1983. He committed himself to improving New York City's public high schools and sought to implement in the city's 32 school districts many of the innovations he had planned in District 4. In a report issued in March 1984 by the New York City Department of Investigation, Alvarado was charged with borrowing $88,000 from employees under his supervision "in a manner that was inherently coercive and frequently deceptive", that he allowed employees who had loaned him money to earn excessive amounts of overtime pay and had used school employees for personal purposes, including having his house painted by district employees. He was also charged with having made false statements on loan applications, failing to pay parking tickets and property taxes, and for a failure to report $128,000 in capital gains and tax refunds on filings with the Internal Revenue Service. Alvarado said that many of the violations were of a technical nature and occurred because he was busy working 60 to 80 hours a week as Schools Chancellor. Citing the example of paying to have his office painted out of funds that had been designated for overtime pay, Alvarado argued that "in choosing whether to get work accomplished or not violate a technical procedure, I chose to get the job done". Alvarado told Time magazine that he "never used public funds or the public system for personal gain". Alvarado resigned as School Chancellor in May 1984 in the wake of professional misconduct charges and Nathan Quinones was selected as Chancellor, having served in the position on an interim basis after Alvarado placed himself on leave two months earlier. While Quinones had been relegated to a minor role under Alvarado, once Quinones became acting Chancellor he removed several administrators tied to Alvarado and restored the structure of high school administration that Alvarado had eliminated. His wife, Ellen Kirshbaum, led the East Harlem Performing Arts School and later worked as community liaison for Community School District 4. Alvarado lived with his wife and two children in Park Slope, Brooklyn, together with two children from Alvarado's first marriage. In 1998, Alvarado was awarded the Charles A. Dana Foundation Award for Pioneering Achievement in Education "for his commitment to the continual professional development of teachers and school administrators as an essential catalyst for the increased improvement of students’ academic achievements" while Superintendent of District 2. References 1942 births Living people Fordham University alumni Hunter