De Blasio's Pick for Schools Chancellor Rejects Offer

During an emotional three-hour-long meeting of the school board meeting in Miami, speaker after speaker came to the microphone to plead Superintendent Alberto Carvalho to turn down the offer to become the head of New York City's public schools.

At one point, the crowd broke out in a chant, "Please don't go."

The emotional outpouring from the southern Florida community seemed to make Carvalho pause. He descibed how his cell phone had filled up the night before with text messages, and how people stopped him on the street that morning to give him hugs. During the meeting, he called for a break and left the room. Then he called for another break.

Finally, at about 1:30 p.m., Carvalho announced his decision.

"Against probably my personal best interest, I am making a decision and announcing a decision today after speaking with the honorable Mayor Bill de Blasio that I shall remain in Miami-Dade," Carvalho said.

The crowd cheered and applauded.

The stunning reversal is a significant set back for Mayor de Blasio, who had searched for more than two months for a replacement to retiring Chancellor Carmen Fariña and seemed to have found in Carvalho the perfect choice: an articulate accomplished educator who came to this country as an undocumented immigrant and ended up raising graduation rates in a district very much like New York's — if quite a bit smaller.

Carvalho has overseen Miami-Dade public schools since 2008. During his tenure, graduation rates rose to an all-time high. He was named Superintendent of the Year in 2014.

De Blasio's aides did not take lightly to the last-minute reversal. The mayor's press secretary, Eric Phillips, tweeted that the Florida superintendent had accepted the position last week. 

He was a Yes for a week+, until he was a No 15 minutes ago. Bullet dodged.

— Eric Phillips (@EricFPhillips) March 1, 2018

The Miami-Dade School Board was seemingly caught by surprise when news broke on Wednesday that Carvalho would be taking the position. The board then called the emergency meeting Thursday morning.

Carvalho thanked de Blasio for the job opportunity, but said that he had a deeper commitment to Miami that he did not want to break.

"I'm making this decision not on the basis of what is opportune and best for me," Carvalho told the crowd. Instead, he said, it was a decision made "out of honor and respect to this community, with the hope that in reciprocal fashion that the honor and respect of our work will be evident in the months and years to come."

Mayor de Blasio addressed the media Thursday afternoon at City Hall where he expressed his own shock in what he characterized as an unexpected about-face by Carvalho. De Blasio made clear that before Carvalho backed out of the position, they had multiple conversations where he accepted the role and even negotiated the salary and terms with First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan.

"I think like many of you, I was very surprised by Mr. Carvalho's decision," de Blasio said. He said Carvalho had accepted the position over a week ago. He said he spoke with him yesterday afternoon along with his press secretary Eric Phillips, where they agreed to roll out the news of the announcement through a story in Politico New York.

The mayor said he also spoke to Carvalho again later Wednesday evening to discuss the next steps for his announcement here in New York City, "so you can imagine how surprised I was to get a phone call from him a few hours ago."

While reporters in both the New York City and Miami media markets spent hours trained on the live stream of the Miami-Dade School Board meeting, the mayor said he did not watch any of it. He said he was at Gracie Mansion for a meeting about the plan to close Rikers Island when Carvaho called him. Despite reminding him he had already accepted the position, the mayor said Carvalho expressed trepidation, reservations and ultimately made clear that he needed to back out of the decision.

The move comes as a blow to the de Blasio administration which has already spent months conducting a national search to fill the position of Schools Chancellor. But the mayor stressed the city's 1.1 million school children will not suffer as a result of this setback. He said the current Schools Chancellor Carmen Fariña, who announced plans to step down last year, will stay on in her position through the end of March.

The mayor said the city's national search resumes immediately.

"In the end, there are a lot of people who want this job," de Blasio said, "and we're going to get a great Chancellor."

 Updated with comments from Mayor de Blasio at 6:44 p.m. Thursday, March 1.