Los Angeles Board of Education to discuss school superintendent after FBI searched his home

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The governing board of the Los Angeles Unified School District will meet in a closed session on Thursday to discuss the superintendent, a day after the FBI served search warrants at his home and the district's headquarters.

The calendar for the Board of Education notes a special afternoon meeting to discuss Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, but there were no additional details. The district said in a statement Wednesday that it “is cooperating with the investigation and we do not have further information at this time.”

Federal authorities have not provided details of the nature of the investigation involving the nation’s second-largest school district. The FBI also searched a third location near Miami, where Carvalho previously led the public schools. The Miami Herald reported the Florida home belonged to Debra Kerr, who previously worked with AllHere, an education technology company that had a contract with Los Angeles schools before it collapsed and its leader was indicted for fraud.

In 2024, Carvalho heavily touted a deal with AllHere for an AI chatbot named “Ed” designed to help students. He went to conferences with AllHire’s founder to promote the chatbot, calling it “unprecedented in American public education.” But about three months after unveiling the technology and paying the company $3 million, the district dropped its dealings with AllHere, which collapsed into bankruptcy. Months later, founder Joanna Smith-Griffin was charged with securities and wire fraud, along with identity theft.

Carvalho denied personal involvement in the selection of AllHere, according to the Los Angeles Times. After Smith-Griffin was indicted, Carvalho said he would appoint a task force to examine what went wrong with the LA school district's project, but there have been no public announcements about it since.

Kerr, an education technology salesperson who connects companies with schools, said she was never paid her $630,000 commission for her work in closing the AllHere deal with the LA district, according to a news organization, The 74, that covered the company’s bankruptcy hearings in 2024.

The 74 reported that Kerr had longstanding ties with Carvalho from when he oversaw the Florida district and that her son who worked for AllHere pitched the technology to LA school leaders after he took over the helm there. The Associated Press was unable to reach Kerr for comment.

Over the past five years in Los Angeles, Carvalho has been lauded for the district's improvements to academic performance. He won similar praise while overseeing Miami-Dade County Public Schools, Florida’s largest school district, where the national superintendents association named him Superintendent of the Year in 2014.

Spain knighted the Portugal-born administrator in 2021 for his work in expanding Spanish-language programs for Miami-Dade County schools.

Months later, Carvalho took the job in California and became a harsh critic of the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown, especially following raids in Los Angeles last year.

Carvalho arrived in Los Angeles at a critical moment, as the district found itself flush with funding from state and federal COVID-19 relief money but still struggling with the impacts of the pandemic, including learning losses and declining enrollment. He previously sparred with Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis over his order that schools not require masks during the pandemic.

The Miami-Dade school system said in a statement that it was aware of the investigation involving Carvalho but did not have any comment at this time.

The FBI's Miami office confirmed agents searched a residence in Southwest Ranches, which is in Broward County west of Fort Lauderdale, on Wednesday morning.

Associated Press writer Julie Watson in San Diego contributed.

The exterior of the home of Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho is shown on Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026, in San Pedro, Calif. (AP Photo/William Liang)

The exterior of LAUSD headquarters is shown Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Media stage outside the home of Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho on Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026, in San Pedro, Calif. (AP Photo/William Liang)

The exterior of LAUSD headquarters is shown Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

FILE - Los Angeles District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, at podium, holds a news conference as SEIU Local 99 Executive Director Max Arias, left, and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, right, listen, in Los Angeles City Hall, Friday, March 24, 2023. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

GENEVA (AP) — Iran and the United States were held another round of indirect talks in Geneva on Thursday to try to reach a deal on Tehran's nuclear program and potentially avert another war as the U.S. gathers a massive fleet of aircraft and warships in the Middle East.

U.S. President Donald Trump wants a deal to constrain Iran’s nuclear program, and he sees an opportunity while the country is struggling at home with growing dissent following nationwide protests. Iran also hopes to avert war, but maintains it has the right to enrich uranium and does not want to discuss other issues, like its long-range missile program or support for armed groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.

The U.S. delegation to the talks was seen leaving the Omani diplomatic residence where they were held after several hours of talks throughout the day. Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported that the talks had finished for Thursday night. It wasn’t immediately clear if they would continue into Friday.

Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported that the talks had finished for Thursday night. It wasn’t immediately clear if they would continue into Friday.

If America attacks, Iran has said U.S. military bases in the region would be considered legitimate targets, putting at risk tens of thousands of American service members. Iran has also threatened to attack Israel, meaning a regional war again could erupt across the Middle East.

“There would be no victory for anybody — it would be a devastating war,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told India Today in an interview filmed Wednesday just before he flew to Geneva.

“Since the Americans' bases are scattered through different places in the region, then unfortunately perhaps the whole region would be engaged and be involved, so it is a very terrible scenario.”

Ali Vaez, an Iran expert with the International Crisis Group, said it was a good sign that the Americans did not walk away immediately when Iran presented its latest proposal on Thursday.

“There might still not be a breakthrough at the end of this day, but the very fact that the U.S. team is returning shows that there is enough common ground between the two sides," he said.

The two sides held multiple rounds of talks last year that collapsed when Israel launched a 12-day war against Iran in June and the U.S. carried out heavy strikes on its nuclear sites, leaving much of Iran's nuclear program in ruins even as the full extent of the damage remains unclear.

Araghchi is representing Iran at the talks. Steve Witkoff, a billionaire real estate developer and friend of Trump who serves as a special Mideast envoy, is heading up the U.S. delegation with Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner. The talks are again being mediated by Oman, an Arab Gulf country that's long served as an interlocutor between Iran and the West.

The two sides adjourned after around three hours of talks. Convoys carrying diplomats from both sides could be seen returning to the Omani diplomatic residence hours later, apparently to resume the negotiations.

“We’ve been exchanging creative and positive ideas in Geneva today,” said Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi, who mediated. “We hope to make more progress.”

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said diplomats held “very intensive” negotiations, meeting with the Omani envoy and the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog.

He said the Iranians felt there were “constructive proposals” offered on both nuclear issues and sanctions relief.

Trump wants Iran to completely halt its enrichment of uranium and roll back both its long-range missile program and its support for regional armed groups. Iran says it will only discuss nuclear issues, and maintains its atomic program is for entirely peaceful purposes.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters Wednesday that Iran is “always trying to rebuild elements” of its nuclear program. He said that Tehran is not enriching uranium right now, “but they’re trying to get to the point where they ultimately can.”

Iran has said it hasn't enriched since June, but it has blocked IAEA inspectors from visiting the sites America bombed. Satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press have shown activity at two of those sites, suggesting Iran is trying to assess and potentially recover material there.

The West and the IAEA say Iran had a nuclear weapons program until 2003. After Trump scrapped the 2015 nuclear agreement, Iran ramped up its enrichment of uranium to 60% purity — a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%.

U.S. intelligence agencies assess that Iran has yet to restart a weapons program, but has “undertaken activities that better position it to produce a nuclear device, if it chooses to do so.” Some Iranian officials have spoken openly about the country's readiness to produce a bomb if that decision is taken.

If the talks fail, uncertainty hangs over the timing of any possible U.S. attack.

If the aim of potential military action is to pressure Iran to make concessions in nuclear negotiations, it’s not clear whether limited strikes would work. If the goal is to remove Iran’s leaders, that will likely commit the U.S. to a larger, longer military campaign. There has been no public sign of planning for what would come next, including the potential for chaos in Iran.

There is also uncertainty about what any military action could mean for the wider region. Tehran could retaliate against the American-allied nations of the Persian Gulf or Israel. Oil prices have risen in recent days in part due to those concerns, with benchmark Brent crude now around $70 a barrel. Iran in the last round of talks said it briefly halted traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all traded oil passes.

Satellite photos shot Tuesday and Wednesday by Planet Labs PBC and analyzed by the AP appeared to show that American vessels typically docked in Bahrain, the home of the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, were all out at sea. The 5th Fleet referred questions to the U.S. military’s Central Command, which declined to comment. Before Iran’s attack on a U.S. base in Qatar during the closing days of the war last June, the 5th Fleet similarly scattered its ships at sea to protect against a potential attack.

Gambrell reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Melanie Lidman from Jerusalem. Associated Press reporters Will Weissert in Washington and Jamey Keaten in Geneva contributed to this report.

Oman's Minister of Foreign Affairs Sayyid Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi, right, holds a meeting with White House special envoy Steve Witkoff, centre, and Jared Kushner, as part of the ongoing Iranian-American negotiations, in Geneva, Switzerland, Thursday Feb. 26, 2026. (Foreign Ministry of Oman via AP)

Oman's Minister of Foreign Affairs Sayyid Badr bin Hamad Al Busaidi, right, holds a meeting with White House special envoy Steve Witkoff, centre, and Jared Kushner, as part of the ongoing Iranian-American negotiations, in Geneva, Switzerland, Thursday Feb. 26, 2026. (Foreign Ministry of Oman via AP)

The U.S. delegation arrives at the Oman ambassador's residency, where the indirect nuclear talks between the United States and Iran are taking place in Geneva, Switzerland, Thursday, Feb. 26, 2026. (Martial Trezzini/Keystone via AP)

Vehicles drive past the Saint Sarkis church and a painting of the late Iranian revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini in downtown Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

A woman walks past a painting on the wall of a girls school at Enqelab-e-Eslami, or Islamic Revolution, street in downtown Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Commuters drive past Saint Sarkis church and a mural of the late Iranian revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini in downtown Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)