Yolanda Cantu, a third-grade math teacher at Whitney M. Young Jr. Elementary School, was set to retire several times, only to be pulled back to Dallas ISD.
When she came back from retirement the last time, she pledged not to make any more attempts until her school earned an A rating from Texas Education Agency.
Cantu now plans to retire after 41 years, keeping her promise to Principal Shabranda Mathis that she would not leave until they reached that A rating, which the school received for the 2024-2025 school year.
Cantu, a member of the first graduating class at Skyline High School, worked as a bilingual geriatric nurse at Parkland Hospital before becoming a teacher. Nursing was one of Cantu’s dream jobs, but it ended up being too emotional for her to stay in the profession long-term.
Cantu later received a degree in elementary education with a bilingual endorsement from the former East Texas State University.
“I told myself I was going to teach my kids what they need to learn in their first language, and then we worked on the second language,” she said. “It was truly bilingual education.”
Cantu began teaching math at James Hogg Elementary School, now Hogg New Tech Center, in the early 1980s. She stayed for seven years before transferring to Leila P. Cowart Elementary School, followed by C.A. Tatum Jr., Annie Webb Blanton, and William Lipscomb elementary schools.
Then the attempts at retirement began.
“I wanted to retire from Tatum in 2015, but Umoja Turner, who was then principal of William A. Blair Elementary School, called me and told me he needed me,” she said.
Cantu taught second-grade math at Blair for two years and, at last, she retired.
“My friend Shabranda Mathis became assistant principal at Hector P. Garcia Middle School the same year I retired, and she called me in June, ‘can you please come and help me out?’” Cantu said.
At first, she refused because she had never taught middle school, but Mathis insisted.. When Cantu said she could not work full-time since she had already retired, Mathis offered her part-time work.
“I went, and I loved it,” Cantu said. “I remember telling my husband that I missed my calling when I spent all those years teaching elementary school. I just loved teaching middle school.”
Under Cantu’s guidance, most of the eighth-graders at Garcia who had never passed the STAAR test did.
Then, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Cantu said she took a break from teaching to protect herself and her family. Thinking she had at long last retired, she settled into her new life.Mathis called again.
“She called me saying she needed help at Whitney Young,” Cantu said.
This time, Cantu didn’t think twice and told Mathis she would stay a year. She is now going on her fourth year of teaching sixth-grade math, promising Mathis she would not retire until the school raised its rating to an A.
In the four decades she has been working with the district, Cantu said bilingual students are some of the most cariñosos—affectionate. She believes that bilingual education is more important than ever before, and she often reminds her students of it.
“Jobs for bilingual people open up so much more, and this is what I try to tell my students: don’t forget your first language because the possibilities are endless,” she said.
