UPDATED: LA school board to continue discussion of superintendent after FBI search

By Chris Woodward
The Center Square

Editor’s note: This story has been updated since its original publication.

The Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education will meet again Friday afternoon to continue its discussion of Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, whose home was searched by FBI agents carrying boxes from it.

The board met in closed session for nearly four hours late Thursday afternoon and evening before announcing the closed session would resume at 12:30 p.m. Friday.

Listed on the closed session’s agenda are the words “public employment” and “general superintendent of schools.”

After the closed session, the Board of Education says it will begin an open session where it will “report on any actions taken.”

The reason for Wednesday’s search at Carvalho’s office and his home in San Pedro, a Los Angeles coastal neighborhood, has not officially been revealed by the federal government. Carvalho has not commented on it.

News reports say it may be connected to possible kickbacks when Carvalho was superintendent of Miami-Dade County schools. Other news reports claim the search is tied to an artificial intelligence company known as AllHere. LAUSD hired AllHere in 2024, but the project never happened. According to media reports, the project was the development of a $6 million AI chatbot.

AllHere filed for bankruptcy in 2024.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office, as well as the FBI’s Los Angeles Office, are tight-lipped on Wednesday’s search. Both offices told The Center Square on Wednesday that the search warrant affidavit is under seal and they could not comment. That remained the case Thursday when The Center Square reached out to confirm information in news reports.

“Since the search warrant affidavit is under seal, we can neither confirm nor deny that information,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office told The Center Square.

The LAUSD did not respond Thursday to The Center Square’s request for comment. However, an LAUSD spokesperson told The Center Square on Wednesday that the district is cooperating with the investigation.

“We do not have further information at this time,” added the LAUSD spokesperson.

With more than 500,000 students covering 710 square miles, LAUSD is the nation’s second-largest school district.

Carvalho has served as LAUSD’s superintendent since February 2022. The superintendent led Miami-Dade Public Schools for 14 years.

One of Carvalho’s most recent appearances before the Los Angeles Unified Board of Education was on Feb. 17, when he discussed layoffs.