Lawton’s Sylvan Learning Center owners pass baton to local business leaders

After more than 25 years, Lawton’s Sylvan Learning Center is changing hands.

But don’t worry: Those new hands still belong to locals.

Howard and Jo Jean Johnson announced this week they had sold their Sylvan Learning Center franchise to long-time Lawton business owners and civic leaders Hossein and Eddye Moini. Hossein Moini said the transfer of that tutoring center franchise was effective Wednesday.

The decision ends a business decision the Johnsons, long-time Lawton educators, made when they launched the tutoring center in Lawton in 1998. Both had just retired from Lawton Public Schools after decades of service — Howard as a counselor who worked his way up to becoming the executive director of adult education for the district; Jo Jean as secretary at MacArthur High School from its opening — and neither one was ready to leave the teaching profession.

Education is the same reason Moini and his wife purchased the franchise.

“I love the Sylvan concept, and my wife and I thought Sylvan has always been such a great addition for our community and the only center in southwest Oklahoma and it would be great to continue operating the center,” he said.

Johnson, who has worked with Moini many times over the years, said he was pleased the tutoring center is passing to a friend who is active in the community as he and his wife head to retirement.

“We are delighted that the buyer is a friend and successful leader in the Lawton-Fort Sill Community who shares important values that we hold,” he said.

Johnson said he and Hossein Moini have served on local boards of education — Moini on the Lawton Board of Education; Johnson on the Great Plains Technology Center Board of Education — and also have served on the LPS Foundation Board. There are other common links that made the transfer a smart move, he said.

“The Moini and Johnson families both have had family members who benefited from attending Sylvan,” Johnson said. “Hossein and I both served in a variety of community leadership roles, and — what’s even more important — both of us have a strong belief that education is the foundation of a successful democracy.”

Johnson said he also is pleased the Moini family plans to keep Sylvan’s existing staff, including Center Director Margaret Herman. Moini said the rest of the staff who have been at Sylvan running the operation will continue in that role.

“Absolutely no immediate changes,” he said. “We want to continue being the place for parents with children who may need some additional tools to learn and prosper,” Moini said, adding that one change may be adding some summer camp classes.

Johnson said that commitment to the education of youth was the driving factor for his family’s involvement with Sylvan, crediting the center’s unique, state-of-the-art system that helps students catch up and get ahead.

“Jo Jean and I are very pleased that during the past 25 years, we have been able to play a major role in helping thousands of students succeed,” he said. “And we are equally happy that we are now enrolling children from parents who were first-generation Sylvan students.

“We expect a seamless transition for our families and staff.”