Students can 'feel safe and welcome': Yelonda Harvey to open Kumon Math and Reading Center in Howard

With the National Assessment of Education Progress reporting that 2022 saw the strongest declines in math and reading ever recorded, Yelonda Harvey’s timing could hardly be better. Harvey, who has more than 15 years of teaching experience, is poised to help with a new business.

“The franchise, Kumon Math and Reading Center, was on our radar sometime ago," she said.  "I was getting older and had the itch to start my own business. I had a home daycare center years ago when I lived in Virginia, and always knew that eventually I would own a business. I love teaching, so to combine this was a match made in heaven.”

Kumon Math and Reading Center has been around for more than 60 years with the goal of helping children develop the needed skills to progress from counting to calculus in math. In reading, the program begins with basic phonics and progresses to advanced reading comprehension. 

Harvey says that the program works, and she is excited to be able to help students who might have gotten lost at their schools.

“We all have challenges of some sort, but the issue for many students is that they aren’t able to get the extra help they need in a larger class setting,” Harvey said.  “That’s what Kumon does — it targets that individual student and creates a specific lesson plan for them to achieve certain goals. In a school system, you have to teach to the norm.”

When she was teaching, mostly at the grade three to five levels, she helped those students as much as she could during lunch and after school.  Yet she still felt frustrated when some students fell through the gap. She saw it happening everywhere as she and her husband, both Navy veterans, lived in cities throughout the country. They moved to the Green Bay area last year.

“About six months after moving here, I started doing more research and checking out the franchise requirements for Kumon. When that looked promising, I met with the general manager of Kumon in Suamico and we started driving around looking a potential locations,” she said.

The area around Lineville Road had the requirements the franchise preferred. It was far enough away from an existing Kumon franchise in De Pere and in the midst of an area that has restaurants, grocery stores, medical clinics, convenience stores, and other retail shops.

A vacant Cost Cutters shop proved to be just what she was looking for. Harvey contacted the Green Bay SCORE Chapter, and with the advice of mentors, negotiated a lease and discussed the basics of running a business. Three mentors assisted, including two business owners and an educator. 

“I was told that if I had any questions, I could contact any of them,” Harvey said. 

She will also have the assistance of a Kumon field consultant to answer questions and provide direction. She wrote a business plan and found it most difficult to do financial projections and write a lesson plan. 

The lesson plan is an important part of the individualized learning offered. Kumon, created in 1954 by Toru Kumon, a math teacher and father, was the product of a father wanting to create a lifelong love of learning in his son. The outcome was short, incremental assignments where the ability to master one led to the next.

This is the basic formula used today.

“What happens is once we meet with the parents and do an orientation and tell them about the program, we do an assessment to see where the child needs to be placed," Harvey said. "We then put them at a comfortable point; a program is created and goals set. Worksheets are provided for the week, and the child does two days at the center and the rest at home.”

Input from other franchisees provided valuable insight, and the franchise provided comprehensive training. Harvey said she was taught not only as a instructor, but also as a student, to get perspective on the whole process.

Now, as a new business, she has goals to become a success.

“I am focused on making sure that everything is running the way it should," she said. "Within a year, I would like to have 40 to 50  students, but not so many that I can’t offer excellent service.”

To attract those students, she is focused on getting the word out. An important part of that is a marketing plan.

 “I have a social media presence and am networking with various organizations. I joined the chamber and am contacting educational organizations and schools. I am also planning on doing flyers, door knockers, and community service,” she said.

With that and her teaching and military experience, Harvey is optimistic. 

“My military experience was mostly in logistics and I had a number of responsibilities. I was a food service officer, ran the mess hall and ship store, and disbursed pay checks. I learned how to be a leader,” she said.

After spending seven years in the military, she continued her education and received a master’s degree in education.  All of this, she feels, has pointed her in the current direction. Her roles at Kumon will use those skills as she manages the business, is one of the instructors, does hiring, works with families, and completes required paperwork. 

Her goal for students is to make it fun, but also for them to learn accountability for their progress.

“I want the child to come in and feel safe and welcome; to develop that kind of a relationship. I love people and I love to learn and I want to have a positive impact on our students,” Harvey said. “It’s a new challenge, but I’m reminded of what my grandmother taught me, ‘If you do what you’ve always done, you get what you’ve always got.’”

Tina Dettman-Bielefeldt is co-owner of DB Commercial Real Estate in Green Bay and past district director for SCORE, Wisconsin.