Salinas Elected as ECISD Board President; Student Enrollment Down
Arnoldo Mata
Edinburg, TX – Edinburg CISD trustees reorganized Tuesday, elevating Javier Salinas to board president while keeping Carmen Gonzalez as vice president and Letty Flores as secretary during this week’s regular meeting that also featured recognitions, spending approvals and multiple personnel actions.
The reorganization followed a brief presentation of plaques to outgoing officers, including former board president David Torres. After the vote, Salinas thanked colleagues for their support and announced all committee meetings are suspended until after the new year, with the exception of a cancer-related committee. “We also need to look at our safety plan,” Salinas said. “Safety’s so important to this district as we see what’s going in our schools, to make sure that everyone knows exactly what needs to be done.”
“I want to get into really the deep down of what Dr. Melinda said last week. There’s a lot of mental health issues within our kids, our staff, and we need to look at those policies and see what else can we do as a a school district to help,” Salinas added.
“We have to lift our level of expectancy. I see our district too loose and too lax. That’s just me looking at 30,000 feet. Every single staff member here has to tighten the belt. Everyone in this room plus our principals because, when you have the discipline in your building and the schools, good things happen. People know you mean business. We pay lots of money to everybody in this room. And all I say is everyone needs to tighten their belt level, raise the level of expectancy because we want to get nothing but great results here and it starts right now.”
“We need to leave our campuses alone. As a former principal, I didn’t want you guys to be out there bothering me. You guys are the ones that make the plans and we respect that. But this board has selected those principles to do their jobs. There’s a lot of former principals in here and you know, I see a lot of smirks, you know, let me run my school, get out of my way. We know what’s going on every single day because we’re there with the kids. We’re not over here at central office making all these amazing plans. We’re working with kids. Leave us alone. Leave the principals alone. Let them do their jobs. Of course, do your job. Your job is to provide support, but leave them alone. Let them be at their campuses, do what they gotta do.”
“I also want to revisit the organizational chart. I have some concerns in it, so I’d like to revisit that as we move forward. And I’m very concerned about the 862 kids that are missing, 862 kids are no longer with us. We need all those kids back.”
An enrollment update showed 32,509 students districtwide as of Nov. 7—about 860 fewer than the same point last year. Elementary enrollment was down 441, high school down 277 and middle schools up 142. The district reported 115 migrant students still pending return.
Trustees also heard a Student Health Advisory Council report noting continued work on elementary recess, youth mental health first aid, vaccine clinics and nutrition engagement, including a student “food show” to shape menus. The council plans to rotate meetings to different campuses, with the next session set for Nov. 18 at Edinburg North High School’s library.
In recognitions, the district reported statewide Summit K12 honors for progress with emergent bilingual students, including third place among Texas districts. Lee Elementary earned second place elementary campus of the year, and teacher Ida Vasquez won first place statewide teacher honors.
Among action items, the board:
• Allocated votes in the Hidalgo County Appraisal District board election: 95 to Richard Garza, 26 to Joe Olivares and 24 to David Moreno.
• Approved a $211,000 payment to the Texas Education Agency for Teacher Incentive Allotment data validation.
• Renewed the ParentLink/Finalsite attendance and emergency notification system for $75,240.
• Purchased Proofpoint email security for districtwide cybersecurity at $139,927.98.
• Approved the 2025–26 library materials list after a 30-day public posting period, and authorized up to $333,800 for print and eBook purchases through Region One ESC’s cooperative.
• Renewed contracts including athletic/PE supplies and equipment (not-to-exceed $700,000) and fire suppression system inspection and repair ($50,000). Administrators clarified that kitchen fire suppression differs from fire alarms and said alarm projects at Edinburg North are about 90% complete.
In closed session outcomes, trustees hired a payroll coordinator and approved the employment of a new principal for Flores/Zapata Elementary. The board also approved additional personnel recommendations, including employment changes, resignations and retirements, and voted to uphold the Level II decision in an employee grievance listed as filed by Feliciano Duran.
Source — Edinburg Consolidated Independent School District.