ECISD super reprimanded, placed on paid administrative leave

Dr. Mario H. Salinas

EDINBURG — The school board voted to reprimand and place Superintendent Mario Salinas on paid administrative leave at a special board meeting Wednesday afternoon.

After about an hour in executive session, the board unanimously voted to reprimand and place Salinas on five days of administrative paid leave.

The administrative leave starts Thursday, Benjamin Castillo, legal counsel for the district, said after the meeting.

Castillo said the board reprimanded Salinas over the incident where a student at Edinburg North brought an unloaded gun and loaded magazine to school in his backpack on May 6.

He also said that there were other issues as well for the reprimand but did not elaborate what those other issues were, saying he could not discuss personnel issues.

The special board meeting held at 3 p.m. started with public comments calling for Salinas to step down or for his contract to be terminated.

According to the Texas Education Agency, Salinas had a salary of $374,627 as of October 2024.

Salinas was appointed as superintendent for the district in February 2021. Salinas worked in various capacities for the district for over 30 years such as the assistant superintendent for Student Support Services, as a high school science teacher and as a principal at Edinburg North High for almost 10 years.

Board member Leticia ‘Letty’ Garcia also requested for a third party investigation into the timeline of events at Edinburg North High with that item to be placed on the agenda for the next school board meeting.

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