March 20, 2006VOL. 44, NO. 6Oakland, CA

San Leandro school celebrates 125 years in the community

By Carrie McClish
Staff writer

At the age of 125 years, St. Leander School in San Leandro is not only still kicking, but also thriving. Its faculty and staff provide 290 students with excellent academic and enrichment programs during the school day and after-school there are classes in art, dance, and voice and instrumental music that build on the school’s fine arts program.

In addition, the school, under the leadership of principal Barbara McCullough, offers Spanish classes to middle school students. And like a number of schools in the diocese, St. Leander offers before- and after-school care programs as well.

Catholic identity and religious education remain at the heart of the school’s curriculum, said Terry Wilde, the school’s vice principal. Students actively participate in school liturgies, morning prayer assemblies and retreats, and they serve the parish as altar servers, candle and cross bearers, and readers at Sunday liturgies.

The pastor, Father Paul Vassar, pops in regularly to join students in prayer and visits the classrooms frequently, said Wilde. He is “very encouraging to the children when we have the monthly school Masses.”

It was this same determination to provide a Catholic education to children in the parish that led Father John McEvoy to found the parochial school in 1881. The priest, who became pastor of St. Leander in 1878, invited the Dominican Sisters of Benicia (now of San Rafael) to open a boarding and day school at the site of the former Alameda County courthouse and jail, which had been vacated after the county seat moved to Oakland.

Six Dominican Sisters, led by Sister Raymond Murphy, arrived after a dramatic journey from Stockton that included sharing a boat ride with a drove of “porkers” that were taken on board in Benicia. “How did they grunt and squeal! It was impossible to sleep owing to the noise,” wrote Sister Aquin Tierney in her chronicle of the sojourn. Excerpts of Sister Tierney’s journal appeared in the school’s 1981 centennial history book, “Reflections,” written by former Catholic Voice reporter Jeffrey Lewis.

After surviving a hair-raising ride on “Stratton’s bus,” a rickety, horse-drawn wagon, to the site of the old courthouse, the Sisters began to transform the abandoned site. They trudged across overgrown weeds and braved the elements to go on “begging expeditions” to raise funds for their grammar and high school for girls, originally named St. Mary’s School. A school for boys opened in 1883 and later merged with the girls’ school in 1897. Three years later, the high school was discontinued because of low enrollment.

To stretch their limited funds, the Sisters took in boarders and received financial support from bequests left to them by parishioners. As enrollment and income increased, the Sisters, with the help of the community, built a three-story addition to the old court house building in 1890.

A few years later, in 1907, St. Elizabeth Hall was constructed to house the still growing school population, which then numbered over 350 students. This building is currently being used by Building Futures for Women and Children.

Highlighting the need to improve safety for students and staff, Father John Hunt, pastor from 1920-33, spearheaded the effort to replace the school building and the courthouse with a new school and separate convent building. The old buildings were torn down and replaced with two new structures, both two-story, in 1926.

The opening of the new St. Mary’s School in 1927 drew some 380 students. In the decade that followed, enrollment grew to over 400 students. School growth continued to be a trend at St. Leander where students found increasingly larger classes and waiting lists became long. By the 1950s some determined parents chose to sleep overnight in the convent garden to be first in line to register their child for first grade.

To meet the demand of Catholic families, Father Philip Ryan, pastor from 1952-63, gradually introduced double grades at St. Mary’s. By 1954 classes had become so packed that the parish’s YLI Hall was converted into “emergency classrooms.” By the end of the decade the school had nearly 800 students.

During this time of rapid growth Father Ryan also changed the school name to St. Leander to reflect its link with the parish.

With the construction of new schools at neighboring Assumption and St. Felicitas parishes, however, enrollment began to decline in the 1960s and 1970s, and the double grades were phased out.

The available classroom space gave the principal, Sister Jeanne Marie Bendik, a number of creative opportunities. She established a science room, enlarged the library, and opened a reading center and an art room. Sixth graders joined the seventh and eighth graders in a “departmentalized” program.

The end of the 1970s brought the appointment of the first lay principal, Joyce Braun. It also saw the development of a pre-kindergarten program, one of the few such programs in the diocese.

The Dominican Sisters formally withdrew from St. Leander’s in 1985, but the school continues the Dominican tradition of educating students who are “academically prepared, understand the teachings of the Catholic Church, and are committed to serving others,” Wilde said.

In one of their recent service projects, students collected soap and other toiletries and assembled “fresh start kits” for distribution at the St. Vincent de Paul Dining Room and its allied services in downtown Oakland.

In addition to its service projects, the school considers its diversity – ethnic, cultural and economic – to be one of its greatest assets. A special celebration of that diversity occurs during the Advent season when the students gather for a blessing of the Christmas tree and prayers are offered in English, Spanish, Korean and Tagalog.

“We have just about every culture represented here,” Wilde said. “It is one of the strong points of our school. It has been for many years.”

Father William G. O’Mahony, pastor, stands with some of the St. Mary’s School students on the steps of the old convent in 1906.

The graduating class of 1930 stands for their class portrait in front of St. Mary’s Convent.

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