Los Fresnos CISD's superintendent steps away after 20 years at helm
May 1-After 37 years in public education and 20 at the helm of the Los Fresnos Consolidated Independent School District, Superintendent Gonzalo Salazar announced he will retire at the end of the current school year in June.
Salazar became superintendent in June 2006 after stepping in as interim superintendent a year earlier. His contract runs through June 2029.
Under his leadership the district has consistently achieved exemplary state academic ratings. It has added two elementary schools, a second high school in Los Fresnos United, and a performing arts center.
"The story about my tenure has less to do with me and more to do with we. It is a testament to what can happen in a community when everyone works together behind a single vision for student success," Salazar said.
"You can see it reflected in the superintendent, in the low turnover on the school board, the low turnover on the teachers, and it's a beautiful thing because every year we get to refine what we did the previous year, tweak it, make it better. That's one of the benefits of having such stability, and who benefits from that is our students," he said.
Salazar's career timeline begins with him riding a bicycle across the crosswalk over a highway to the Brownsville Independent School District's human resources office looking for a job in the Food and Nutrition Services department in the 1990s.
"BISD, the school system, represented a Monday through Friday schedule where I could go to school at night. It meant I could go to school from 4:30 in the afternoon until 10:30 at night," he said.
Eventually, Salazar would resign the BISD job to go to school full time, enrolling concurrently at the University of Texas at Brownsville and Pan American University in Edinburg. He received his bachelor of arts degree in Spanish with a minor in bilingual education in 1996.
His first job as a teacher was in San Benito, where he taught at Dr. Cash Elementary from 1996-2000. For a year he was the original flight instructor at the Challenger Learning Center, where fifth-graders went on field trips for a rendezvous with a comet.
Later there was a San Benito CISD staff meeting in the late 1990s.
Los Fresnos Consolidated Independent School District (LFCISD) Superintendent Gonzalo Salazar walks inside the foyer of the LFCISD Performing Arts Center (PAC) on Wednesday, April 29, 2026 as Salazar prepares for retirement after 20 years serving as superintendent and 37 years in public education. (Miguel Roberts - The Brownsville Herald)
"Margarita Greer, the federal programs director from main office was there to tell us about a Title 7 grant that would pay for our master's. It was a master's in administration. And one hand went up in that room. That grant paid for my tuition and books for my master's degree," he said.
"God's hand was in all of this. How does that happen. People say 'Oh, you were just lucky.' I believe that God had a hand in scripting what I was living, and I'm grateful to Him for putting me in the field of education, for bringing me into this very noble profession," he said.
Salazar also remembers finding out during the last class in his master's program about a job fair in Los Fresnos.
"The rest of my classmates were saying 'she can help you. She's in curriculum.' It was Martha Barreda; she's the director of curriculum at Los Fresnos for elementary," Salazar said.
"And I came to the job fair; I did an interview. I did not interview with Mrs. Barreda. I interviewed with a lady by the name of Lorene Villarreal, and that was almost 27 years ago. I came to Los Fresnos as an assistant principal at Lopez Riggins Elementary."
Salazar worked at Lopez Riggins about a year and a half before being moved to Palmer Laasko Elementary. As he was preparing to start his second year there, he was reassigned again, this time to Olmito Elementary, the state-of-the-art elementary school Los Fresnos was opening on Brownsville's northern edge.
In December 2005, the board of trustees named Salazar interim superintendent.
"George Rivas came into the room, he was our chief financial officer, and said I'm going to retire at the end of the year, enrollment's busting at the seams. We have to pass a bond."
Salazar had taken school finance courses at UTB, so he knew what Interest & Sinking Fund and Maintenance & Operations were, but he was not familiar with what it took to pass a school construction bond.
"It was a learning curve, but in the first six months while I was still the interim, we passed a $33 million bond to build two elementary schools," Salazar said. "After passing the bond, the board decided to offer me the permanent job. That was a little over 20 years ago."
Los Fresnos Consolidated Independent School District (LFCISD) Superintendent Gonzalo Salazar stands outside the LFCISD Performing Arts Center (PAC) on Wednesday, April 29, 2026 as Salazar prepares for retirement after 20 years serving as superintendent and 37 years in public education. (Miguel Roberts - The Brownsville Herald)
In 2018, Salazar received his doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.
Salazar is a past president of the Texas Association of School Administrators or TASA.
He recalled sitting in the back of the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center in San Antonio 18 years ago. Students from another Texas district were performing onstage during that year's TASA Convention.
"I wanted our kids to perform on that stage and I tapped someone on the shoulder who said, 'I think that's a courtesy they afford the president of the association.'"
At the 2023-2024 convention, Salazar got his wish.
Salazar assumed the role of TASA president in June 2023, and assisted in moderating the three-day convention at which Los Fresnos students were invited to perform to represent the district, a district news release states.
Melody Castillo, who was then a second-grader at Los Fresnos Elementary, led the National Anthem in A-Cappella, followed by elementary conjunto and high school conjunto performances.
"My God we just put on a display of culture," Salazar said. "What we know in Los Fresnos is that we serve predominantly Hispanic students and we know kids don't come to us as an empty container. They bring cultural capital from home. What I'm talking about is the morals and values parents pass on to kids. ... If we build on that cultural capital, if we acknowledge and validate that culture, we can teach them anything. But kids need to be able to see themselves in their school, and that's the message we took to the convention center that when kids can see themselves in their school, when our staff sees themselves in the kids that we serve, boy, that's a recipe for success and so we have programs that celebrate culture, that flourish, that do really well."
Salazar said the decision to walk away was difficult, but he knew it was time.
"Over the years, I've recognized the importance of developing the next generation of leaders, empowering them, delegating some of your authority, stepping back out of that role where I was making every decision, sharing some of that authority was the responsible thing to do, a succession plan, right, so that when that moment came, when I knew that I knew, there's a plan in place. ... I still have a contract through 2029, but there's something romantic about being able to step aside and let the next generation of leaders take it to the next level. So, I will admire from a distance and cherish the memories."
As to what's next, Salazar said he has accepted a position with the Texas Association of School Boards, or TASB, as a senior executive for executive search services.
"That means ... I get to continue living in my home, my wife and I, and then go travel around the state and work with school boards to create a profile of their next superintendent and go through the process, help them facilitate the process until they hire their next superintendent."
Photo Gallery: LFCISD Superintendent Gonzalo Salazar through the years
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Superintendent Gonzalo Salazar is pictured with his daughters, Jessica and Sandra, and wife Sandra at the 2026 Employee Awards Banquet during his final year of service. His son, Aaron, is not pictured. (Courtesy of Los Fresnos CISD)
Los Fresnos CISD Superintendent Gonzalo Salazar stands with students and the school community during the opening celebration of the new Performing Arts Center. (Courtesy of Los Fresnos CISD)
Los Fresnos CISD Superintendent Gonzalo Salazar delivers opening remarks at the Texas Association of School Administrators conference in 2022 in San Antonio while serving as president. (Courtesy of Los Fresnos CISD)
Los Fresnos CISD Superintendent Gonzalo Salazar speaks to district teachers and personnel during the annual Los Fresnos CISD Convocation, marking the start of the 2025-26 school year. (Courtesy of Los Fresnos CISD)
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Editor's note: This story was updated to correct information about Salazar's bicycle ride to BISD's human resources office, Barreda's and Villarreal's names.
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This story was originally published May 2, 2026 at 3:50 PM.