1974 was the year Cynthia Leahy founded Montessori School of Fremont. Ms. Leahy's school was the first Montessori program of early education to be established between Berkeley and San Jose.
Today there are more than twenty.
That first Montessori School of Fremont was essentially a one-woman operation. In 1974, Cynthia Leahy rented a Sunday School room at Our Savior Lutheran Church on Washington Boulevard. She dug the sandbox, installed the playground fence, built the tables and shelves, and ordered the unique Montessori classroom apparatus from its European supplier. But above all else, Cynthia Leahy was the teacher. Cynthia taught children younger than six to phonetically read and spell.