The Brief

Superintendent Alberto Carvalho has resigned as leader of the Los Angeles Unified School District, four months after the FBI searched his home and office.

"Placing students first has always guided my work," Carvalho wrote in his resignation letter, provided to LAist by his attorney. "Because I believe our schools must remain focused on students and learning without distraction, I am resigning as Superintendent of LAUSD effective today."

A district spokesperson confirmed receipt of the letter Sunday night. The reason for the timing wasn’t immediately clear.

"The Board remains steadfast in its commitment to ensuring stability, continuity, and continued progress through strong leadership," the district said in an overnight statement. "Our focus remains unchanged: providing every student with a high-quality education, supporting our dedicated workforce, and maintaining the trust of the communities we serve."

The backstory

FBI agents searched Carvalho’s home and office on Feb. 25. A U.S. Department of Justice spokesperson said the agency had a court-authorized warrant, but declined to provide additional details.

Within days of the search, LAUSD’s board voted unanimously to place Carvalho on paid administrative leave “pending investigation” and appoint longtime district administrator Andres Chait as acting superintendent.

(Update, June 24, 2026: LAUSD appointed Andres Chait as its next superintendent.)

The district did not respond to LAist’s questions about whether the “investigation” referenced is federal or internal. The L.A. searches are linked to a search of a Florida home associated with the company LAUSD contracted with to create a short-lived AI tool. Carvalho declared his innocence in a March statement and expressed a desire to return to his job.

What's next?

Carvalho has been superintendent of LAUSD since 2022, and the board renewed his contract in 2025. His tenure at LAUSD has included a number of achievements for the district: gains in test scores, increased participation in AP classes, a $9 billion facilities bond and progress on the rate of student attendance.

"Our District’s executive leadership team valued achievement and equity and placed our most vulnerable students at the heart of our agenda," Carvalho wrote in his resignation. "During challenging times, we did so in a protective manner that benefited and honored all students."

LAUSD’s superintendent is responsible for crafting a strategy for the education of nearly 400,000 students. The country’s second-largest school district is confronting declining enrollment, the likelihood of further job cuts and fewer resources for high-needs schools.

Chait remains acting superintendent, but the board may take up discussion of the district’s leadership at a meeting this Wednesday. The status of the federal investigation into Carvalho is unclear.

In Carvalho's absence, Chait has been responsible for negotiations with the district's labor unions — ultimately avoiding a massive strike by teachers, principals and staff — as well as a significant reduction-in-force plan. Still, in the past several decades, LAUSD has not chosen an interim superintendent to keep the role permanently.

Senior editor Ross Brenneman contributed to this story.

Nationwide election results came at a relentless pace Tuesday night, each more of a Democratic upset than the last. But you may not have known if you were attending the California Republican Party's election night event in Garden Grove.

In the dimly lit Hyatt ballroom where gubernatorial longshot Steve Hilton and his supporters gathered, the news channels were off, the music was turned up and “Don’t Stop Believin’” blasted throughout.

Minutes after the polls closed at 8 p.m., the Associated Press called the governor’s race for Democratic favorite Xavier Becerra.

Around the room, the occasional person glanced at their phone to sneak a peek at the growing GOP carnage. More of the crowd instead looked at each other or toward the empty stage, where a lectern stood in front of a photo of the Golden Gate Bridge at sunset.

Not long after, Hilton took the stage to concede the race — which had always been heavily favored against him in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans 2-to-1.

“Maybe this isn’t the best year to be running for office as a Republican,” Hilton told his supporters, alluding to the election results that would soon lead the Democratic Party to win so big in the House and the Senate that many dubbed it a blue tsunami. “We see what’s going on around the country.”

Hilton knew the odds were long. He’d tried a number of tactics to win over California, including a suggestive advertisement suggesting voters should “Just Try” voting for him. He’d done his best to separate himself from President Donald Trump, who backed his campaign. He also attacked Becerra for staying largely out of the limelight since making it out on top of a chaotic primary.

None of Hilton’s appeals made a significant mark on the result, which trailed at around 36% of the vote as of Wednesday afternoon.

Standing outside the ballroom, Matt Shupe, a spokesperson for the California GOP, conceded it was challenging terrain for Republicans this year across the country — and always in California.

“It’s pretty typical that the party that's not in power gains some seats, so I think that was pretty expected for the most part,” he said. “We'll plan on bringing the fight more intensely than ever in 2028.”

By 9:30 p.m., people were headed to their cars to go home.

Voters in the city of Los Angeles are poised to pass all eight ballot measures put before them this year — six related directly to charter reform and two that are tied to the aftermath of the Palisades Fire in January 2025.

Proponents of city reform welcomed the results.

“Last night was a phenomenal Election Day for charter reform,” said Diego Andrades, who served as a Charter Reform commissioner. Andrades said he wasn’t surprised the amendments passed, tying voter support to the substantial public input in the process long before Election Day.

For example, Andrades said Measure PRK, which doubles the parks department budget, was “purely recommended by the public.”

“That was something we weren't even looking at,” Andrades said. “Everything that we recommended to the City Council was driven by who we were serving.”

Zev Yaroslavsky, the director of the Los Angeles Initiative at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, noted that none of the measures saw much coordinated opposition.

The six measures involving amendments to the city charter (the document that functions as the city’s constitution) originated from the Los Angeles Charter Reform Commission’s recommendations to the City Council.

There is likely more to come. City Council members voted in June to leave some of the commission’s more controversial recommendations, including proposals to expand the City Council and implement ranked-choice voting, off the November ballots.

Yaroslavsky, a former L.A. County Supervisor and L.A. City Council member, called the amendments on the road to passing “non-controversial, but important.”

Yaroslavsky pointed to the Charter Amendment LA, which, among other changes, allows the City Council to eliminate or change the Department of Public Works, something Yaroslavsky said the City Council tried to do when he was a member more than 30 years ago. Other amendments, such as giving the ethics commission more authority and expanding the parks department budget, are also welcome changes, Yaroslavsky said.

“They were not ideological charter amendments; they were administrative charter amendments," he said, “but they allow the city to do things that they haven't done before.”

Andrades said the success of the charter amendments builds momentum for the City Council to further some of the other recommendations from the charter commission in future elections.

“The charter amendment process is not finished,” Andrades said. “We will see these reforms on the ballot, and when they are ready, I think we will see voters pass them.”

Two other ballot initiatives stem from the 2025 fires. Measures FD and TE, respectively, seek to expand the Fire Department Budget and cancel the so-called “mansion tax” for victims of the Palisades Fire who sell their residential property until 2030.

Like the charter amendments, these proposals didn’t see much pushback, Yaroslavsky said. As ballots continue to be tallied, here’s a look at how Angelenos voted on each measure:

Note: AP estimates about 67% of the vote was in as of Wednesday evening.

Measure EE

What's at stake

In addition to reducing the number of City Council meetings from three per week to one, Charter Amendment EE makes changes to the Los Angeles City Charter that supporters say will help hold city government accountable. Those changes include increasing the penalty for campaign finance violations, increasing the authority of police and fire department oversight offices, increasing the number of signatures required for ballot referendums and barring ethics commissioners from running for local office for five years following their terms.

Measure LA

What’s at stake

At its heart, this wonky amendment changes how the city manages its budget and oversees infrastructure projects. Charter Amendment LA moves the city from a one-year to a two-year budget cycle, allows City Council to eliminate or change the Board of Public Works while giving the director of Public Works more power, and removes restrictions prohibiting the city from engaging in certain commercial activities. The hope is these changes will make it easier for the city to plan for and execute infrastructure projects.

Measure PL

What’s at stake

Charter Amendment PL consolidates Los Angeles’ seven Area Planning Commissions into a single Neighborhood Appeals Commission and streamlines the city’s planning process. In addition to reducing annual costs for commission staffing and other resources, the changes are meant to simplify the process and shrink the timeline for proposed developments.

Measure PRK

What’s at stake

Charter Amendment PRK doubles the L.A. parks department’s minimum budget over the next 10 years. A city-commissioned study last year found that the department’s budget has grown at a slower pace than other city agencies and that department staffing has shrunk while responsible for more park space and facilities.

Measure PRT

What’s at stake

Charter Amendment PRT adds new members to the Board of Airport Commissioners who live in communities near LAX and Van Nuys Airport, updates the rules around leases for the Airports Department, Department of Water and Power and Harbor Department and adds transparency requirements to Harbor Department leases. Supporters say the changes will increase community influence over major infrastructure and help the city attract more investment around airports and the waterfront.

Measure SC

What’s at stake

Los Angeles Unified school board elections follow much of the same campaign finance rules as mayoral elections, but those rules are spelled out in different parts of the city charter and municipal code. Charter Amendment SC removes much of the language specific to LAUSD elections and applies the same rules as those governing mayoral candidates, with a few exceptions. Supporters say the amendment doesn’t substantively change the election rules, but removes duplicative language in the city charter.

Measure FD

What’s at stake

The L.A. firefighters’ union supported this measure to increase the citywide sales tax by 0.5%. The increase will add an estimated $345 million to a new dedicated special fund that must be spent on Fire Department staffing, facilities, equipment and other “core functions.” Measure FD’s supporters say the department has been underfunded and needs thousands more firefighters to keep up with growing call volume.

Measure TE

What’s at stake

Proposition TE cancels the city’s "mansion tax" for victims of the Palisades Fire who decide to sell their residential property in the wake of the disaster. The mansion tax was created by Measure ULA in 2022, supporters of Proposition TE say voters passed that measure to raise money for affordable housing and homelessness prevention programs, not to punish disaster survivors who sell their homes. The exemption applies to properties owned as of Jan. 7, 2025, and sold until Jan. 6, 2030.

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Angela Gonzales-Torres has unseated U.S. Rep. Jimmy Gomez in the 34th Congressional District race, according to the Associated Press on Wednesday.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Gonzales-Torres led Gomez 59% to 41% in the race for the district that includes downtown Los Angeles, Koreatown, Boyle Heights and Eagle Rock.

She finished 15 percentage points behind Gomez in the June primary election.

“I look forward to working for my community in Congress, holding the Trump administration accountable, abolishing ICE, and putting money back into our communities instead of funding endless wars,” Gonzales-Torres said in a statement.

Gomez, who was elected to the seat in 2017, conceded the race in an emailed statement to LAist, saying he was proud of accomplishments like expanding paid family leave, negotiating labor protections and fighting for working parents and their children.

“Everything I've done in public service has been about making sure the opportunities my parents sought remain possible for the next generation,” Gomez said. “Serving Los Angeles has been a privilege. Titles come and go, but the people and the values we fight for endure.”

Newcomer vs. veteran

Both candidates ran as Democrats and shared some priorities, including the Green New Deal, affordable housing and Medicare for All.

However, Gonzales-Torres criticized Gomez during the campaign for taking money from the tech industry and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, also known as AIPAC. Her campaign website says she plans to get money out of politics by abolishing super PACs.

Gonzales-Torres, who is from Highland Park, was endorsed by the Democratic Socialists of America and gathered support from progressive leaders in California, including U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, state Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez and L.A. City Controller Kenneth Mejia.

A relative newcomer to politics compared to her opponent, Gonzales-Torres served as president of the Highland Park Neighborhood Council and as a regional representative on Metro’s Public Safety Advisory Committee.

Gomez was endorsed by U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). He was also supported by the California Democratic Party and U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff.

Allegations of misconduct sway race

Gomez was a campaign co-chair for former U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell, a close ally who faces allegations of sexual assault and misconduct.

Swalwell has denied the allegations. Federal and state investigations are ongoing.

Gomez resigned from Swalwell’s campaign in April, shortly after the accusations became public. He also called for Swalwell, who resigned from Congress, to end his bid for governor.

Months later, in August, the House Ethics Committee announced that Gomez was under investigation on allegations of sexual misconduct and assault. He has denied those allegations, but they stuck with voters.

In October, a Democracy and Fair Elections Lab at USC poll found that concerns about ethical and sexual misconduct allegations against Gomez were top of mind for many voters.

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