LAUSD Approves Employment Contract With New Superintendent Alberto Carvalho

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) – The Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education Tuesday unanimously approved an employment contract for its next superintendent, Alberto Carvalho.

The four-year contract will have a base salary of $440,000 per year.

The 57-year-old Carvalho, who has served as the superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools since 2008, was selected by the LAUSD board last week.

Carvalho has been the superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools since 2008. It is the fourth-largest school district in the nation, while LAUSD is the second-largest.

In a news conference last week announcing his departure from Miami-Dade, Carvalho described himself as a "poor kid from Portugal" whose first jobs in the U.S. were as a dishwasher and day laborer, and who at times was homeless. Carvalho immigrated to the U.S. after high school. He attended college and then started his teaching career as a science teacher in Miami-Dade County.

"I'm one who believes, that the energy, fuel of our democracy lies with public education," Carvalho said. "If we do right by our schools and our children, we protect democracy. That is what I will carry to Los Angeles, a community that faces the very same challenges we face, and continue to face."

LAUSD has been without a permanent superintendent since Austin Beutner officially stepped down in June. Beutner served in the position beginning in May of 2018 and guided LAUSD through the first 16 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Megan K. Reilly has since served as the interim superintendent.

(© Copyright 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)