What to Know
- Miami-Dade Pubilc Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvalho declined to take the job of Chancellor of NYC schools after initially accepting
- He was going to replace current Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña, who is retiring after five years in the post under Mayor de Blasio
- Mayor de Blasio in a news conference Thursday said he was "very, very surprised" by Carvalho's change of heart
The head of Miami's public school system has decided not to take a job as the next chancellor of the New York City Department of Education a day after Mayor de Blasio named him to the post.
Alberto Carvalho, the superintendent of the Miami-Dade County Public Schools, announced in a televised school board meeting that he was breaking agreement to lead up the nation's largest school district, more than a week after he accepted a job and hours after the city put out a news release announcing the hire.
"I am breaking an agreement between adults to honor an agreement and a pact I have with the children of Miami," Carvalho said to cheers. "I shall remain in Miami-Dade as your superintendent."
The reversal prompted de Blasio's press secretary, Eric Phillips, to tweet "bullet dodged" Thursday afternoon. In a news conference later in the day, the mayor downplayed Phillips' characterization, but said he was surprised and confused by the decision and disappointed that New York City schools weren't getting his top choice for the job.
"I'm very, very surprised," de Blasio said. "I have a lot of respect for him, but I'm very surprised."
Carvalho's reversal came in a surreal, on-camera emergency school board meeting where the 53-year-old heard dozens of people praise his stewardship of the district -- which he'd led since 2008 and worked in for his entire educational career -- pulling the school system out of debt and corruption and increased graduation rates by more than 20 percentage points.
In the middle of the meeting, Carvalho took a "five-minute break" that lasted more than 20 minutes. When he returned, he said he could not announce his decision before speaking to the mayor because it would "dishonor" the mayor.
After returning a second time, he said he was breaking his agreement to lead up the nation's largest school district, calling it "probably the second most difficult thing I've done in my life" after leaving his native country of Portugal at 17.
Carvalho denied that his decision was prompted by any friction between himself and de Blasio, saying that he and the Democratic mayor had been in agreement on issues like gun control and immigration policy. "We felt like kindred spirits," he said.
Reaction from a shocked City Hall was swift. De Blasio spokesman Eric Phillips took to Twitter as Carvalho was wavering in his decision, saying, "Give us a minute, folks. We're also sorting through the weirdness."
Fifteen minutes later, Phillips tweeted: "Carvalho backed out. He won't be coming to NYC. There is...never a dull moment in our great city."
"Who would ever hire this guy again? Who would ever vote for him?" Phillips went on in yet another tweet.
Later on Thursday, de Blasio said that the city had offered to match Carvalho's salary of $353,000 and that they had spoken as recently as Wednesday afternoon to work out a media roll out for hire. He added that Carvalho called the New York City schools chancellor position his "dream job."
De Blasio called the way Carvalho's change of heart played out "unusual," but didn't speculate as to what changed between their conversation Wednesday and the ones that followed on Thursday.
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"This is a man who's done a lot of good in Miami and had a very impressive record, National Superintendent of the Year and all sorts of other things" de Blasio said. "I believed what I saw was what I was getting. I am obviously very, very surprised by today's events."
The mayor added that the city has already begun and they are reconnecting with some candidates who they'd previously spoken with.
"Of course, I'm really disappointed," de Blasio said. "I'm not going to get lost in the past. My job is to move forward and the search has resumed already."
Carvalho would have replaced current Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña, who is retiring after serving in the post for the entirety of de Blasio's mayoral tenure. Carvalho would have been tasked with continuing to implement the mayor's progressive school system reforms, including full-day child education for every 3-year-old in the city and free school lunches for all 1.1 million public school students in the five boroughs.
"We're going to get the best chancellor for all our kids," de Blasio said.
