The new Center is in three spacious rooms with high ceilings, tall windows, and freshly painted walls. The walls are decorated with everything from posters to portraits to maps to charts -- even a large handmade rendition of the periodic table of chemicals. With soft carpets underfoot and copious lighting overhead, spacious tables and comfortable chairs, plenty of blackboards and chalk, shelf after shelf of reference books and reading books, banks of computers, drawers full of calculators, and lots of full-time and part-time tutors on hand to help – well, the LEO Center is a paradise for students who want to succeed in their studies.

The LEO Center offers a range of academic enrichment activities, during both the school year and the summer, for students in local middle schools and high schools. For adults it offers daily classes in Basic English and Computer Skills.

The Center’s move was prompted by zoning and lease problems at the former site. In discussion with other Catholic educators in the neighborhood, the LEO staff developed new partnerships, as LEO Center’s director, Brother Christopher Bassen, FSC, explains in his letter to LEO supporters. These new partnerships led, after much preparatory work, to the move in September 2005 to LEO’s new location. Brother Chris is pleased: “This facility gives us the same four thousand square feet of floor space as our old facility but at only a third of the rental cost.” [Read the full text of Brother Chris’s article for LEO Supporters at the end of this article.]

Interested students, families, and educators are always welcome to contact the LEO Center for more information about its many programs. Volunteer tutors, and donors, are always needed as well.

Learn more about LEO

Here is an article from the Center's Fall 2005 newsletter "The LEO Bookshelf":

“The LEO Center has moved to a new location. After 11 years at our old site on Telegraph Ave. and West MacArthur Blvd., we relocated a few blocks west to 710 40 th St. near the intersection of 40 th St. and Martin Luther King, Jr. Way in Oakland. We are leasing a building on the property of Sacred Heart Church. This facility gives us the same 4000 sq. ft. floor space of our old facility but at only a third of the rental cost.

“Two events spurred us to begin looking for a new site for the Center over a year ago. First, the city of Oakland and the Bay Area Rapid Transit district (BART) notified our local community that a Transit Village would replace the existing buildings on our block, which we share with the MacArthur BART station. Developers presented plans, speakers claimed to have the financing in place, and the city presented a time line and a plan to compensate owners. As a matter of fact, nothing has happened this past year, but that’s another story. Second, our landlord told us that he would be increasing the monthly rent in our next lease to market value. From the beginning of the LEO Center in 1994, we have had good lease terms, which were negotiated by Joseph De Luca, a man very dedicated to the work of the Center and the ministry of the Diocese of Oakland generally. Miss Mildred likes to call him the “Godfather” of the LEO Center. Joe passed away in March 2000 and we miss him as a strong supporter and a gifted advisor. Language in the leases he assisted us with concerning renewal and increases of rent served us very well but the landlord notified us that past formulas and clauses would not be included in the new lease.

“About a year ago, Fr. Tom Hayes, OMI, Pastor of Sacred Heart Church and Sr. Barbara Dawson, RSCJ, President of St. Martin de Porres School told us of their interest in having the LEO Center move to a building that the parish and school were using but didn’t need. The parish was interested in generating a small amount of income and the school looked to develop a partnership with LEO to serve their Spanish-speaking parents in our English as a Second Language classes, which we offer 6 days a week, mornings and evenings. Sr. Barbara began a capital campaign to raise money to remodel the building and do other construction projects on the two campuses of St. Martin de Porres School. Br. Chris participated with her in making presentations to foundations. By spring 2005, several foundations supported the plan and a development firm, Signature Properties, made a major contribution and took on the construction of all the projects. We had planned to move to the new facility during the summer, but construction was not completed until early September.

“In preparation for the move, Br. Chris had measured all our furniture and the dimensions of the rooms in the new facility, developing a computer layout that we revised at staff meetings. When the time came for the move, we were ready. In a day and a half, on Friday and Saturday, September 16-17, we packed up things, unwired our computer network, and dismantled furniture that wouldn’t fit through the doors of the new Center. On Monday the 19 th, movers made several trips the few blocks from our former site to our new site. From Tuesday of that week through Sunday, we on the LEO staff worked every day, all day, setting everything back up. During this week of moving we were blessed to have many volunteers helping us.

“After a week of closure, we opened the doors of the new LEO Center on Monday, September 26. Since then all of the LEO Center programs have been up and running. We are very pleased with our new facility.”

Brother Christopher Bassen, FSC