In a confidential letter that preceded the June resignation of Los Angeles Unified Supt. Alberto Carvalho, the school board accused its heralded leader of unprofessional conduct, unsatisfactory performance and “violation of or refusal to obey” state laws or school district regulations, according to the document.
The June 8 letter, obtained by The Times in response to a public records request to the school district, signaled the board’s intenteither to fire Carvalho or force his resignation.
Over seven pages, the Board of Education provided its justifications for Carvalho’s termination, citing allegedly unreported gifts, unreported outside income and donor-funded travel. The accusations also included alleged unauthorized handling of district property and improper use of district resources, including a car and driver intended for work-related tasks.
In addition, Carvalho received “gifts from contractors and lobbyists beyond the limits permitted by law,” the letter alleged.
Carvalho’s attorneys responded to the letter eight days later with a detailed confidential letter of their own, also obtained by The Times in response to a public records request to the district. The attorneys said the accusations were “legally and factually deficient” and “a political hit job — an effort to remove a well-regarded public official who had the courage to stand between the [Trump] Administration’s immigration enforcement apparatus and the schoolchildren of this city.”
On Tuesday morning, Carvalho’s attorneys provided an additional response.
“Yesterday’s release of LAUSD’s investigation report confirms, once again, that Alberto Carvalho has broken no laws,” their statement said. “While the District’s letter purports to recite other ‘issues of concern,’ it does so in an incomplete and misleading manner — as we set forth in our response to the District.
The statement also emphasized that the district’s widely noted academic gains contradict “the idea that his performance was unsatisfactory or unprofessional or that he was in any way unfit for service.”
In their robust defense in June, Carvalho’s attorneys, with the firm Holland & Knight, provided specific counters to some allegations and dealt with others by category. In general, they maintained that some alleged miscues were relatively minor — involving paperwork errors. Other allegations, the letter said, were based on misrepresentations:
The superintendent, for example, was being blamed after-the-fact for actions that he carried out in public with the full knowledge of the school system and frequently with clearance from the district’s legal staff.
Carvalho served as superintendent of the nation’s second-largest school system from February 2022 until June 21, 2026, when he resigned on a Sunday evening. The L.A. Board of Education placed Carvalho on paid leave on Feb. 27, two days after FBI agents raided his San Pedro home and downtown L.A. office.
That raid was in connection to the federal investigation of AllHere, a company that L.A. Unified hired to provide an artificial intelligence chatbot named “Ed,” which was touted as a tool that would revolutionize school-to-family interactions and students’ academic experience. The effort ended with the financial collapse of AllHere.
Carvalho has not been charged with wrongdoing and denies any misconductin connection with that project or anything else.
The L.A. Unified letter shows that the school board was laying the legal groundwork to dismiss Carvalho for cause, which would have deprived him of contractual severance payments. Carvalho ultimately relinquished his right to severance by resigning — while avoiding the possibility of dismissal.
The letter, signed by board President Scott Schmerelson, said, “If you choose to resign … the Board of Education will not need to proceed with voting whether to dismiss you for cause.”
The extent of the allegations
The letter’s blunt, legalistic tone methodically laid out pages of allegations, suggesting that there could be additional examples and that the investigation remained ongoing.
Citing provisions for dismissal under the state’s Education Code, the letter alleges “unprofessional conduct,” “unsatisfactory performance,” “evident unfitness for service” and “persistent violation of or refusal to obey the school laws of the state or reasonable regulations prescribed by the District.”
Carvalho’s attorneys, in their response, rejected those claims outright.
“We recognize a pretextual and retaliatory termination when we see one, and what you have done here is not subtle,” said the letter, which was signed by John L. Brownlee of Holland & Knight. “This letter is legally and factually deficient. It is not a good-faith exercise of oversight.”
Among the allegations, the district accused Carvalho of repeatedly failing to list gifts and outside income on required disclosure forms. His attorneys acknowledged that possibility.
The district letter notes repeated alleged instances in which Carvalho did not report his work as a consultant for $500 or $600 an hour related to education matters. It does not reveal the total amount of money he earned consulting and does not say the consulting was improper.
The companies listed are AlphaSights, Tyton Partners, Tegus and Third Bridge. The letter does not accuse the companies of wrongdoing.
The district letter stated that, even if Carvalho had filled out disclosure forms properly, the amounts he allegedly accepted in gifts far exceeded the legal limit, which the letter noted was $590 in 2024. The current limit from a single source is $630.
“Mr. Carvalho never intentionally concealed any income or gifts on his Form 700 filings,” the attorneys said, referring to the state disclosure forms.
His attorneys cited in Carvalho’s defense a mistake he made on a 2022 form in which he overestimated the value of his stock holdings: “This is not the conduct of someone attempting to conceal outside income from the Board or from the public.”
His disclosure forms — which The Times reviewed — did not list side gigs from private companies for the school years of 2022-23, 2023-24 and 2024-25. Carvalho did disclose “executive coaching” he provided for Denver schools Supt. Alex Marrero, listing payments in 2022 as between $2,000 and $10,000.
The Denver Post recently reported that Denver Public Schools allegedly paid Carvalho $107,000 over the entire period of his L.A. superintendency to mentor and coach Marrero.
After resigning from L.A. Unified, Carvalho filed a Form 700 for 2025-26 and a separate “leaving office” Form 700. Work listed on one or both forms includes consulting for London-based AlphaSights, valued at $1,001 to $10,000; consulting for Massachusetts-based American Public Bureau, valued at $1,001 to $10,000; and teaching for Harvard valued at $10,001 to $100,000.
Carvalho also lists salaried work his wife performed for Abbvie US, valued at $10,001 to $100,000.
In information provided separately in late June to The Times, a representative for Carvalho acknowledged that entries for consulting work and travel should have been included on Carvalho’s earlier forms, but an appropriate remedy, for example, would be for him to amend and correct the forms — and be subject to a fine.
The district letter alleged Carvalho’s undisclosed travel costs were underwritten by education companies that included Scholastic, for a 2022 trip to a board of directors meeting and another event in 2023.
The letter also faults Carvalho for failing to disclose travel and lodging paid for Hazel Health, a district contractor, to attend a 2024 student healthcare conference in Washington, D.C. at the Watergate Hotel — a trip costed out at $4,738.
Two more 2024 trips were cited as unreported on disclosure forms in the school board letter: A $1,000 trip to Scottsdale, Arizona, allegedly paid for by Carnegie Learning, to speak at an event called “Leading in the Age of AI.” And Lego Education allegedly paid about $1,000 for travel and lodging for Carvalho’s participation in the LEGO Education Media Roundtable in Denver.
His attorneys in their letter defended Carvalho’s trips, saying he carried them out openly — often to conduct official district business, cleared by district legal counsel and frequently in the company of other district senior managers who also were representing L.A. Unified.
“You have ignored key facts regarding several of these incidents — facts that would be easily explained if the Board were interested in the truth rather than political gamesmanship,” the attorneys stated. “The events and travel referenced in the allegations were entirely consistent with Mr. Carvalho’s duties… To the extent the Superintendent accepted payment for any travel, lodging, or meals, he did so to save the District funds and advance the ongoing success of the District.”
As an example of Carvalho acting in good faith, they cited Carvalho’s handling of honorariums from Scholastic for appearing at that company’s events.
“Superintendent Carvalho explicitly discussed with the LAUSD General Counsel how to handle honoraria payments from Scholastic for his appearances at Scholastic events — which were donated, at his request, to an LAUSD fund for homeless students. There were zero concerns raised regarding a potential disclosure issue for his travel.”
Connections to AllHere
AllHere, the company at the center of the FBI investigation, paid $4,633 for a trip in 2024 to Washington, D.C., where Carvalho participated in a cybersecurity conference at the Biden White House, the letter alleged.
His attorneys said the AllHere-funded travel was “explicitly discussed with the LAUSD General Counsel.”
The district letter also alleged that Carvalho attended “multiple dinner events with a consultant for AllHere” when that contract was under consideration. Such key periods are referred to as the “Cone of Silence” and meant to limit contact with vendors that could influence or appear to influence district contracting decisions.
In defense, Carvalho’s lawyers referenced an earlier district review: “You have ignored the results of your prior inquiries into the AllHere matter, which cleared Mr. Carvalho of any misconduct.”
In their Tuesday statement, the attorneys also discussed interactions related to AllHere: “LAUSD found no evidence that Alberto violated federal law regarding his interactions with AllHere or any other vendor.”
The district letter also faulted Carvalho for having his district driver “drop off your wife at LAX on multiple occasions, drive you and a female District employee after hours to restaurants and other social outings, and her home on approximately a dozen occasions.”
If Carvalho over-used a district-provided car, his attorneys said, a reasonable remedy would simply be to request reimbursement for the costs.
The attorneys also linked the board’s dismissal threat to the Trump administration’s targeting of L.A. Unified for several enforcement actions, including lawsuits. Carvalho was a high-profile critic of the Trump administration. The school board, the letter suggested, was caving in to such pressure rather than standing up to the Trump administration as Carvalho had done.
“The Board should also remember how to do the right thing,” the letter stated, “for our community and for the students of Los Angeles Unified.”
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