New Sylvan Learning Owner Aims To Reopen Closed Centres
FREDERICTON – Daryl Cooper, owner and director of education at Sylvan Learning in Fredericton, took ownership of the location in mid-August of 2022. Now, he is trying to reopen old centres that had been closed due to COVID.
Sylvan Learning is a service that meets students where they’re at with their education. They aim to help students achieve their best possible selves while working with them at their level.
Being with Sylvan Learning for 14 years, Cooper had initially started as a tutor, eventually moving up to be the director of education. Then when the previous owner was looking to retire, he took on the role of owner.
“I was already doing a lot of the work anyway,” Cooper tells Huddle. “[The previous owners] wanted to retire, they asked me if I was interested, so I spoke it over with my wife and we looked at some numbers and figured that we could make this work.”
Even though Cooper has taken over as owner, he has made a point to continue teaching within the centre.
“My background is that I’m a teacher first, that’s what I’m trained to do and that’s what I love doing,” he says.
Sylvan Learning Fredericton tends to be different from most centres. Unlike others, the Fredericton centre offers both English and French programs- one of the only locations do so. Along with this, they also have a very high number of students above the seventh grade, whereas most centres tend to have a younger clientele.
Another aspect that makes Fredericton different from other Sylvan Learning centres is that they cover a much wider population ground than others. Alongside the Fredericton centre, Cooper also runs a centre in Milltown.
Currently, he is also attempting to reopen centres in Woodstock and Upper Perth-Andover. However, due to a lack of teachers in the area, this has become more difficult than expected.
“Right now, we can only offer virtual services for [Woodstock and Upper Perth-Andover],” says Cooper. “It’s just that COVID has burned out a lot of teachers.”
He says that they currently have all the approvals that are needed to open the centres, as well as locations, they just need to find teachers that are willing to work at those locations.
“That is the biggest struggle that I have with day-to-day operations, is finding teachers for those further away centres,” he says.
Other than attempting to reopen previously closed centres, Cooper says that he has kept Sylvan Learning Fredericton as what people have become accustom to, but with some minor improvements that have caused major effects on the students.
“People are very happy with what we’re able to provide,” Cooper tells Huddle. “We’re always looking for ways to improve how we can help students and at the end of the day, that’s the goal.”
Ryley Roach is a Huddle student intern, based in Fredericton. Send her your feedback and story ideas: [email protected]