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Oct 8, 2008 7:56 pm US/Eastern
Parents Cry Foul Over Carvalho Appointment
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
School board members have a lot to think about when it comes to their new superintendent. Early Wednesday morning, an ethics committee said the School Board wasn't very fair when it selected new Superintendent Alberto Carvalho last month. The question of how Carvalho was hired may affect The School Board's decision to vote on his contract Friday. If the board takes the ethics committee recommendation into consideration, we could start this process all over again.
"I am very much interested in my grandchild's education and every parent should be," said Dora Ham, outside of Miami Shores Elementary Wednesday Afternoon.
Ham was waiting to pick him up from school and reacted to the selection of Carvalho.
"One day I'm listening to the news and Rudy Crew is out, and the next day someone else is. I really don't know who the someone else is," said Ham.
And neither did Charles Viscito, the parent who complained about the way the Miami Dade school board quickly selected the new superintendent.
"I am hopeful they will take the appropriate action," said Viscito.
Carvalho was the Associate Superintendent, who was offered the job just hours after the board negotiated Rudy Crew's buyout.
"Sometimes things can be legal but not up to the standards of ethics," said Buck Thornberg, a member of the Ethics Advisory Board.
Thornberg told
CBS4 Jorge Estevez the school board did nothing wrong or illegal. The only problem was the process in which the board selected the 44-year-old.
"Affording the public the opportunity at least to have input we think is important," said Thornberg.
There was no public meeting. In fact, his appointment came in the middle of a board meeting surprising even some board members.
"People that may have wanted to come down or people that may have wanted to put their names in they didn't know," Marta Perez. The ethics committee recommended the School Board look at opening up the process of selecting the next superintendent and maybe adding the public's opinion.
After the ethics meeting was over, we caught up with Charles Viscito, the parent who brought the complaint.
"I am satisfied with the recommendation that they are going to give the board," said Viscito.
And the grandmother who was waiting for her children is also satisfied because after all, unlike other parents she just told you how she felt. "I never had an opinion until now," said Ham.
The ethics committee can only give its opinion. They really have no way of forcing the school board to change Friday's vote to verify Carvalho contract, which will be $275,000.
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