Sisters Share Same Calling

They grew up under the same roof in San Fernando, and are still vacationing together and shopping as a group, sometimes buying the same outfits. But they never figured they would wind up teaching at the same elementary school.

Meet the Mendoza sisters: Norma, Coco, Rosa and Dora, who have taught together at Canterbury Avenue Elementary School in Arleta for five years.

“It wasn’t planned,” said eldest sister Norma, 37, a first-grade teacher who started at Canterbury 11 years ago.

“They all got jobs on their own merits. As soon as they were ready, I told them when there was an opening and sure enough, they got hired.”

While some people can’t fathom working with a relative, Norma said it’s what she enjoys most about being at the elementary school.

“It’s like coming home,” she said Tuesday shortly before a news conference to showcase the teaching sisters.

Principal Marilyn Parlen describes Norma as “the leader, the decision-maker,” Coco as “the visionary who knows what she wants,” Rosa as “the energizer” and Dora as “the observer who is very perceptive.”

“Together, their synergetic energy is tremendous,” Parlen said.

“But when you separate them out, they are still very special people,” she said.

Los Angeles Unified School District officials said four siblings teaching at one school is highly unusual.

“To have not two, but four, of them teaching at the same school is what makes it unique,” district spokeswoman Susan Cox said.

But students, parents and staff members are sometimes confused, especially when more than one sister comes to school wearing the same outfit.

To simplify the situation, the sisters are often called by their first initial and last name or by their classroom: kindergarten teacher Coco becomes “Miss C. Mendoza” and fourth-grade teacher Rosa is called “Miss Mendoza, Room 54.”

The confusion has lessened some since last year when third-grade teacher Dora, 28, married Danny Alvarez, a bilingual coordinator at the school, and began using her married name.

Rosa, 31, plans to do the same after she gets married in March.

But Coco, 35, who plans to wed in July, said she will continue using the Mendoza name at school.

Students seem to enjoy having the four sisters at their school, which also boasts two other sibling teachers.

“On the first day of school this year, I wasn’t scared because I knew the four Miss Mendozas,” said Claudia Padilla, 10, who had Dora for third grade and now is in Rosa’s fourth-grade class.

Most of the time, the sisters say they get along well.

“We have our disagreements like anyone else, but we move on,” Rosa said.

“We don’t see [working on the same campus] as a negative thing. We see it as more of a positive thing.

“If we ever need anything, from supplies to food, we help out each other,” she said.

Relating to the children at Canterbury is a natural for the sisters.

Their parents, Jesus and Silvia, immigrated to the United States in 1971 to make a better life for their family.

Their lack of English skills made it difficult for them to communicate with their children’s teachers.

“Many of the Canterbury parents are Spanish speakers,” Dora said. “I tell them I didn’t have parents to help me with a lot of my homework, but they had high expectations.

“I see myself in [the students]. That’s what I was.”

Six of the seven Mendoza children graduated from Cal State Northridge, including Jose, a structural engineer for the city, and Jesus, who is working on his teaching credential with plans to teach physical education at the middle or high school level.

The youngest sibling, Sylvia, is studying biology at UC Riverside.

Although the sisters, all graduates of San Fernando High School, are the first teachers in their family, they credit their parents for stressing the importance of finishing high school and college.

Coco said she was also inspired by a librarian who taught her to read at age 10 despite her dyslexia.

“Ever since then,” she said, “I wanted to be like her and help children.”