L.A. school board to meet in private to discuss Carvalho’s future after FBI raids
The Los Angeles Board of Education, before holding a closed-door emergency meeting Thursday to discuss the employment of school superintendent Alberto Carvalho, whose L.A. home and district office were raided by the FBI on Wednesday, heard from angry parents who blamed the board for inaction and causing a national “embarrassment.”
A woman who identified herself as Ms. Rojas told the board she had a petition with over 5,000 parent signatures to take action against Carvalho, the former Miami-Dade County Public Schools superintendent who left in 2022 to take the top job in L.A. She also accused the board of corruption. “You guys are always hiding everything, but now you are scared because the FBI came,” she said. “You all need to be investigated.”
READ MORE: Broward home searched by FBI as part of case linked to L.A. schools chief Carvalho
Another accused the School Board of being complicit with Carvalho in what the FBI is investigating, though the agency has not said publicly why it raided his L.A. home and office and a home in Southwest Ranches in Broward that the FBI said was connected to the Carvalho investigation.
“All of you knew what was going on,” the resident said during the public-speaking period before the board’s closed-door session to discuss Carvalho. “It is all your fault. You all are an embarrassment.”
The board will continue its closed-door meeting at 12:30 p.m. Pacific time Friday. The board listed one topic of discussion on its agenda for the meeting: the “public employment” of the “general superintendent of schools.”
The board issued a statement Thursday night: “The Board of Education has recessed its special closed-session meeting and will reconvene tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. to continue its deliberations,” the statement said. “The district continues normal operations across all schools and offices. We are grateful to our dedicated employees, families and students for their steady focus and commitment to our school communities.”
The FBI raids are connected to a defunct AI education company at the center of a criminal investigation that had a big contract with the L.A. school district.
READ MORE: Broward home searched by FBI as part of case linked to L.A. schools chief Carvalho
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.
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.
READ MORE: Carvalho was a popular Miami-Dade superintendent, but he had his controversies
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. She and Carvalho have known each other for years through her work representing a school textbook publisher.
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.
This story was originally published February 26, 2026 at 4:28 PM.
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