Carlos Gonzalez Jr. of Roma ISD has been announced as this year’s Region One Superintendent of the Year, making one of five finalists for the statewide Superintendent of the Year award awarded by the Texas Association of School Boards or TASB. He’s the finalist from Region One which represents South Texas and he’ll be going against the other four regional winners for the state prize.

As finalist for Region One, Roma ISD won $1,000 and can receive another $5,000 if he wins the state award.

Mr. Gonzalez never envisioned himself an administrator. He was a coach first and as he put it to the McAllen Monitor, “All I wanted to do was coach. I thought I was going to coach forever, but 20 years into my career, a change happened, and I went into administration, and now here’s where I’m at.”

We’re lucky Mr. Gonzalez found a passion for administrating because he’s great at it. As Roma ISD Superintendent he’s collected numerous awards: 2 U.S. Department of Education Blue Ribbon Schools, 2 Governors’ Lone Star Ribbon Schools, 2 National ESEA Distinguished Schools, 5 Gold Ribbon Schools awarded by Children at Risk and 7 Texas Honor Roll Schools.

If this reads like accomplishments for his induction to an All Star team, it’s because he very well is an All Star Superintendent. But this isn’t all. Most importantly, under his administration Roma ISD earned an A rating for the state accountability system for 2024-2025 and had Roma High School receive its first ever A rating, making Roma ISD one of the highest performing districts in the Rio Grande Valley. With an overall rating of 91, they are second only to South Texas ISD in Mercedes and beat larger districts like McAllen and Edinburg.

And aside from performing well by all traditional measures, Mr. Gonzalez Jr. has made significant efforts to expand extracurricular programs designed to provide support systems for students that need it like the district’s “Road to Recovery Center” which allows students to recover credits and graduation on time and the “18+ Life Center” meant to help special education students gain career readiness skills and the ability to live independently. This shows how above all the awards and merit, Mr. Gonzalez Jr. is simply focused on improving students’ lives and helping them get ahead. Everything else just comes along with this mission.

The valley is grateful to have someone like Mr. Gonzalez and we thank him for his hard work and passion for the job.