Alberto Carvalho Turns Down NYC Schools Chancellor Job

NEW YORK, NY — Alberto Carvalho, Mayor Bill de Blasio's pick to be New York City's next schools chancellor, turned down the job Thursday at a dramatic school board meeting at his home school district in Miami.

Carvalho, the superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools, announced his decision after a making soaring speech running more than 20 minutes, then taking two breaks lasting nearly an hour during which he reneged on his acceptance of the city's offer.

Carvalho said he personally told the mayor he'd stay in Miami, where he started as superintendent in 2008.

"I am breaking an agreement between adults to honor an agreement and a pact I have with the children of Miami," Carvalho said at the meeting.

Carvalho's move marked a possibly unprecedented development in de Blasio's nationwide search for a new leader of the nation's largest school system as Carmen Fariña prepares to step down after four years as chancellor.

Carvalho seemed poised to take the helm of the city's 1.1 million-student school system less than a day ago. Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Wednesday night that he'd replace Fariña, who plans to retire.

Carvalho told de Blasio as late as 8 p.m. Wednesday that he was ready to move forward with a formal announcement, the mayor said at a news conference Thursday afternoon. That was after verbal agreements with the mayor and First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan at least a week ago that he'd take the job, de Blasio said.

The mayor's account contradicts a statement from Carvalho's spokeswoman to The New York Times on Wednesday saying he had not officially accepted the position in New York.

"He told me repeatedly this was his dream job," the mayor said. "And obviously whatever happened here is quite unusual, but if he wasn't interested in the job I don't know why he flew up here several times and had incessant conversations about all the details and agreed to the release of the information publicly."

Residents and school board members in Miami begged Carvalho to stay Thursday morning, offering effusive praise of his dedication to students and their families and his record of boosting the district's academic accomplishments.

"Please don't go. I believe you're the one to do this work," Miami board member Martin Karp said.

Carvalho said that testimony helped change his mind. He was also moved, he said, by conversations with two undocumented immigrant students who told him, "I don’t know what my future will be like if you leave."

"It personalized everything that I’m about," Carvalho said. "If I were to leave those two, I’m probably leaving everything that I believe in."

The reversal took City Hall by surprise. De Blasio said he got a phone call from Carvalho as he was taking meetings at Gracie Mansion early Thursday afternoon. On the call, the mayor said, Carvalho told him he was having second thoughts about taking the job. De Blasio said he reminded Carvalho that he'd already accepted it, after several in-person and telephone conversations with city officials.

"I haven’t quite seen something like this," the mayor said, adding that he reacted with "probably more surprise and confusion that this could happen than anything."

De Blasio's press secretary, Eric Phillips, put it more bluntly on Twitter: "Bullet dodged," he wrote.

"Who would ever hire this guy again?" Phillips said in another tweet. "Who would ever vote for him?"

Fariña has agreed to stay on until the end of March as City Hall picks a new successor, which will happen "soon," de Blasio said.

The city was prepared to pay Carvalho $353,000 a year to match his salary in Miami, something Carvalho said was "never considered before" for a chancellor.

The arrangement would have paid Carvalho nearly $100,000 more each year than de Blasio and about $118,000 more than the $234,569 that Fariña made last year, despite her having more experience as an educator.

De Blasio said the city would consider matching another candidate's current salary. Fariña's pay stayed the same as her predecessor's when she started because she was also collecting a pension after her first retirement, the mayor said.

Turning down the post was the "second-most difficult" decision of Carvalho's life, he said, the first being the decision to leave Portugal for the U.S. as a teenager. The superintendent praised de Blasio, saying he "embraced" the mayor's "vision" for New York.

But he said he's "duty-bound" to Miami's school district, which he's helped turn around over the last decade to national acclaim.

"I have to first and foremost be true to this community and be true to myself," Carvalho said.

It's uncertain to whom de Blasio will offer the chancellor's job next. City Councilman Mark Treyger (D-Brooklyn), the chairman of the Council's education committee, suggested that people besides City Hall should be involved in the search.

"In order to make well-informed decisions, you have to involve critical stakeholders who have vested interests in ensuring that our schools succeed," Treyger said in a statement.

(Lead image: Jesus Aranguren/Associated Press)