Former Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, who stepped down last month following high-profile FBI searches at his home and offices, did not disclose at least $107,000 in outside earnings from a paid consulting arrangement, according to a new report.
Carvalho, once the top official at the nation’s second-largest school system and paid $440,000 a year in Los Angeles, resigned nearly four months after the LAUSD Board of Education voted unanimously to place him on paid administrative leave.
His June 21 departure came only after board members moved toward firing him “for cause,” citing his failure to report travel benefits and baseball tickets provided by a technology vendor, according to a confidential letter obtained by the Los Angeles Times.
“It has been a great honor to serve you,” Carvalho said in his resignation letter, which made no direct reference to the FBI raids. “Placing students first has always guided my work.”
The latest claims add another layer to the controversy, raising questions about whether Carvalho violated disclosure rules that may have required the head of the $20.6 billion school district to report additional income.
According to The Denver Post, the longtime education administrator — who previously ran Miami’s public schools and was once honored as Superintendent of the Year — failed to disclose at least $107,000 he received for coaching Denver Public Schools Superintendent Alex Marrero.
Carvalho began earning the money in mid-2022 for “executive coaching” services provided to Marrero, initially billing Denver Public Schools $2,000 per month before increasing the rate to $3,000 per month the following year.
Contracts obtained by the outlet show Carvalho submitted invoices totaling at least $107,000 to DPS between November 2022 and January of this year — the same period in which he was expected to be leading LAUSD.
Marrero “ended his formal coaching relationship” with Carvalho in February, DPS spokesman Bill Good told The Denver Post, after LAUSD put Carvalho on leave following the stunning FBI raids on his Palos Verdes home and district office.
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Federal officials have been tight-lipped about the possible criminal charges the former superintendent may be facing but a source who’s familiar with the investigation told the Post that federal investigators are still conducting their probe.
Federal charges may be brought over nondisclosure of financial payments made to public officials such as Carvalho and they are most often overlap with other charges such as fraud, tax evasion or making false statements.
Federal agents in February executed search warrants at Carvalho’s San Pedro residence, LAUSD headquarters in downtown Los Angeles and a the Miami home of Debra Kerr, a former consultant with the tech firm AllHere who is tied to the investigation.
AllHere’s payment for a 2023 trip to the White House taken by Carvalho was flagged as an undisclosed financial benefit received by the former superintendent in the Board’s letter warning him of his potential termination for just cause, according to The Times.
The artificial intelligence company developed a chatbot for the district that flatlined just weeks after its release.
The company’s young founder, Joanna Smith-Griffin, was charged with fraud in 2024, just months after she joined Carvalho for a series of public events to kick off her company’s $6 million AI chatbot deal with the district.
The LAUSD board on June 24 replaced Carvalho with the new superintendent Andres Chait, a longtime Los Angeles educator who served as the district’s provisional leader after Carvalho was placed on leave.
Through his attorneys, Carvalho has denied any wrongdoing. He was spotted in May on an incognito shopping trip at his local Vons supermarket with his wife, Maria.
Carvalho last week placed his Palos Verdes home up for sale, asking $1,899,000 for the 2,000-square-foot house that commands sweeping backyard views of the Pacific Ocean.
