History

Leonard Wood Elementary School was built during the American period in the 1920's. It was then that Governor General Leonard Wood, a physician built a health facility, which was funded by Eversley Childs, a benevolent industrialist from New York City. The Eversley Child Sanitarium and Hospital was named in his honor, and the school was named after the Governor General Leonard Wood.

Hansenites in the Philippines during that time was rampant and unabated. The patients were ostracized and neglected by their families. The Americans gave an example of a true and real service to treat the patients. They established a well planned community of lepers, health workers, doctors, and nurses in well arranged cottages and houses. They also built churches and schools.

Formerly, Leonard Wood Elementary School only enrolled hansenite patients and the children of people affected with leprosy and people afflicted by it. It was in the 1960's that the school became part of the Department of Education and was allocated with textbooks, additional classrooms, desks, armchairs, and teachers.

The school is considered a disadvantaged school since it is a school for hansenite patients and former patients and their children. Thanks to the benevolent heart of the Rotarians who had always helped LWES through thick and thin, providing feeding program form below normal pupils, providing school supplies and materials for impoverished families since most head of the families or mothers can no longer be employed due to the stigma of the disease. The Rotarians, Coalition for Better Education (CBE), Jollibee Foundation Inc., and the VIsayan Electric Company (VECO) had shown their willingness to join and support the teachers and parents as partners in nation building and as active stakeholders of education as one country and people of the Republic of the Philippines.