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Pinellas Superintendent Pick Rejects Offer

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By STEVEN GIRARDI

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 13, 2008

LARGO - Pinellas County's four-month search for a new superintendent of schools will last a little longer.

Alberto Carvalho turned down Pinellas' offer to be superintendent. Instead, he said Friday he will take the same job with Miami-Dade County public schools, where he is associate superintendent.

The Pinellas school board will meet at 10 a.m. Tuesday to decide what to do next, Chairwoman Nancy Bostock said.

The two other finalists - interim Superintendent Julie Janssen, 59, and Nicholas Gledich, 55, chief operations officer for Orange County public schools - still express interest in the job.

Bostock said both are quality candidates and she expects the board will choose one of the two Tuesday.

"Our school district is very fortunate to have two additional candidates who could walk through our doors tomorrow and be a great superintendent," she said.

Carvalho, 43, was offered the Miami-Dade job only a few hours after hearing he was Pinellas' choice Wednesday. The Miami-Dade school board bought out Superintendent Rudy Crew's contract and needed to have a new leader by Friday.

Chosen by a 4-3 vote in Pinellas, Carvalho planned to see what support he had before making a decision by calling the three dissenting voters as well as the candidates in the three November school board races.

He never finished those calls before notifying Bostock in the morning that he had decided to stay in Miami-Dade.

Bostock said she wasn't surprised Carvalho decided to stay once he got the offer there.

"He said he did a lot of soul-searching, and talked to his wife, and he felt he needed to stay in the community and serve the community," she said.

Board members contacted Friday said they weren't surprised by Carvalho's decision, given his popularity and his close ties in Miami-Dade.

Pinellas board Vice Chairwoman Peggy O'Shea said she told Carvalho on Friday she would support him, but she voted for Janssen because of Janssen's 38 years of experience in the district and her deep community support.

Linda Lerner, another Janssen supporter, declined to talk with Carvalho again. She said the prolonged interview process with each of the candidates was fair.

"I was happy with his decision," she said.

Carol Cook, who voted for Carvalho, said she expects some criticism, but noted the board agreed all three candidates were good, and she is ready to choose between the remaining two. Lerner and O'Shea agreed.

"I think we have enough," O'Shea said. "I have nothing negative to say about any of them."

Carvalho had to choose between the nation's fourth-largest school district in Miami-Dade, where he attended school and has worked for 18 years, and the 23rd-largest in Pinellas. The Pinellas job would have paid $200,000 to $240,000 a year; his predecessor in Miami made $300,000, plus $100,000 in benefits.

He also was dealing with an emerging controversy in Miami.

Carvalho ordered an investigation Thursday of school district e-mail messages that may have suggested he had a romantic relationship with a Miami Herald schools reporter. The reporter has since left for The Boston Globe, and Carvalho said the messages may have been manipulated as part of a smear campaign, according to Miami Herald reports.

O'Shea and some school board candidates said Friday that was not an issue here, and questioned the credibility of anonymous e-mails and blogs.

Carvalho did not return a call from the Tribune on Friday.

Janssen, the former deputy superintendent in Pinellas, was appointed interim superintendent in June when Clayton Wilcox resigned after four years to take another job.

As a former teacher and principal, Janssen is favored by the Pinellas Classroom Teachers Association union, the PTA and other community groups.

As the vote drew near Wednesday, many supporters urged board members to choose her. Some warned the board about hiring outsiders, saying the candidates would be unfamiliar with Pinellas and perhaps inclined to leave after a short time, as Wilcox did.

Bostock criticized the campaigning as "overtly political" and possibly divisive, though she said she didn't blame Janssen.

Reporter Steven Girardi may be reached at (727) 451-2333 or sgirardi@tampatrib.com.

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