Welcome to the Carvalho Show, live from the Miami-Dade School Board administration building, where @MiamiSup walked in and promptly got applause, cheers and a standing ovation.
h/t @MarcACaputo
“We should have sold tickets,” staffer jokes at Carvalho meeting with school board. Standing room only 
This is turning into a big Carvalho lovefest before he speaks and delivers an actual decision
Starting to feel like LeBron and "The Decision" (and that is not a compliment)
Even Uncle Luke is here! Losing Carvalho "would be a tragedy," Luther Campbell says.
AND NOW a student at iPrep Academy, whose mother works at the school, praises Carvalho and asks him for a hug. He complies. This is where we're at, folks. More kids speaking now.
"I believe all the students want to say hello or hug Mr. Carvalho," board chairwoman Perla Tabares Hantman says. Indeed.
We have come to the portion of the meeting where a speaker is reciting Rudyard Kipling. ("If," natch.)
Who's keeping count of the number of references to how much better Miami's weather is than New York's? Someone just dropped "nor'easter"
A chant -- with claps -- of "Please don't go" has broken out in the chambers. Chairwoman asks for decorum. I blame the student who earlier made specific mention to KC and the Sunshine Band
For those keeping count, we are a full hour into this emergency Miami-Dade school board meeting and Carvalho has still not had a chance to speak and confirm that he's, you know, leaving
Board member Mari Tere Rojas: "Mr. Carvalho is articulate like no other. If you ever have to follow him after he has spoken, your nerves, I mean, you're going to fall apart. How are you going to follow his act?" Maybe this is why they're saving him for last!
Now Carvalho's wife is getting a standing ovation
Carvalho speaks! But it's not for The Decision. It's to banter with school board member Dorothy Bendross-Mindingall
Bendross-Mindingall to Carvalho's wife: "You and I know that nobody does it better." Silence for a few beats. Then: Chamber erupts in awkward laughter. "No, Maria, no!" Bendross-Mindingall tells wife. More laughter. Carvalho: "You know that will be the quote, right?"
"He's not going to leave us. He's not," Bendross-Mindingall says. "If he leaves, we're going with him!"
"We would hope that you reconsider," board member Larry Feldman urges Carvalho, essentially acknowledging that he expects the supt to leave but hopes he won't
"We've been at this for two hours now," board member Susie Castillo notes. Yes. We. Have. (In 11 minutes, anyway.)
"I, like a lot of people sitting here, want to hear from you," Castillo says, citing Twitter. 👋
HE SPEAKS
We're about to get some politics from Carvalho, as expected: "I need to speak first and foremost about those issues which matter most regardless of my decision..."
"We talk about respecting teachers but instead of arming with them with more of what they need -- resources, supply, inspiration, love, respect, respect -- we ask them to do things that they never signed up to do..."
"But not to carry a weapon. It is not their duty."
"We can say all we want, but if we do not remove the tools that are killing our kids, we're not doing anything, and if this offends somebody, I am so sorry." (He's not.)
"How long will it take for people to forget, or shall we actually do something when the hurt is fresh?...When is the right time to save a kid's life? Now is the time."
This, folks, is why Alberto Carvalho may be the most masterful politician in Miami-Dade County, though he's never been on a ballot.
"When no one believed Miami could, we did. That is why it is not about Alberto. It is about a team." We're getting close, people.
"We've done a lot, but we have not done enough," says Carvalho, who says parents and students hopped out of cars at a school this morning to greet him.
Says he didn't sleep much but when he did missed "500" text messages and "500" calls: "I couldn't scroll fast enough." "No te vayas!" someone in chamber hollers.
WAIT FOR IT: Carvalho requests a five-minute break to MAKE A PHONE CALL: "I need to do something."
I love my job.
Bill de Blasio, call your office.
In case you're wondering, I am getting *many* texts right now. Miami on edge as it awaits The Carvalho Decision
New York: Miami runs on Miami time. Five minutes was never gonna be five minutes.
We are 20 minutes into Carvalho's five-minute recess
We're baaaack, after a 27-minute recess.
School board chairwoman Perla Tabares Hantman asks board if it would support a vote of confidence in Carvalho. (Obvs.)
At issue here is that board can't take formal action in an emergency meeting.
All eight members say of course that they back Carvalho
"I have made a decision. However I am a man of honor..." and says he needs to communicate it to the "person that made me an offer" that "just hours ago I thought was the offer for me..."
"I just don't know how to break a promise to a child. How to break a promise to a community. And that has weighed on me over the past 24 hours like nothing has weighed on me before. I have made a decision. But I want to honor the offer..."
So Carvalho wants to have a conversation with de Blasio. "I believe I will have that conversation in short order" and then he will announce The Decision
"I think I've been very clear, very clear, about where I stand with this community" and with his intention. Thanks board for vote of confidence.
Chairwoman: "Do you need another little recess?"
Carvalho, looking at cellphone: "I need another little recess."
FOLKS, WE ARE IN RECESS.
Carvalho, looking at cellphone: "I need another little recess."
FOLKS, WE ARE IN RECESS.
Our running story on Indecision 2018 nytimes.com/2018/03/01/nyr… with @Liz_A_Harris
Carvalho returns, promises no other recesses. Calls this "the second most difficult decision" of his life, after choosing to leave Portugal
On de Blasio: "He is transforming America's premier city...to say that there isn't political alignment between Mayor de Blasio and myself, that would be a lie."
Says he met with de Blasio and his wife and "embraced" their vision. But decision he made, "I can no longer sustain."
HE STAYS: "I am breaking an agreement between adults to honor an agreement I had with the children of Miami-Dade County," Carvalho says. Chamber erupts into applause.
Carvalho calls NYC chancellor job most coveted in education. But: "I underestimated the emotional tug, the level of commitment the power that crying members of the community have had on me."
"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.
This is truly wild.
"It is not easy to do this at the 11th hour. Quite frankly, the 12th, 13th hour. Because I had made a decision" based on what was best for him, that would've taken him back to NY where he worked as a dishwasher when he arrived in US
"If I did not give myself a chance to reconsider after my heart started beating louder and faster than my mind," Carvalho says. "I cannot change who I am."
Carvalho says he would have "cherished" NYC job and says it is open for the most "talented" in education field
Carvalho to de Blasio: "I am sorry that our short-term friendship beyond the fantastic conversations and hopes for both of our communities."
"I am driven by conviction, never afraid to take on a challenge. Last night the challenge was New York City. Today the challenge is the challenge that children face. And my commitment to Miami is now as it's ever been."
Yes, Carvalho just noted that in Portuguese his last name means "oak tree," he says.
We are adjourned. Wow.
Carvalho tells reporters after meeting he was particularly affected by phone calls with 2 undocumented students “who said, ‘I don’t know what my future will look like if you leave.’”
“When I walked into the room today, I was going to New York City,” Carvalho tells reporters, adding he made a “real-time decision.”
Carvalho said de Blasio told him he’d been watching Miami-Dade meeting. Carvalho called conversation “difficult and a little sad.”
“He expressed to me that he was sorry that our brief friendship did not have a chance to evolve,” Carvalho said, calling it a professional discussion.
Carvalho was supposed to fly to New York last week but couldn’t make it because of Stoneman Douglas copycat threats. Was supposed to fly yesterday and two more incidents stopped him.
Wednesday afternoon, Carvalho spoke to de Blasio and “all systems were go.” “I understand how unorthodox this is.”
Asked about this from de Blasio’s press sec: “I accept that. But it seems to me that I have a decision here.”
