Harlingen super gets $10,000 raise, salary bumped to $310,000

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

HARLINGEN — After a year on the job, Superintendent J.A. Gonzalez is landing a $10,000 pay increase after scoring high marks during his first evaluation.

Gonzalez’s first pay increase, going into effect Sept. 1, will boost his salary to $310,000.

In April, board members gave Gonzalez a one-year extension on his three-year contract along with a $10,000 pay increase after handing him high grades during his job evaluation.

“As I begin my 30th year in the field of education and my second with Harlingen CISD, and I am filled with gratitude for support from our board of trustees,” he said in a statement. “I am fully committed to serving our students, staff and community with dedication and integrity.”

Gonzalez counts his three children among his students.

“I’m grateful that my daughter and two sons attend Harlingen CISD, and I consider all 16,000 students my children,” he said. “I’m blessed to be able to lead appropriately 3,000 employees as we work hand-in-hand to ensure that each student in our district reaches their full potential. I will continue to put student safety and quality learning environments at the forefront of every decision.”

School Board President Greg Powers said Gonzalez is working to raise “the emotional quotient of the entire organization.”

“Dr. J.A. Gonzalez came to Harlingen CISD with a proven track record throughout his decades in education and the last nine years as a superintendent,” Powers said in a statement.

“Dr. Gonzalez has made discipline and order a priority while streamlining our instructional programs and has made raising the emotional quotient of the entire organization a top priority,” Powers said, adding he’s launched a new Guardians program aimed at bolstering safety at each campus.

“Dr. Gonzalez has worked alongside administrators across the district to create an expansion of student opportunities which have been instrumental in the development of our students as we prepare them for their future careers,” he said. “We look forward to the new school year with Dr. Gonzalez at the helm.”

In May 2023, the school board selected Gonzalez following an “extensive” search after past Superintendent Alicia Noyola, who was drawing a salary of $263,619, according to Govsalaries.com, announced her retirement after more than two years on the job.

After 27 years with the McAllen school district, Gonzalez said he was ready for his next challenge, following his mentor Arturo Cavazos, a former district superintendent who was drawing a $378,910 salary after seven years on the job.

In McAllen, Gonzalez climbed the ranks from a science teacher’s job to assistant principal, then worked his way from a principal’s position to associate superintendent for instructional leadership before landing the superintendent’s job about seven years ago.

In 2020, the Texas Association of School Boards named him Superintendent of the Year.

That year, the American Association of School Administrators named Gonzalez a finalist for its National Superintendent of the Year award, George McShan, a former longtime Harlingen school board member, recalled.

This year, Texas A&M University-Kingsville named Gonzalez its Alumni of the Year.

Born in Laredo and raised in Hebbronville, Gonzalez holds a bachelor’s degree in education from Texas A&M University-Kingsville and a master of science degree in educational administration and a doctorate in educational leadership from the University of Texas-Pan American.