Study Hall Learning Center in the News
Study Hall Learning Centers opens
third location hereBy
Tamarind Phinisee
on August 6, 2004
Mauro Leija is one step closer to his expansion goal for Study
Hall Learning Centers.
The owner/director of the locally based
daycare centers, which cater to children six weeks to 11 years
old, told the Business Journal in 1999 that he wanted to open a
franchise every other year, until he had five locations.
Leija recently opened No. 3 when he purchased a property
downtown at 708 E. Quincy at the corner of Brooklyn.
"Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would be able to do
this," Leija says. "We are providing a service to a lot of
children and for us that's success."
The centers offer curriculum in math, reading, writing and
teach every student the Spanish language.
Leija explains that the additional centers aren't really
franchises. The business arrangement is that the facility is
leased out to an individual who then pays a fee to Leija for its
usage.
"We get a set amount of money ... that we use to pay for
things like phone book advertising, the mortgage, the equipment,
etc.," he says. "It's called a franchise. But, it's not really a
franchise."
The center caters to about 30 children and is run by Selina
Medrano, a former employee of Leija's.
Leija says his plan at first was to own and run all the
centers himself. But as the business grew, it became
increasingly difficult to do so.
"Before I wanted to own everything and run everything and
that's just impossible to do," he says. "You need to be hands-on
in a day care."
In 2001, Leija opened his second location, when he purchased
the former Braun Station Learning Center at 9480 Braun Road on
the city's Northwest Side, and poured about $20,000 into it for
renovation.
"We initially started with between 25 and 30 students. Within
a year we had 105 students. That's a 400 percent increase," he
says.
The Braun location is now licensed for 120 children, which
had been run by a private investor.
Leija says that since then, however, he's taken back
management of the location because the investor wanted to move
on to other ventures.
Leija got into the daycare business in 1996, while trying to
find a daycare center for his own children.
After having no success, he decided to start his own center.
With the help and financial support of family and friends, Leija
opened the first day care in the Medical Center area at 2046
Babcock Road.
With financial assistance from ACCION Texas, a locally based
microlending agency, Leija has been able to make his business
thrive.
Janie Barrera, president and CEO of ACCION Texas, says Leija
is a hardworking individual with a vision of success.
"He's taking the right steps to grow the business," Barrera
says. "It's interesting how he's grown from when he first came
to us and could not get a bank loan to his second business where
the bank funded some of the money. Now, he's almost graduated
from us."
Leija says he's always taken a positive approach to seemingly
difficult situations, which has helped him tremendously.
"I once read that ... life is better looking from the
mountaintop than from the valley," he says.
As for the future, Leija says he's now looking at two other
sites where he'd like to put up centers. Ideally, he'd like to
purchase existing daycare centers.
Leija says he'd also like to one day offer consulting
services, advising others on how to start their own daycare
facilities.
Business owner runs thriving Study
HallBy
Anna Lazarus
on October 22, 1999For day care-center owner Mauro Leija, money is no object.
"I'm not looking to become a millionaire," he says of running
his Northwest Side day care center. "But I am looking to be
successful and a model for other day care centers."
Consider it a lesson learned. After three years, Leija's
business, which he started in a friend's home as an after-school
day care, has found a fervent following.
Leija and his 11 employees now have
a waiting list two-to-three-months long for children to
attend the Study Hall Learning Center, a day care that offers a bilingual
curriculum and computer access, all in a home-like environment.
When we first started, I sat down and figured out what was
important to me," Leija says. "I tried to create a really
different environment, but one where the importance of Spanish
is emphasized and computer training is essential.
Day care dream
Until 1996, running his own day care center was all but a
dream to Leija.
After spending some time working for others in
the day care field, and working with special education children
in the San Antonio Independent School District, Leija decided to
fulfill his vision by opening his own day care center.
It was easier said than done.
While he had a detailed outline of his ideal day-care
business, Leija lacked the capital to bring his vision to a
reality.
To start up his business, he borrowed money from family
and friends.
"I had saved money and I also solicited it from different
people," he explains.
The money added up, but wasn't quite enough. Leija then
approached area banks for a loan, but to no avail.
"It was very discouraging," he says. "I went to the bank with
a business plan, and was told that I was a `dreamer,' and that I
was never going to make it.
They said, `you don't have a college
degree,' and that I had no collateral.
"But I knew that I could make it."
Leija's entrepreneurial spirit eventually prevailed, thanks
in large part to his relationship with ACCION Texas, a locally
based microlending agency that grants loans to customers who
cannot secure traditional bank loans.
Janie Barrera, president and chief executive officer of
ACCION, was approached by Leija three years ago at a business
class at St. Philip's College.
Says Barrera, "He took me aside and told me his dream."
The result was ACCION agreeing to lend Leija money. And over
the course of the next couple of years, Leija took out two
additional loans.
"He's one of our clients who is a success story," says Janie
Hernandez, vice president of communication for ACCION. "He's
really come full circle."
On duty
On a recent morning, Leija gives a visitor a tour of his
newly renovated facility. Located right in the middle of the
Medical Center area at 2046 Babcock Road, Leija's dream is a
fact of life for the 56 children that attend Study Hall.
As cars stream down Babcock, the kids take it all in from
their vantage point on the swings in the fenced-in playground,
which Leija calls the "backyard."
Inside, amid the surprisingly quiet day care rooms, Leija
speaks of realizing his goal. When his own children were ready
for day care, Leija recalls feeling that there was no place to
send them.
"I didn't like what any of the day cares were doing," he
says. "At every place I looked, there were too many kids and it
was too crazy. I didn't want to send my daughter to a place
where kids could play Nintendo all day."
Not liking what he saw, Leija created a niche for his own day
care.
He envisioned a place where kids could feel like they were
at home, but also a place where they could learn. He believed in
the importance of learning both Spanish and English. And he
thought kids should devote their energies to learning about
computers, rather than wasting their time on video games.
The result can be found inside the brightly colored rooms at
the Study Hall.
Leija is proud of the student-teacher ratio at
his center, where there are just nine kids to each teacher.
"I keep the ratio very low," Leija explains. "So the teachers
aren't overwhelmed."
In each room, children are separated by age group, from
infants to pre-kindergarteners. Each group, however, shares in
the same basic teaching styles and curriculum.
All of the
children learn Spanish and all learn about different things
through having a "theme month." This month, the kids learn about
community helpers.
Fire-fighters came to talk to the children
last week.
In addition, each room is built around a thematic center,
such as a kid-sized kitchen or a kid-sized store. Leija feels that teaching in a thematic way allows kids to
learn better.
Computers are also vital to the curriculum at the
day care; the center's seven computers are stationed in the
common area of the building.
Other day-care centers may have one computer, for a bunch of
children to share, says Leija. But at the Study Hall, there are
eight kids for every one computer, he notes.
Extended day care
Recently, the day care, which also handles after-school kids
through the third grade, was granted an extended license for 79
children. And with more kids will come more teachers. Leija says
he plans on hiring two to three more. Also, he is planning for
his teachers to continue their own education.
"We're starting to send all of them back to school," Leija
says about his teachers, all of whom are bilingual.
The recent changes at the Study Hall, where the teachers now
wear matching hospital-type smocks, are the result of Leija's
commitment to his clientele.
"We try to look at what the next trend in day care is," he
says. "That's the way people stay in the game."
Leija says the changes at the day care are just the
"finishing touches."
For now, Leija is happy with the success of the Study Hall,
his dream which came to fruition after only three years. But he
isn't done, just yet.
ACCION's Barrera calls him a "true entrepreneur." And like
any enterprising businessman, Leija is now looking to capitalize
on his success; he's hoping to make the Study Hall Learning
Center a franchise.