Traces of E. coli found in Edinburg school floorboards, students relocating

EDINBURG — Edinburg CISD held a news conference Monday at Canterbury Elementary School, after canceling school for the day, where the district confirmed trace amounts of E. coli in the floorboards of some of the school’s classrooms.

Legal counsel for the district, Benjamin Castillo, said third party testing found trace amounts of E. coli, from a flood sewage overflow, during cleaning efforts over the weekend.

“Crews discovered that an area previously impacted by a flood and sewage overflow at Canterbury Elementary School required more cleaning and restoration than initially anticipated,” Castillo said. “As a result, and out of an abundance of caution, Edinburg CISD made the decision to close Canterbury Elementary for the day … an area of Canterbury Elementary School will remain closed for the remainder of the school year to allow for complete restoration.”

Edinburg CISD’s Canterbury Elementary School is pictured Monday, April 28, 2025, in Edinburg (Omar Zapata | The Monitor)

The affected individual classrooms include Pre-K3, Pre-K4, first and second grade and other areas such as the library, gym and cafeteria. Walls, floorboards and tiles are going to be removed for a more thorough cleaning.

The district identified the classrooms, and announced it will relocate more than 260 students to Freddy Gonzalez Elementary beginning Tuesday until the end of the school year.

Unaffected areas of Canterbury will continue as scheduled, which includes third, fourth and fifth grade.

Transportation services and support staff will be provided, and lunch will be brought to students’ classrooms from Robert Vela High School, Castillo said.

About 20 parents attended the press conference, with many asking questions and voicing concerns over the situation, the plan of action and talks of students getting sick.

Castillo said the traces of E. coli are only in the floorboards and is not airborne. The district collaborated with the city of Edinburg and a third party to conduct testing.

“All the information that we’re going on is official reports done by experts in this area,” he said. “So the official reports that we got from experts have all told us, have all told your district officials, your superintendent and your board, that the campus is safe. This action is being taken because the district wants to do a total gutting of those classrooms, and in order to do that, we can’t have students’ presence.”

ECISD Superintendent Mario Salinas gave a timeline of events leading to the situation, indicating the flooding happened on a Thursday night, March 27, and the overflow of the contaminated water had occurred the following Sunday, March 30, when no one was on campus.

The district then hired a cleaning company and brought the city health inspector to test to make sure it is safe and gave the district the green light.

A lift station failure in Edinburg cause flooding at a nearby elementary school, as well as homes and businesses Monday, April 28, 2025, in Edinburg. (Delcia Lopez | dlopez@themonitor.com)

Hiring a second company to do more thorough testing, Salinas said the district received the report Thursday which showed the traces of E. coli.

“The decision to move the children … was made last night,” he said Monday. “I got a phone call around 9 o’clock from the company that is rehabilitating the campus, and they recommended that we move the children to another campus. They want to work free of children around and so we made the decision … The company that gave us the results made it very clear to me that the kids were safe (on Friday).”

Parents at the news conference were allowed to ask questions, which escalated into many frustratingly looking for answers.

Steven Cruz, parent of a fourth-grader, said he works in the wastewater industry and knew when the sewage flooding occurred it was not a school district problem or even a city problem but an unpredictable event.

“I’m glad they finally addressed it and I think we just got to move on from here and make things right for the parents and ultimately the kids, this is our future,” he said. “I think it’s everything that happened after the fact is what parents are upset about. It happened, but what are we doing from the moment we found out to now. And I think some parents just feel that it might have been brushed under the rug.”

Asked if he feels like his child is safe coming to Canterbury, Cruz said, “I haven’t looked at the report, so I can’t answer that question but do I think the intention of the school district is to keep my kids safe? One-hundred percent. I don’t believe there’s one person here that has ill intention when it comes to the school … There’s just things we need to address.”

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