Elon names retired principal to help lead Roberts Academy launch

Elon University has named retired Guilford County principal Tracy Roof to help launch the Roberts Academy, a private school for children with dyslexia that will open in August 2026 at Trollinger House on West Trollinger Avenue in Elon.

Roof will serve as the inaugural director of business and school operations, working alongside acting director Alicia Tate as one of the academy’s founding administrators. Elon said Roof taught math, science and social studies for 12 years, spent six years as a curriculum facilitator and then 15 years in school leadership as an assistant principal and principal before retiring from Guilford County Schools in 2025.

The academy will begin with third- and fourth-grade students and later expand to grades 1 through 6 when a permanent facility opens on East Haggard Avenue for the 2028-29 school year. Elon says each classroom will be capped at no more than 12 students, and the school is designed as a transitional program to help students return to their home or community schools after two to three years, reading at or above grade level.

For Alamance County families looking for more specialized help with reading, spelling and writing, the launch creates a new option that does not currently exist in this form nearby. Elon says the Roberts Academy will be North Carolina’s only university-based private school for children with dyslexia, using the Orton-Gillingham approach, an evidence-based, multisensory method that relies on sight, sound, touch and movement. The university says the academy and the companion Roberts Center for Dyslexia and Engaged Learning will also provide resources and professional development for educators across North Carolina.

Elon president Connie Ledoux Book called the project a “visionary investment” and said children with dyslexia need “engagement, empowerment, and belief” rather than just intervention. The school was made possible by a gift from Hal and Marjorie Roberts of Lakeland, Florida, whose support has also helped establish university-based private elementary schools at Vanderbilt University, Mercer University and Florida Southern College.

Interest in the launch has already started to build. Elon held an online Exploring Dyslexia session on Jan. 27, 2026, and a community Discovering Dyslexia session on Dec. 10, 2025, drawing parents and educators who wanted to know how the academy will work and who it will serve.

The timing comes as state and national reading data continue to underscore the need. North Carolina’s 2025 reading targets aimed to raise the share of students reading above proficiency from 45.8% to 61.8% on grades 3 through 8 EOGs and to increase fourth-grade NAEP reading proficiency from 39% to 43%. National Center for Education Statistics data show 7.5 million students ages 3 to 21 received special education services in 2022-23, and specific learning disabilities were the largest category at 32%.