Huntington Learning Center is at 5739 Sunrise Blvd., Citrus Heights.

CITRUS HEIGHTS, CA (MPG) - Huntington Learning Center, a franchised private-subject tutoring and academic skills center at 5739 Sunrise Blvd., has for more than 30 years served kindergarten through 12th-grade (K-12) students in the greater Citrus Heights area.

“We have a great team of teachers who are truly passionate about the students they serve,” said center director Debi Nason. She oversees a team of 20 teachers, full and part-time, whom she calls “family.”

Nason, a former school administrator in San Jose, purchased the Citrus Heights franchise with David Layfer who serves as its director of education. The pair both started with Huntington as instructors, and then bought the franchise from the previous owner in 2015, before moving it to its current location in 2021.

Huntington Learning Center is a leading national provider of tutoring and test prep programs, offering students convenient and flexible schedules and one-on-one tutoring support in the specific areas where they need help the most.

The confidence vocabulary inspires students. 

Grasping complex math concepts, improving reading comprehension or prepping for an ACT or digital SAT can be challenging for students at just about any grade level. Through its individualized K-12 tutoring and test prep programs, Huntington Learning Center reports a 90-percent overall success rate, Layfer said.

“We pay great attention to building curriculum especially for each student and we constantly assess the level of student progress carefully along the way,” Layfer said. “We’re also constantly providing feedback to the student on their progress and their parents as well.”

A bulletin board at the center is filled with advancement certificates marking recent student-achievement milestones.

“We (David and I) deeply understand the anxiety, frustration and challenges parents in our community face when their child falls behind in school,” Nason said. “We’re here to help their children build their skill sets, confidence and motivation so that they can excel both in school and in life.”

Layfer is responsible for training new teaching staff in Huntington curriculum and ensuring that they accurately record student progress in each session.

“Some of our teaching staff have been with us for well over 12 years,” Nason said.

About 65 students are currently enrolled at the Citrus Heights center and that total climbs up to about 80 during summer break.

Specific program costs can be paid for through a financing plan or available federal student-loan funds, according to Nason.

Each student has a two-hour, one-to-one session with a teacher.

Shelves of green binders are arranged throughout the center grouped by subject or specific study skill the student needs to master in their individualized learning plan. Some students will need help improving their fundamental reading skills, while others need to work on getting the main idea, how to read for context or how to follow directions more accurately.

“Each teacher is given advance time before a student arrives to fully prepare for their lesson,” Layfer said.

The student success board highlights student achievements. 

“The teacher logs on to a laptop, reviews the notes from the previous teacher, acknowledges work to be done by the student that evening, and then scores assignments as they are completed. We encourage all our teaching staff to actively leave feedback concerning student progress completed in each session.”

“Many of our students also often bring in their daily classroom homework for the extra help, which we can give them,” Layfer said.

Help with mathematics is an important core component of Huntington’s curriculum, from elementary school fundamentals through calculus, helping students build confidence as they work on practice problems together.

“Our teachers not only teach students important learning skill sets but they also provide the support and nurturing attention students need to help spark the love of learning, a valuable skill set students can carry with them for a lifetime,” Nason said.

Huntington Learning Center of Citrus Heights is open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Fridays and 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Call 916-728-2981 or visit https://huntingtonhelps.com/locations/citrus-heights-ca for more information about specific tutoring and test prep programs.

David Layfer and Debi Nason own the Huntington Learning Center.