Edinburg CISD places superintendent on five-day administrative leave after public safety and hiring complaints

The Edinburg Consolidated Independent School District board placed Superintendent Dr. Maria Salinas on administrative leave for five days and approved an independent inquiry after public commenters raised allegations about hiring practices, campus sanitation and school safety.

The action followed several public comments at the board meeting in which community members urged termination or resignation. Marsha Gonzales, a public commenter, criticized district leadership and said of the superintendent: "rotten to the core," and listed allegations including what she described as hiring a cousin to a director-level post without an application, hiring staff without required certifications and an alleged $200,000 overpayment to a consultant classified to circumvent TRS hiring policies.

Why this matters: The board’s decision places the superintendent on short-term administrative leave while trustees seek further information. Public commenters named specific campus incidents, including a modified handgun brought to Edinburg North High School on May 6 and repeated flooding and sanitation problems at Canterbury Elementary, and said those incidents showed lapses in safety and facilities response.

In public comment, a resident who identified herself as Fern asked about sanitation and safety records and said, "Will Canterbury Elementary be ready for the next school year?" She also questioned the district’s handling of the May 6 incident at Edinburg North High School, saying the lockdown was called more than an hour after parents reported a gun on campus.

Alonda Flores told the board that holding public comment at 3 p.m. on a weekday made participation difficult and said, "Doctor Salinas, with all due respect, it's time to step down, resign while you still have the shred of the community's goodwill at hand." A different commenter, Amado Balderas, spoke in support of the superintendent and urged the board to renew the contract.

During the board’s open session after an executive session, Ben Castillo, the district's legal counsel, told the trustees, "it is the advice of counsel that the board approve the reverend as, discussed in closed session and place the superintendent on administrative leave for 5 days." The motion to place the superintendent on administrative leave was moved and carried by voice/hand vote after discussion; the minutes state that "direction was taken in executive session." The transcript does not record a roll-call vote tally.

A board member asked for an independent inquiry into the events at Edinburg North and requested a precise timeline and protocol review. That request — to hire an independent company to conduct the inquiry — was seconded and approved by the board.

The board also grouped agenda items 2 through 9 and, on the advice of counsel, accepted the superintendent’s recommendation to propose a Chapter 21 nonrenewal for a term contract employee "as discussed in closed session." The employee name is recorded in the transcript in garbled form and was discussed in closed session; the board approved the proposal to proceed with the nonrenewal process in open session.

The public comments included other allegations: that two directors were suspended and later exonerated by a hearing examiner and the Texas Education Agency; that a retired finance director previously investigated by TEA and another district had been hired and overpaid; and that multiple campuses had seen drops in academic ratings and district enrollment figures cited by a commenter (from 34,121 under former superintendent Renee Gutierrez to 32,939 under Dr. Salinas). Those claims were made by public commenters and appear in the meeting record; the board did not resolve them in open session.

Board members said they need a precise timeline and the facts supporting decisions about safety protocols and personnel actions and directed staff to gather information for the next meeting. The district certified that the agenda had been posted under the Texas Open Meetings Act before public comments began.

The meeting record shows the board took three formal steps related to this topic in open session: approve a five-day administrative leave for the superintendent (per counsel’s advice), approve hiring an independent firm to investigate the Edinburg North incident and accept the superintendent’s recommendation to propose a Chapter 21 nonrenewal for a term contract employee. The transcript records that the motions carried by voice/hand votes; no roll-call tallies or formal vote counts are recorded in the provided excerpt.

The board adjourned after the motions. The district did not release additional details about the independent inquiry, the scope of the Chapter 21 proposed nonrenewal, or any timeline for returning the superintendent to duty in the provided transcript.