NYC gets humiliated

Carvalho had already privately accepted the job as New York City schools chancellor, which would have made him chief of the nation’s largest school system. Then, after a three-hour meeting in which School Board members, students and members of the public lavished Carvalho with praise, the superintendent appeared to have a change of heart.

“We may have the strength to break an agreement with an adult. I just don’t know how to break a promise to a child, how to break a promise to a community,” Carvalho said, speaking Thursday at an emergency School Board meeting that had been called to discuss the job offer. “That has weighed on me over the last 24 hours like nothing has weighed on me before.”
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Carvalho said his decision was influenced primarily by Miami-Dade students who pleaded with him to stay, including two undocumented immigrant students who reportedly told Carvalho they were afraid of what would happen if he left.

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In a stunning turn of events, the Pinellas County School Board voted Wednesday to hire Miami educator Alberto Carvalho as its next superintendent, only to hear hours later that Miami officials want him to be their superintendent, too.

The Miami-Dade School Board voted 5-3 to hire Carvalho after an earlier decision to sever ties with its controversial superintendent, Rudy Crew.

Carvalho, 43, declined an initial offer to be Miami-Dade's interim superintendent, saying he had a solid offer from Pinellas. But when the board offered him the permanent position after a bizarre series of motions, he said he would consider it.

"I couldn't even keep track of what was going on at one point," said Mark Herdman, a Pinellas lawyer who represents teachers and was at the board meeting in Miami.

The South Florida board took only minutes to get to the offer stage, in sharp contrast to Pinellas, which took four months to hire a consultant, engage the public and vet four finalists

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