Donna Superintendent Placed on Paid Administrative Leave
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DONNA – The Donna school board voted to place the superintendent on paid leave.
Tuesday night the board voted 4 to 3 in an executive session to put Superintendent Fernando Castillo on paid administrative leave. They did not give the reason behind the decision.
Castillo did attend the meeting but did not take part in the discussion about his future. He was appointed as superintendent in August 2016 after former Superintendent Jesus Reyna resigned.
Reyna had also been suspended with pay by the district after his arrest on bribery charges in June 2015.
Those charges were later dropped, but the board refused to allow him to return to work.
Reyna resigned in July 2016 after reaching an agreement with the district.
Castillo’s leave will go into effect on Friday.
People at the meeting demanded to know why the motion was made. The school board chose not to release the reasons at this time.
“I can’t really go into the details on why that decision was made, that’s what we discussed in executive. But obviously there were some issues that the board feels need to be addressed, so suspension with paid leave is how they want to handle it first and then they’ll go from there,” Donna ISD attorney George Farah said.
The school board appointed an interim superintendent following the vote.
Dr. Maria Filomena Leo will start in the next two weeks.
She has experience as an interim superintendent at other school districts across the Valley.
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