Carvalho Suddenly Turns Down Job Running NYC Schools to Stay in Miami

Miami-Dade County Public Schools Superintendent Alberto Carvahlo will, improbably, remain in his job for the foreseeable future. After flying to New York City for multiple dinners with Mayor Bill de Blasio, being offered a prestigious job running America's largest public school system, and even being formally welcomed into the post yesterday, Carvalho did a 180 this afternoon.

He says he has reconsidered his decision and will stay in Miami. The New York City media will now proceed to tear de Blasio apart for his premature announcement.

"I am breaking an agreement between adults to honor an agreement I had with the children of Miami-Dade County," Carvalho said during an emergency school board meeting today. Those in attendance burst into applause.

The decision clearly blindsided New York. The mayor's press secretary, Eric Phillips, initially said he needed a minute to "sort through the weirdness" before making a statement. He then began angrily tweeting up a storm.

"He was Yes for a week+, until he was a no 15 minutes ago," Phillips wrote. "Bullet dodged. Who would ever hire this guy again? Who would ever vote for him?"

The decision caps off an extremely odd 24 hours for two of the largest public school districts in America. Politico reported that Carvalho accepted the New York City chancellor of schools post two weeks ago but that de Blasio wound up postponing an official announcement because of the Parkland shooting. Yesterday afternoon, de Blasio formally announced on Twitter that he'd chosen Carvalho and was welcoming him to New York. But reporters in that city questioned why de Blasio didn't hold a formal news conference to make the announcement and wondered whether something was up.

Things only got weirder: After the New York Times reported the decision as if it was a done deal, Miami-Dade Schools spokesperson Daisy Gonzalez-Diego told the Miami Herald that, in fact, Carvalho had not actually accepted the job yet and would make a final decision after an emergency school board meeting today. That meeting wound up being a three-plus-hour Carvalho love fest, wherein every member of the school board begged the ultrapopular and highly decorated superintendent to stay in Miami.

Carvalho then bizarrely called multiple "recesses" and vanished from the dais. In the last instance, he said he needed to make a phone call before his final announcement. It turns out Carvalho called de Blasio to renege on the agreement.

"Against probably my best interest" and now that he's spoken to de Blasio, "I shall remain in Miami-Dade as your superintendent." Carvalho gets (another) standing ovation.

— Patricia Mazzei (@PatriciaMazzei) March 1, 2018

New York City's political and media circles — which are, naturally, far more vicious and critical than Miami's —  are going to town on the man known as "Mr. Armani."

"Carvalho backed out," Phillips added. "He won't be coming to NYC. There is... never a dull moment in our great city."

Same for Miami, pal.