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By Christian Simmons

For the Clemmons Courier

In an effort to address areas of conventional education they find concerning, a few visionaries in Clemmons are opening a new learning center with hopes to make a difference for the future.

Frankie Vaughn is one of those visionaries and has helped establish the Westwood Village Learning Center. As Vaughn points out, test scores are one area the learning center is designed to address.

“Students sometimes are taught to a test rather than being taught the material necessary for each grade level and the future,” Vaughn said. “This way students are taught to learn material not taught to a test. It also gears towards student interests to give different means of activities, and study material to supplement their grade level requirements and preparations for the next level.”

Vaughn talked about other stumbling blocks our students face as well as a solution the Westwood Village Learning Center has come up with.

Led by Vaughn and family, the Westwood Village Learning Center aims to bring back real education into the classroom. While the actual school still awaits inspections and zoning, the Westwood Village Learning Center offers online learning.

The Westwood Village Learning Center, wants to emphasize that the parent is just as integral in their child’s education as their teachers.

The center offers education for grades K-12 with their current online school and when the inspections and zoning are done, it will offer the same grades in their building.

The plan is to have regular 180-day school days starting at 9 a.m. and lasting until 2 p.m. when it opens for the 2024/2025 school year.

When it comes to curriculum, Vaughn said, “We use a program called Flexpoint, (which) allows teachers to create their own curriculums within the material. It is completely digital in means of work. Over 180 courses are offered to not only allow students to complete their main coursework, but take courses they are interested in as well. The program gives teachers and students the ability to work together to achieve their goals.”

All the Westwood Village Learning Center had in store, didn’t come without its fair share of struggles and hardships.

“Two of our major struggles have been with planning out how we could create a school to acclimate the positives and keep the student in mind and filling out required paperwork,” Vaughn said.

Vaughn is always keeping an eye on the future.

“Our plan is to continue to grow and reach out to the community,” Vaughn said. “We want to help others see that education can be accessible, teach skills to be applied in life (no matter the pathway), empower, and grow in their internal and external talents. We hope to help many people find a school that is the perfect fit for them, and hope that fit can be us. We would love to continue making a difference in the community and lives of our future; the students”

For those parents looking to place their child in the physical classroom, please be reminded that the Westwood Village Learning Center is still waiting for their inspections and zoning.

The learning center will feature class ratios of 1 (teacher) to 10 (students) and free lunches from local rest.

All school supplies will be provided, including chrome books, choice of in-house, hybrid or online classes.

To learn more, interested parties can stop by on Feb. 10 at 3 p.m. to meet the staff. Westwood Village Learning Center is located at 130 Westwood Village Drive in Clemmons.

School leaders can also be contacted by telephone at 336-749-1476 or email at westwoodvillagelearningcenter@gmail.com.