From flexible furniture for kids who fidget to desks with writable surfaces to walls to be filled with student projects, writing and artwork, renovations are stirring the imaginations of those designing a temporary location for Elon University’s new private elementary school for children with dyslexia.
The university’s Trollinger House is getting a facelift.
Renovations have started on what once was a small residence hall but will soon serve as the temporary location for Roberts Academy at Elon University, an all-day private school for children with dyslexia that opens in August.
The top priority for the designers working on those renovations? Create a space where children will learn, grow, and thrive in their confidence as young readers.
“Our team did a wonderful job of thinking through which spaces will be for which purpose, the furniture we’re selecting, how we’re setting up classrooms, and the technology we’ll use,” said Ann Bullock, dean of the university’s Dr. Jo Watts Williams School of Education. “All of those things will make for an engaged, active, multisensory school. It’s going to be great.”
Established in 2025 through a gift from philanthropists Hal and Marjorie Roberts of Lakeland, Florida, the Roberts Academy at Elon University will be the fourth in a series of successful university-based private elementary schools the couple also supported at Vanderbilt University, Mercer University and Florida Southern College.
Each academy employs the Orton-Gillingham multisensory approach to reading instruction. The goal is to return students to their community schools as confident readers after 2-3 years of immersive, hands-on instruction in all core subjects.
The Roberts Academy at Elon will welcome third and fourth graders this fall to Trollinger House as construction begins on a permanent site along East Haggard Avenue. That location will open for to grades 1-6 starting in Fall 2028.
Bullock was joined on April 9, 2026, for a site visit to Trollinger House where several staff members wore hard hats on their stroll through the building on West Trollinger Avenue. Led by Holly Hodge, Elon University’s director of interior design, staff had a chance to see for themselves what, until then, had only been conceptual.
Hodge highlighted some of the features that, once installed, will nurture students who attend the school: flexible furniture for smaller groups in classrooms with no more than 12 students, desks with writable surfaces, and expansive wall space intended to be layered with student work and their art on display.
“To me, it’s a blank canvas,” Hodge said afterward. “Walking through the space and showing that blank canvas helps imagine a piece of art in the making. I can’t wait for students to then come in and have teachers make the space their own.”
Hodge identified another question for her team: How do you “define” or tell the story of dyslexia? How do you celebrate the amazing talents and strengths of students in addition to their classroom learning?
One thing is certain, she concluded: “Every kid deserves to be confident.”
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Submit a prospective student form here for rising third- and fourth-grade students. Families interested in learning more can visit the Roberts Academy website at www.elon.edu/robertsacademy.
