A Roanoke-area adult high school is preparing to start its second year of classes.
Goodwill Industries of the Valleys launched the Excel Center of Roanoke last year as part of its larger development of Melrose Plaza. The Excel Center is Virginia's first adult high school, and has already sent off its first graduate.
As it geared up for its second year, teachers gathered at the facility to prepare. The school currently features four core classes that include math, science, English and social studies. The Excel Center also is looking for a fifth teacher to instruct a business-oriented class.
Chris Haning taught public school in Florida for years, until moving to Virginia last year to teach history and social studies at the Excel Center.
"The Excel Center is actually what drove me to really decide on Roanoke," Haning says. "I love the area, but the job matched perfectly."
Haning found the first year of students were revved up and ready to learn.
"The students for the most part were motivated," Haning says. "They really wanted to learn and they were really happy to take advantage of opportunity, and I was glad to be here for them and support them."
Kelley Weems is senior director of community impact at Goodwill Industries of the Valleys, which operates the Excel Center. She says, demographically, its students run the gamut. But most are women.
"They were in high school, they had a child, and they were the ones who stepped out of school to raise the child," Weems says. "And we do see quite a bit of that. Some of our students are grandparents. Some of them are first time parents who are navigating infants, and everything in between. This year we actually have a mother and a son coming together."
Eighty students are attending the school this year, up from 25 last year. Classes begin on Aug. 24.
