the Year; the 2016 winner of the Harold W. McGraw Prize in Education; the 2018 National Urban Superintendent of the Year; and the 2019 National Association for Bilingual Education (NABE) Superintendent of the Year Award
Carvalho's long tenure as Miami's superintendent is unusual for large urban districts. Among the top administrators in the nation's 10 largest districts, Carvalho was the only one who had been in his job for more than 10 years.
The superintendent's job in Los Angeles became available earlier this year when Austin Beutner stepped down after three years. Since his departure, Megan K. Reilly, a longtime administrator in the district, has been serving as interim superintendent.
