Miami-Dade Public Schools’ wildly popular Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said on Thursday, in a very dramatic fashion, that he turned down a job leading New York City’s public school system to stay with the district where he began his career as a physics teacher at Jackson High.
Wide speculation Wednesday that Carvalho was taking the School Chancellor position offered by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio 
prompted a special emergency meeting Thursday of the School Board to discuss “the stability of the executive management leadership.” After pleas from board members, students, teachers, parents and people from the community, Carvalho took a short break, purportedly, to think about it.
When he came back, he announced that “the decision that I have made about that position is, however, a decision I can no longer sustain.” Yeah, that’s how he talks.
“I am breaking an agreement between adults to honor an agreement and a pact I have with the children of Miami. I just don’t know how to break a promise to a child, how to break a promise to a community,” Carvalho said, adding that the decision weighed heavily on him “over the last 24 hours like nothing has weighed on me before.”
Related: Alberto Carvalho to leave Miami-Dade Schools for NYC — at the worst time
Um, 24 hours? He’s purportedly known about this for days, weeks even. He was gonna break the “promise” yesterday. The announcement had been reportedly delayed because of the Parkland shooting and the resulting political fallout. So he decided right there? On the spot? Were the hugs that convincing?
Here’s another scenario:
Carvalho — who is known for 
his fiery speeches, staunch defense of immigrants and public dollars for public schools and opposition to guns in the classroom — has been under fire in recent months, mostly for the management of the $1.2 billion general obligation bond that voters passed to modernize schools and bring in new technology. He’s got Board Member Steve Gallon beating him up on the regular and enlisting cohorts, principally Maria Teresa Rojas, to question and dog him. The board recently asked for an outside audit of GOB monies spent so far and Gallon — who notably skipped the emergency love fest meeting — has questioned whether the bond program has included a sufficient representation of minority contractors.
So, Carvalho pretends to take the New York job offer more seriously. He never really wanted it. Think about it. Even though the New 
York Times reported that de Blasio promised to match his $352,874-a-year salary (the current chancellor makes $234,569) the job was still a bear. New York City has a $30 billion budget and 1.1 million students, compared to Miami-Dade’s $4.3 billion budget and 365,000 students. It’s daunting, even for a superstar like Carvalho. Which, by the way, he wouldn’t be in NYC. The 2014 national Superintendent of the Year is a big fish in a small pond here but there? He’d be, like, a guppy. Fishbait. De Blasio would not let him just have press conferences on his own agenda whenever he wanted.
Frankly, he’d be de Blasio’s bitch. And Ladra doesn’t think Carvalho relished that thought.
He also wouldn’t have an entire squad of media professionals dedicated entirely to positioning him and creating that darling image of the man so many love. He wouldn’t have his dream team of administrators who actually do all the work — he is a man of vision — behind him. As chancellor, Carvalho would be executing someone else’s vision, with people he doesn’t know or trust. And he would not be able to just flash that smile and talk his way out of anything in New York. Fuggedaboudit.
In this scenario, Carvalho turned the job down almost instantly — only he didn’t tell anyone. He let everybody believe that he had one foot out the door. He went to New York City to meet with de Blasio twice. He met with other city leaders. You know, just to make it stick. Plus Manhattan is an awesome place to spend a few days. Which means he also fooled de Blasio. And that’s the gist you get from the NYC mayor’s press conference Thursday afternoon, where he said he was “very surprised” by the news.
Related: Alberto Carvalho drops mayoral hopes for UM dreams
De Blasio told reporters that Carvalho had taken the job and then “changed his mind,” quoted the Village Voice. We know that he spoke to the Sup during that half hour or so break because the visibly pissed off de Blasio said Carvalho called him with “second thoughts.” But, again, Carvalho is someone who likes theatrics. To pull it off, he would have had to fool de Blasio and his people, too. He may have planned it like this all along. And just look at the number of impressions he’s gotten: It’s been in all the major networks. 
Not just Channel 7 locally, but CNN and Fox News and every single media outlet in New York has been on it all day (not favorably).
Even his Wikipedia page was already edited to include today’s news. Like his team was ready to do it.
In this scenario, dangling this job before the community and the School Board was a trick, a ruse to get his nine bosses to (1) change the narrative and bring back the love fest (2) offer him a 3-5 year extension on his contract, which expires in 2020.
Ladra doesn’t think they’ll offer him a raise. Carvalho already makes more than any Superintendent in the world. And it won’t be “politically correct” while teacher pay is still an issue. But look for an item at the next school board meeting or two where he gets an extension on his contract and maybe something else. Like more staff to make him look good.
Or was it all a ruse to raise his profile another notch for a mayoral run in 2020 or a bid for Congress, after all?
One thing is for sure: He’s not gonna tell us right away.
Alberto Carvalho ‘decides’ to stick around — or was it all a sneaky ruse? added by Ladra on
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